GroupThink: What’s the REAL Google Killer?
GroupThink is where I turn the blog post over to you.
Whenever a new search engine launches, or when other search engines make news, industry watchers always wonder if it’s the next “Google killer.”
My theory: What will really kill Google some day is the company’s insatiable appetite for personal data about you, me, and everything we do online. In its attempts to own and organize our online lives, Google will eventually cross the line of what the general public will accept.
Your turn: What’s the real Google killer? Will there ever be one?
And perhaps I should add … “what the government will accept, too.”
My initial thought is along your line of thinking Matt.
At some point Google starts to look like the old AT&T and the government starts thinking about ways to deter it. The difference is that I don’t think anyone really cared if the gov’t broke up AT&T. I think a lot of people will be pissed if any gov’t type starts monkeying around with the big G, which is beloved by billions. So to your point it’s going to take some massive change in people’s perception of Google before any thing happens.
Of course if my past two weeks of iPhone use are any indication, if someone comes up with a great voice search product, that’s the one I am going to start to use more and more. Typing is so vestige of the last century.
Not in our lifetimes.
The real tale of the tape is, “why does Google exist?” Is it to help people find data, or is to provide data to sell ads?
I tend to lean towards selling ads, while they started out with the first one.
I tell people all the time, it is no longer what you know, or who you know, it is how you find what you are looking for.
I don’t think I am all that knowledgeable about any one thing, or know a ton of people, but I can filter, find, and narrow down solutions pretty well. Thats what drives Google, and they make a killing doing it.
Will they find themselves being out manned? Anything is possible.
I recall saying 2-3 years ago that I wanted a portable mobile device that accessed my email, took calls, had web access, GPS, and would seamlessly integrate in to my car stereo and home.
Until we break from having to look for material on the web, Google will be it. (I can’t recall the last time I used Alta-Vista to search. Yet THATS still around.)
Not sure how likely this is, but since we’re talking about a Google KILLER and not a Google “ouch-that-kinda-stingser”, the threat has to be huge…
What if Microsoft got very desperate and implemented an ad blocking feature in Internet Explorer… and set the default to “on”?
Indeed googles crave to be ‘omnipotent’ is worrying, especially as their ‘main’ focus as mooted above is to deliver ads and the such.
The more information they have the more targeted these adds will be. It can be argued that this is a plus for advertisers and the end user (less spam).
Though as you have said all this knowledge in one place in the hands of one organisation is most likely not going to be tolerated.