Hello, I want to talk about Google. Google is a fascinating company and one that we all take a great interest in. We probably all use Google Search. It’s established a stat of the searches. I noticed now being attacked quite a lot by Bing and Yahoo who are retaining some of their market. It’s also a major player in the email business with Google Mail. It’s now attacking the Microsoft Office business with Google Docs and also attacking the Microsoft operating system with Android. So we’re seeing all these things happening for it operating in the office space and the business space. But it’s also in the social networking space where it’s endeavoring to establish itself as a real alternative to Facebook. And it’s got lots of things just recently introduced, Buzz. It’s in the past introduced other things like Wave, Slide, Orkut in India, and it’s recently bought a company called Post Rank for doing social analytics to analyze this sort of structure. So it’s endeavoring to go into Facebook space and causing Facebook some great concerns. Recently Facebook employed Burson-Marsteller to do a public relations situation to criticize what Google is doing with social circles, which is a bit surprising since social circle doesn’t exist; it’s a rumor that things may happen with a new social networking system. And so we watch that to see how it’s attacking into that space and endeavoring to go more in social networking area which will then link up with all the contact information its got in Google Mail, etcetera.
So we see things happening in that but the main thing that I’m concerned about, and also intrigued about with Google, is advertising. And it appears that endeavoring to become the biggest company in the world in the advertising business. It created this with one of its best achievements ever, AdWords, which fundamentally changed the whole way we do advertising on the internet and also made Google a huge, huge bundle of money and continues to do so. It’s the main area of financial input for Google. But they developed this with acquisitions and developments to increase their position within the advertising business. Double Click is an online advertising agency and Double Click Exchange for exchanging advertising. Invite Media, a company it bought last year, in what they call the “Demand Site Platform” to allow networks and advertiser to buy and share advertising, where they can actually define how they want their clicks to be used, where they’re to be used and the priority of the clicks and the payment for the clicks depending on the user. So this little structure where they can actually make use all the content information they have and the knowledge for contacts to work to improve the way they can supply advertising.
It recently bought a company in the UK called Beat That Quote. Beat That Quote is a comparison site to allow you to compare financial details like mortgages, etcetera, for buying a mortgage. It will analyze everything in the marketplace and come back with suggestions. So where’s that going to fit in to the Google space?
It’s also got One Pass, a system to allow micro-payments for publishers for content. So it’s got a whole range of things it’s putting together. And this is what my concern is coming in thinking. Now they got all these tools and they got this huge amount of data. Now don’t you think every time you do a search on Google, you’re going to find that your information is stored. So they know precisely what you’ve been searching for. So for example let’s say that people are searching for a particular type of holiday and they’re looking on Google for that. Now Google knows precisely all these people are looking for this particular type of holiday, how valuable is that to then sell that data to a direct marketing company; to actually use that. And this brings in the situation; Google is in direct marketing. And you start thinking in terms of if they’re in direct marketing, and they got this huge amount of data, what happens if they start leveraging all the content they got from searches, etcetera together with the advertising content and putting that together, what a powerful, dominant, monopolistic organization it can become. And I have a concern as to what they will do in that sort of area. And I’m not the only person who has that concern. They have history. Example, last year the Federal Trade Commission has got permission to carry out privacy audits on Google for the next 20 years because of Google breaking its own laws in the use of contact in areas they should not be using.
So let us see what happens on that. Google is building a dominant position. Facebook wants to try and get in the advertising space but it’s not been very successful at this stage in comparison with Google. So let us see what’s going to happen in the future. I think Google is a fascinating company, brilliant at what they do but most of the stuff they’re doing these days seems to be by acquisition with the funds that they got and this huge amount of money they’re making out of advertising. But where are they going to go for the future? Are they getting to monopolistic? Should we consider the break-up of Google? Now no one’s talked about this yet whereas we’ve been talking for years about the break-up of Microsoft and Microsoft has lots of legal actions against it for the things it does in monopolistic situations. Now Google’s getting to that situation shortly. Are we going to expect to see legal action taken against Google in the future? I don’t know. I’m just speculating but anyway it’s very interesting to think where does Google go of the future.
Thanks very much indeed. This is Andy Trivia.
Discussion
By Michael Jahn on Jun 09, 2011
The new gang of four - Apple, Facebook Amazon and Google - have clearly replaced the consumables industry old gang of four ( DuPont, AGFA, Kodak and Fuji ). As always - Interesting comments Andy !
as an aside, I wanted to share that I look forward to the day that someone might create a background animal noise reduction technology so users can actually focus on what the speaker is saying when they choose to present in nature.
