Forgive me for blasphemy; but I think google has jumped the proverbial shark. Their principal source of revenue, adsense, has probably peaked in terms of growth. And it may have peaked in terms of revenue potential simply because click fatigue, click fraud and mercy clicks are all beginning to bite. So is competition - lame as some of that competition may be. The search function is being duplicated and, in a couple of years, the possibility of human mediated results and digg like results voting may mean that an IceRocket or an unknown will be able to meet or beat google results. Which is not to say that google is bad or that it is going away - it is merely to suggest that worrying about google is a bit premature.
Shoemoney, thanks for the URL. That guy writes some good articles. I've just finished reading the majority of them all. Working in an office r0x (well not really but you know what I mean).
I think google has only just begun in terms of ad revenues. Wait till it comes out for something dedicated to the real estate market. That article that Shoemoney URL'ed was pretty cool. Google has been coming out with heaps of cool stuff.
Yes and several years too late as their rep in the Tech world is just plain crap after all their blunders. Sorry but I am not going to waste time, money and effort on trying to get to grip with another new MS O/S even if Billy personally begged me (well OK maybe I would at this point ). MS are going to fall behind if they dont pull their socks up soon - With a company like Google coming up with new fresh ideas and services (that seem to be reliable from my view) its going to be hard for MS to compete, no matter how much money they throw at their product.
Why do you think that? Internet PPC marketing is expected to grow 40% in 2006. Do you think less people are going to want to advertise their business/services going forward? If anything, it's only going to get more competitive and drive up the cost per click (since it's a bid system).
I agree, and you have to take into consideration that if Google is going to manufacture cheap PCs with their own OS on it, they could easily gain a powerful foothold into the OS market which will give MS a run for its money.
Hmm.. minus Gmail I didn't really notice anything great from them. Googletalk was cool for a day, haven't opened it since. Google Base still has no real defined use.. haven't looked at it more than once. Hell the only reason I took a big liking to Gmail was the labels and interface. Google earth was neat, again for a day - when I really want directions somewhere maps.yahoo.com is still planted in my head. Maybe I missed something , or am just not interested in other things but I really haven't seen anything to rave about from them lately. Maybe then Google could afford to pay more than 10-15 cents / click for good advertising to its Adsense users.
I disagree. The Google OS idea wouldn't be a good idea for Google IMO. Their dominance of information and networking is where their real stregth lies.
Yeah, of course it depends on the quality. But it's like a cotton farmer trying to change over to tobacco and beat the best tobacco farmer. Google's business isn't operating systems. I'm not saying they can't change over, but saying they will challenge Microsoft in the near future at what Microsoft dominates isn't realistic IMO. Google is great, but working toward their strengths should be the goal. They dominate information on the internet. There is so much more to expand on in that area alone.
Google is not going to create an OS when it can easily use Linux etc on its boxes. The OS market over the long term is not where the real revenue growth prospects are and neither is the desktop office suites.
The whole article wasn't really about an OS to replace your desktop machine... rather a cheap Internet appliance running some sort of embedded OS. In fact the article speculates what Google WOULDN'T do that... Personally, I just want Google to bring 100Mbit up/down Internet/fiber connection to my house for $100/month.
. This is the sort of stuff that worries me. Google and Yahoo jsut have too much power online for others to compete with. I have been running a business online for 6 years. The Internet was good becuase it was a relatively level playing field. Anybody could compete based on merit. Things have changed and the big guys just have too much clout. I cannot see how this can be good for any webmaster and ecommerce in general.
That is what Google's bread and butter will end up being. The transfer of information at a high speed.
I agree with you. The big kids want to dominate the online bandwagon and they don't want to share. Then you have Internet 2 coming soon which is a big wild card. My best advice is to make as much money as you can and diversify. Above all else, if you can't beat them, attempt to join them by purchasing their stocks. Add to this the fact that the UN wants to regulate the net and I get pretty worried to.
If you rely on search traffic alone then yea, it might not be in your best interest...but most marketing pros would argue that relying on one promotional tactic alone is NEVER in your best interest. There are still plenty of companies and single individuals making tons of money through other avenues...word of mouth is still out there kicking ass and will continue to do so for eons to come. Unless Google's ultimate plan is melt all our brains and bring the Borg to life.