Has Google Created A Monster?

And then something more interesting happens (or, more accurately, is happening). Everybody’s favorite mountain to blast, Microsoft, has been blasted so low that they’re an unexpected underdog.

Or, to mix my metaphors further in honor of the upcoming Kentucky Derby, Microsoft is (it’s so strange to say I doubt it each time) the dark horse.

Now I’ve never been one to hype the power and potential of Google – oh wait, yeah, I have, lots of times. But it’s especially eerie to watch those prognostications come alive, especially as we all championed it all along. Everyone has sensed it for some time, that Google could and probably will, permeate all aspects of our lives.

Google Search, Google Ads, Google TV, Google Movies, Google Newspapers, Google park benches, Google satellites, Google ISP. Expect to see that brand on the side of a lot more property to come.

After acquiring DoubleClick, which already has Microsoft and AT&T ironically crying antitrust, there is talk Google is trying to cut News Corp. out of a deal for Dow Jones. And that makes Google followers pause to reassess.

They learned their lesson after not buying MySpace when they had the chance. All this wasn’t too long after Schmidt shrewdly buddied up with Apple – the lowest, hardest punch the company could have thrown at the Beast of Redmond.

Has all that Google hysteria, the IPO, the cheering on, the multi-nationalization, the creeping into every facet of media, the first real challenge Microsoft has faced in a while, combined to create a monster we’re all not certain we can control? Were the French right? Sacre bleu!

I’m not the only one that thinks Microsoft is becoming more endearing to the public than before. Microsoft is a giant we’ve already gotten comfortable dealing with.

Times Online Writer Jonathan Weber calls Microsoft "the great underdog," and expounds on why we need Microsoft in the age of Google.

Google has changed the way of the web in less than ten years. Without a strong Microsoft, its dominance will only increase.

Not that Microsoft doesn’t deserve it. They’ve been the shrewdest competitors the world has seen till now. But Google’s rise to challenge, though we all hoped for it, is getting a bit frightening. Who knew the lighthearted Lego Googtopia would become the fortress that it is?

Weber concludes:

And strange as this would have sounded ten years ago, the industry needs Microsoft to be a viable player in the Web 2.0 world, lest we all be bit players in the universe according to Google.

My only real conclusion:

It’s a strange, strange world when you can think of a company like Microsoft as the underdog. 

With Google, Information Equals More Than Power

Editor’s Note:   What impact, if any, do you think Google will have on the market? Are major multi-billion dollar corporations overreacting to Google’s presence? Will they change the balance of power? Discuss in WebProWorld.

And then two wise-ass researchers (who reminded those Microsoft executives of themselves, really) started a search company that threatened their status so much they had to go on a diet and get out the woad. Those kids were changing the game.

“What is the game, anyway?” you ask.

The game is channeling information to the people-a business and social coup that would upset the balance of power. The consumer, for example, would know, at the toggle of an open source browser, who had the best price on anything.

Controlling that type of information is important to the traditional retailer. Information about your competition’s promotions is not what you want out there for anybody to see, especially if your price is higher.

Google, in more ways than this example, is transferring power, and to the elite-the economic aristocracy, a proletariat-centered economy is a serious conflict of interest.

“We watch Google very closely at Wal-Mart,” Wal-Mart board member Jim Breyer told the New York Times.

That same article goes on to express the growing concern that too much information will be available to the consumer.

“Wal-Mart is scarcely alone in its concern. As Google increasingly becomes the starting point for finding information and buying products and services, companies that even a year ago did not see themselves as competing with Google are beginning to view the company with some angst – mixed with admiration,” writes NYT’s Steve Lohr, whose revelation on Wal-Mart lit up the blogosphere the next day.

Indeed it is admirable, and in line with Google’s controversial “Do No Evil” corporate model-even if some are unconvinced of their benignity. Even if it seems socialist in nature, it really is a brilliant blend of socialism (power to the proletariat) and capitalism (make money, lots of it, and power to the free market economy). And the biggest of the big capitalists (who don’t really believe in free markets-just want you to think they do) are super upset about it.

“Hey isn’t that what it’s all about? Giving the customer insight in prices and by comparison making it possible to save money?” asks blogger CoolzOr.

Yes, CoolzOr, that is what it’s about when it’s a buyer’s market. But don’t say it too loud.