Google's Microsoft Complex

Microsoft is Sauron. Google is more like Saruman, a good guy turned (or about-to-be-turned) bad, but they haven't found the Palantir yet.

Of course not. Google is a Multi National Corporation, in the long run, they will do whatever it takes to keep the shareholders shareholders.

Thank you, new contributing editor tracyanne.

This obsession to make good guys and bad guys out of companies, all of whom are fighting against each other to make a few bucks (or currency of your choice) gets really silly at times.

Science fiction and fantasy?

I now have this strange image of Steve Ballmer, Larry Ellison, and Eric Schmidt going at each other with swords or light sabers or phasers or some such, only to be startled when Steve Jobs, back from health hiatus and staff (no - not his Apple employees) held high above his head, gallops down from the mountain on Shadowfax and starts slaying the enemy with wicked one-liners.

Companies do what companies do. Growing and making money are at the top of the list. They aren't the only things on the list, but they are right there at top.

I suspect Steve Jobs would be riding something his marketing department would have ingeniously named an iHorse - a sleek egg-shaped thing with no legs... just one big wheel. It will likely break when it gets to the bottom of the abovementioned mountain, but this is nothing to fret over, because it's an excuse to upgrade to the soon-to-be-released iHorse 2.0, now with extra DRM - "Your arse rides it, therefore it belongs to us!".

Damn you dino!!

Quoting:I now have this strange image of Steve Ballmer, Larry Ellison, and Eric Schmidt going at each other with swords or light sabers or phasers ...

The only thing you missed from the spectacular event I was about to announce was the presence of Steve Jobs. We have been waiting for him to gain some weight and improve his stamina before putting him in a locked cage with the others. We were prepared to wait another six months, but you let the cat out of the bag.

I will never forgive you, never, never, never ...

Your buddy Txt.

Where is the lock in with Google?

I think the test of whether or not Google is evil is still to come. When companies that use Google services want to switch to competing providers, how will Google react?

Lock-in or competitive pricing?

Right now Google is still based on advertising revenue derived from getting people to use its search page. If some other search page comes along and gets the public's mind share, then the ad revenue will dry up. There's no lock-in on their main business (short term advertising contracts won't be renewed if Google loses clicks).

I think the competitor is not yet there and the lock-in is not yet there. The competitor will appear someday, and depending on how Google reacts, then I'll decide if they are evil or not.

Txt...

you let the cat out of the bag.

It was a really big nasty cat with fangs and nasty huge claws. I had to let him out. He was ripping the bag to shreds, and I was sure to be next.

I hope you understand.

Y'all do know where "let the cat out of the bag" comes from?

The British Navy used a multi-strap whip called a lash, or "cat of 9 tails". When someone was going to be severely punished, they'd go get the lash from its bag. "Let the cat out of the bag" means someone gets hurt.

Just in case there was a lone visitor who didn't already know the etymology.

Bob -

Sure, when you're talking metaphors that all makes sense, but...

In my case, the cat was let out to keep someone (me) from getting hurt.

Big, big,big cat.

> Y'all do know where "let the cat out of the bag" comes from?

The derivation I've heard of is related to the one "buying a pig in a poke". That one states that some unscrupulous sellers would put a cat in the bag instead of a pig. I have no idea which is correct.

Cats? Pigs? Time for TC to use one of her agrarian aphorisms.

and stop casting pearls before swine?

Metaphors be with you, always.

Google, Microsoft, Apple — each could be knocked on their can by better technology combined with clever marketing.

That's why Linux-running netbooks (and Linux-running servers) are so very, very dangerous to Microsoft. Any erosion in their market share is something that can only grow.

Google does a lot of things, but only one of them is a money-maker. It's all about text-based ads, and search volume. Somebody else could start doing it better, or coming up with a more compelling and lucrative form of network-delivered adverstising.

Apple ... the end is easy to see, is it not?

Quoting:Where is the lock in with Google?

They're everywhere and it's damn near impossible to evade them if you choose to do so. Their ads are everywhere, tracking you from website to website. The same thing goes for Google Analytics. Pretty much everyting at Google requires a google account and everything is tied into it. You can't just use Analytics for example. As soon as you log in with your Google account, you get all the other stuff that you don't want as well, such as personalized search.

Quoting:You can't just use Analytics for example. As soon as you log in with your Google account, you get all the other stuff that you don't want as well, such as personalized search.

You don't have to use all that other stuff, just check your site stats and leave.

I know. But I find it annoying that nowhere I can op-out of any of the services. I can't say to Google that when I log in with my google account of Analytics, that it should not enable personalized search and other tracking stuff.

> Their ads are everywhere, tracking you from website to website.

grep -i google.com /etc/hosts 127.0.0.1 adservices.google.com 127.0.0.1 adwords.google.com 127.0.0.1 desktop.google.com 127.0.0.1 webaccelerator.google.com 127.0.0.1 http://www.adwords.google.com 127.0.0.1 toolbarqueries.google.com

> The same thing goes for Google Analytics.

I find that NoScript in Firefox works for that, although I've not tried hunting to see if they use a particular host for that...

But then it's been a while since I updated my hosts file from http://hostsfile.mine.nu