It sure looks pretty where ever you are, but it was quite distracting !
By Chuck Gehman on Jun 16, 2011
To recommend that the US Government or the EU start an anti-trust investigation of Google is so amazingly wrong-headed that it brings everything Andy has written in the past, and will say in the future, into serious question.
Not only have any efforts of this nature completely failed in the past, and wasted "zillions" of taxpayer dollars, but the entire idea is rooted in the 1950's. Andy Tribute=Andy McCarthy? Break out the torches and pitchforks.
I was reading an article the other day about IBM's 100th anniversary, which is upon us. I'm sure a lot of people don't know that IBM's first antitrust skirmish was in the late fifties-- regarding their manufacturing of punch cards. They quickly consented and ceased the manufacturing (and printing) of the cards, knowing that the entire technology (and supply chain) would soon become obsolete. This did not result in any benefits to their customers.
I have a suggestion: instead of the printing industry being luddites, and begging governments worldwide to fight our battles, let us innovate instead.
By Andrew Tribute on Jun 16, 2011
Hello Chuck
I suggest you listen to what I say and don't try to put words in my mouth. I did not recommend that the US Government or the EU start an antitrust investigation of Google. I speculated that in the same way both bodies took action against Microsoft that it is quite likely that they may do the same thing with Google. Historically when have governmental organisations every worried about wasting "zillions" of dollars if they felt it would appear they are acting in "support" of public opinion.
By Chuck Gehman on Jun 16, 2011
Andy, when you make a video, it's really hard to "take it back".
You actually say in this video "what I am concerned with is the advertising business" that Google is in, and you proceed to name many technologies that they have built and companies they acquired.
"Some of my concern is coming, they have all these tools and all this data"
"They know... precisely... how valuable is all that data?"
"Powerful-Dominant-Monopolistic."
FTC has got permission to conduct privacy audits on Google for the "next twenty years".
"Are they getting too monopolistic? Should we consider a breakup."
There is no other conclusion from a piece like this other than Andy Tribute suggesting that Google should be investigated for antitrust violations.
I, for one, am hoping that doesn't happen because it will benefit no one. Just like the MSFT case you mentioned, or the two IBM cases from decades earlier, and likewise the AT&T case, over time, resulted in very little tangible benefit to the public.
By Andrew Tribute on Jun 16, 2011
I disagree with your interpretation of what I said, however I am surprised that you do not comprehend what I am saying and are defending Google's actions and are saying leave them alone and let them do what they like. In the case of IBM and Microsoft the legal actions concerned restraint of trade whereas I am talking about privacy and potential privacy violations through collection of huge amounts of data tthrough searches and the comapny's moves to own the Internet advertising markets. Google's record of ignoring privacy until leegal actions is unique in the industry. If you don't beleive that just do a Google search on legal actions against Google. My concern is the likelihood of them linking stored search data to advertising information to create competitive advantage. If you don't believe in the potential of that happening I suggest you talk to other major players in the internet advertising business.
By Michael Jahn on Jun 16, 2011
oh my.
I am torn between the Scott McNeally 1999 statement on the reality of privacy (link 1) and the hope that our we can actually accomplish privacy yet enable health service providers a method to share my private data (link 2).
http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/1999/01/17538
http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfwf37zj_693nzv8prhn
This seems hard to do in an world where all clouds stream into each other.
I have a bit more confidence in Google than the 'boil the ocean' Health Care Reform Government wonks, so I suppose I will side with Chuck on this one Andy.
I vote for the 'please leave my Google be' side of this argument.
Perhaps I have drank the Kool-aid, but Google is my dashboard to the world. I suppose some of us Opt In and are comfortable that Google knows what we are doing and where we are doing it.
Many privacy leaks seem to be self inflicted, especially if you work in Washington.
By Michael Jahn on Jun 16, 2011
oh my.
I am torn between the Scott McNeally 1999 statement on the reality of privacy (link 1) and the hope that our we can actually accomplish privacy yet enable health service providers a method to share my private data (link 2).
http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/1999/01/17538
http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfwf37zj_693nzv8prhn
This seems hard to do in an world where all clouds stream into each other.
I have a bit more confidence in Google than the 'boil the ocean' Health Care Reform Government wonks, so I suppose I will side with Chuck on this one Andy.
I vote for the 'please leave my Google be' side of this argument.
Perhaps I have drank the Kool-aid, but Google is my dashboard to the world. I suppose some of us Opt In and are comfortable that Google knows what we are doing and where we are doing it.
Many privacy leaks seem to be self inflicted, especially if you work in Washington.
Discussion
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