Is Google's Rigidity Its Fatal Flaw?
The past weeks’ events in Iran have shown us all the social importance of Twitter and Facebook. But even though these technologies are gaining widespread recognition and preeminence in the media, as well as the blogosphere, Google is still the undisputed king of the Internet. But, is Google’s position as the Web’s top dog being threatened?
The dramatic explosion in technology firms that specialize in creating applications for both Twitter and Facebook exposes a potential chink in Google’s armor. The applicability, adaptability and openness of push technology to both these social media titans is a dramatic departure from the in-house Google approach. It begs a question: Is Google’s technological rigidness a weakness that will threaten it in the future?
download blackwoods dvdrip What’s truly amazing in this discussion is that it’s Facebook, and to a lesser extent Twitter, which poses the greatest threat to Google’s dominance, rather than the companies traditional rivals Microsoft and Yahoo. Why? Well, the Web has changed. People have a much more intimate interaction with Facebook and Twitter then they do with Google, and that interaction is the new currency of the social Web. Users give their real names, share they personal contact details, talk openly with their friends, and expose personal information of the like they would never willingly share with Google. This gives these social media sites a distinct advantage when it comes to behavioral advertising, which many people see as the key to online monetization. But this is not the only the advantage that Facebook and Twitter have.
Google is a rigid software. It’s primarily a search engine, albeit the most advanced of all time. All of Google’s main features are in-house creations, from Gmail to Google Docs, to Google Maps to GChat. The opposite is true with Facebook and Twitter. Tweet Deck and iLike’s Facebook application for example, were created completely independent from their respective social networking sites. These technologies are very easily adaptable to all different applications and push technologies. In the future, as technology becomes more and more advanced these sites can encroach on Google’s massive market share by offering something Google does not, access.
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman asserted that it’s better to have 1,000 entrepreneurs experimenting in their own garages then have the government create a Manhattan Project to solve a great challenge, and there’s an obvious parallel here between Google and Facebook or Twitter. Google being the Manhattan Project employing thousands of computer engineers in a central, top-down operation, while Facebook and Twitter are taking advantage of the 1,000 entrepreneurs experimenting on their own to find a way to better their technology.
The great challenge both are trying to solve is how to lure the major advertising campaigns to the Internet. Google has pioneered search-based advertising, but this only accounts for $50 billion of a $500 billion advertising industry. Whoever can lure the remaining chunk those ad dollars to the internet will be the dominant force of the future, thus Google’s growing anxiety about Twitter and especially Facebook.
Google’s future hinges on whether or not the company, with its incredible innovative and inventive capacity, will find a way to lure major advertising budgets to the Web. Or will the Facebook/Twitter approach of letting others come up with a solution that they can integrate into their site win the day? This question is, of course, unanswered as of yet, but if Google does lose this race to sustainable profitability it will be because they are too rigid. Google is great at designing technology to compliment their platform, but a more open and accessible approach would expose them up to greater innovation and invention in the future. I am astonished by the rapid growth of both Facebook and Twitter, but I am interested to see if in the future if either of these two companies who have up yet to turn a profit, can take down the biggest Internet giant of them all.