Look where Google has reached today from collecting a Penny at a time - billions flowing in and every body in the world believes in the might of the company and now every body understands the might and muscle that google has. No doubt they have been accepted as the true competitors. No wonder yahoo profits are dented and what started as a simple search engine has proved to be the the biggest lesson for IT companies.
Simple is beautiful, elegant and powerful. It takes a herculean effort and understanding to built a simple solution. Google has done it just right.
But has there been a shift in the focus.
When we first logged on to the gmail service we were all happy customers. Who thought that 10 MB was too less unless the 1 GB thing came in and changed the world. No doubt every one else in the business was like shocked. Meanwhile Orkut had also started making waved by then. Imagine that both services had that exclusive feeling because one needed an invitation to join.
Google always knew how to convey the message. Don't just allow customers to walk in. Let them feel preveliged and they shall be too eager to walk in.
Orkut has all the data that all the big companies - marketing ones are always asking for. Exact demographics, your hobbies, what you like, even your picture - any one would like to buy.
Simple trick does the job. They know what you like what you hate and what not.
Its not a surprise that they had some advertise link inviting companies to advertise on orkut. It was expected.
The major surprise was not the purchase of Blogger the service which is providing me this opportunity to scribble these thoughts. The surprise was the slow gradual approach which conveys to users that how seamless it is to use the Blogger or Gmail or Gtalk or the Picasaweb or the excel sheet using the single password and username.
The truth is this is not wrong. But this has not reached the proportions when it can go wrong. Google now has become a web giant with absolute powers. The world today welcomes it. Why should the consumers be worried. Everything is free and better than it was yesterday. ( No ther e is no need to talk about the role the Google is playing in CHINA. Fully understood they are also like dying to tap the biggest population in China - this much accepted because they are also here to do business - why would they bother for the people whose statistics they are handing out to the authorities. Its like Yahoo does it - Cisco helps them - everybody does it. Its like have to do it otherwise the market is closed for them. This debate is more so emotional and about ethics. Shall take up this one seprately some other time)
The only problem is that some people are skeptical about even the good things.
Remember what some one said about trust. Unless you trust you cannot be betrayed or cheated. Some one also said "Power Corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely."
We just can pray that google ain't another M$. We can just pray.
Otherwise it would be like another story of capitalist bullshit.
Wait and watch as the drama unfolds.
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