Besides the rather pointless (which here means ‘incredibly hilarious’) title I wanted to blog today about Google and their monopoly of applications. Is this really good for the web? Have Google got too big for their boots?
The verb Google (as in ‘to google) actually was added to the Oxford dictionary in 2006:
intr. To use the Google search engine to find information on the Internet. trans. To search for information about (a person or thing) using the Google search engine.
And their search engine is pretty much still the number one - I don’t have specific stats to prove it but I don’t think you have to be Einstein to figure out that everyone who is anyone uses Google.
And amongst web designers / developers and a lot of others rely everyday on other google products - the top of which has to be Google Mail. I use it, loads of others use it, my college (3000+ email accounts) uses it, and I know other schools / colleges / unis use it as well.
In this ramble of sorts I guess what I’m trying to say is that Google’s domination of the web application market - Google Docs, Gmail, Search Engine, Calendar, Reader - all of which I use and lots others also - is almost scary and that Google’s confidence is growing - it will keep growing as they succeed, almost like a little child, and then they will fall over and they will regret doing whatever they did. This recent episode is one of many around the newly released Google Buzz (and I still don’t have a clue what it does).
Maybe Google should just sit back and consolidate on what they have rather than trying to build a webpire (new word I just made up!). Because judging by the Twitter talk, people are not very amused.
Less is more, as they say.
