Interesting thought- what could knock off Google? The law of averages says eventually, there will be something new and better than will capture the attention of the users. In the beginning, there was Netscape. And it was good. Then Bill Gates said, "Let there be IE." And it was so.
But here's where it gets interesting. Google has become synonymous with search. Just like you use a KLEENEX to blow your nose..or you XEROX a piece of paper..if you want to search, you GOOGLE it.
I have been doing side by side comparisons of google and yahoo search- and for me, I see the same results. But you'd never say, "well, just Yahoo it." Google has taken the extraordinary step of becoming part of the vocabulary.
The only entity I see being able to knock them off...is themselves. If they stray too far from the core..or dilute the product...who knows. They've already made a lot of things that don't get much use. Google Talk will never approach user levels of AIM or YIM.
They need to keep the mystique. Among the fan base, to me it seems the worst thing they can do is mess with the sparse front page. And not doing the holiday logos.
Sounds silly, I agree. But that's part of the lore, the image, the mystique.
Eventually the dominance will fade as others catch up. It happened to the Roman Empire, so it'll happen to Google, too. But when, and how?
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<<Eventually the dominance will fade as others catch up.>>
Agree. Google will knock off itself. |
Imagine this: in years, nofollow will slowly be expanded to cover every user-created content on the web. Then, a search engine comes along with works on the "backlinks equal relevance" algorithm of Google from back then, but it will ignore the nofollow initiative... and all of a sudden, show more relevant results because it works on structures like Wikipedia's outgoing links :)
> It happened to the Roman Empire, so it'll happen to Google, too.
Question: why did the Roman Empire decline? |
<<Google Talk will never approach user levels of AIM or YIM>>
Google Talk is Jabber and it can interact with other Jabber clients, thus making it very useful.
<<Question: why did the Roman Empire decline?>>
Wikipedia says: The end of the Roman Empire is traditionally, if not strictly accurately, placed at 4 September AD 476, when the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, Romulus Augustus, was deposed and not replaced. |
