Google is now in the unenviable position of being feared, loved, and hated as much as Microsoft and to a certain extent, Yahoo (GYM). But, while reading this analysis what ends up being the main scenario – mobile.
Yes, I’ve been reading the Google tea leaves quite closely. And so has bubblegeneration. Cuirouser and curiouser.
Link: Bubblegeneration Strategy Lab.
Think about this scenario a few years from now: I am roaming in downtown Vancouver one saturday afternoon and using my mobile to find the exact location of a shop carrying a rare copy of an old Sanskrit text that I had found by searching on an Indian university’s library archived using Google Print. Who’s the ONE company that can find that shop for me? Of course, GOOG. Why? Because it has integrated vertical domains: web, languages, mobile, mapping imagery, geographic locations, businesses and print archives. How? It has applied its competence in searching across domains. Why? To increase the switching cost for a user like me and buy my attention for zero marginal cost. Why is that important? To sell my attention to GOOG’s advertisers for profit and protect such advertising revenues.
If this really happens, GOOG monopoly will be more powerful than any other in known history, including our resident evil empire de jour from Redmond. The sheer scope of GOOG’s ambition is breathtaking. Think of how valuable the access to Google’ s network will be for the aforementioned shop which not only has its location, but also its entire inventory digitized and stored in Google’s databases. Then think of how I’d ever be able to wean myself away from that network. Talk about being qwned!! Oh yes: it WILL be evil. It just has to.
