It begins to look a lot like Microsoft back in 2000 i.e. domination with a shade of abomination.
Google provides phone, fast broadband for up to a selected half a million, and is busy acquiring Ask-your-friends query site.
This is after its rolling out of Chrome and Nexus One.
Deja vu!
Meanwhile, Microsoft is trying to ramp up BING with “intelligent apps”, and not just Search (too academic, too Ivy League).
I am still a Yahoo loyalist.
But in my experience, when the two giants are battling each other, it tends to side line whoever is on third ( Hertz and Avis – can’t remember Alamo). It’s a logical brand extension for Google to take control, from Cloud to Curb. That way, it can offer users a full experience, just like Cameron who made Avatar and now sells 3-D glasses for vertical integration.
It’s 2010. Not 2000. And our perception of the world and the Web has to change as well.
The last time people stood around to complain about MS monopoly was at Telecom trade shows.
Now, we have moved on, from trade shows to Facebook, from Harvard Square to virtual town square. And even on this platform, we have seen a series of changes : informing friends of your pick, suggesting who you might want to befriend (Amazon algorithm).
The intriguing question is, how are things going to look like in 2020? a China without Google? Greece who can’t afford to host its own Olympic?
Yahoo-BING union? Sometimes, it is better to resist the urge to merge (AOL-Time/Warner). But it is also hard to be number 3. At least, you can say in the ad, as Avis did, that “being number 2, we work harder”. How can you “spin” being number 3 (we are busy working on building out 4G?).
And again, the current TV “Ben Franklin” ads between Verizon and ATT networks brought back memories of those “True/False” volley between MCI and ATT. Back then, it was about long distance service. And again, Sprint was trying to chime in with “its sound of silence.., of a pin drop”. Bye Candice.
Thang Nguyen 555 