Just Googling It Is Striking Fear Into Companies

The NY Times, Technology ^ | Nov. 6, 2005 | Steve Lohr

[summer]

Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, often intimidates its competitors and suppliers. Makers of goods from diapers to DVD's must cater to its whims. But there is one company that even Wal-Mart eyes warily these days: Google, a seven-year-old business in a seemingly distant industry.

"We watch Google very closely at Wal-Mart," said Jim Breyer, a member of Wal-Mart's board.

In Google, Wal-Mart sees both a technology pioneer and the seed of a threat, said Mr. Breyer, who is also a partner in a venture capital firm. The worry is that by making information available everywhere, Google might soon be able to tell Wal-Mart shoppers if better bargains are available nearby.

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.

Google's recent moves have stirred concern in industries from book publishing to telecommunications. Businesses already feeling the Google effect include advertising, software and the news media. Apart from retailing, Google's disruptive presence may soon be felt in real estate and auto sales...

...Such advances, predicts Esther Dyson, a technology consultant, will bring "a huge reduction in inefficiency everywhere." That, in turn, would be an unsettling force for all sorts of industries and workers. But it would also reward consumers with lower prices and open up opportunities for new companies.

Google, then, may turn out to have a more far-reaching impact than earlier Web winners like Amazon and eBay. "Google is the realization of everything that we thought the Internet was going to be about but really wasn't until Google," said David B. Yoffie, a professor at Harvard Business School...

[summer]

This is such an interesting article to me, on so many levels. For example, it's fascinating to see how the young, 7-year old, innovation giant known as google is viewed and characterized as a "disruptive" force BECAUSE of its non-stop innovation.

I think some disruption comes naturally with innovation, although "dispution" sounds so negative. There has to be a better word to describe what one should expect to happen when you alter or shake up the status quo.

BTW, I know some people here dislike google,saying it's on the left, but, left or right or center or whatever, this NYT technology article is worth reading, IMHO. (And, it's not too long.)

[js1138]

Google is the next Microsoft. They have money, momentum, products. All thy lack is the organized fear and hatred that Microsoft has inspired. And the federal anti-trust lawsuits.

[summer]

Also, how about this for a new idea from Google:

A national free Google-net internet service. (Or, does that should too socialist?) I don't know. My first impression is that it could be good. But it would be better if there remained others to choose from, too.

From article:

In telecommunications, the company has made a number of moves that have grabbed the attention of industry executives. It has been buying fiber-optic cable capacity in the United States and has invested in a company delivering high-speed Internet access over power lines. And it is participating in an experiment to provide free wireless Internet access in San Francisco.

That has led to speculation that the company wants to build a national free GoogleNet, paid for mostly by advertising. And Google executives seem to delight in dropping tantalizing, if vague, hints. "We focus on access to the information as much as the search itself because you need both," Mr. Schmidt said in an analysts' conference call last month.

[austinaero]

Is this article saying that Google is the only way to find such information?

The whole premise is really absurd.

[summer]

Have you tried the google email? G-mail? I am very curious to know people's experiences with that.

[summer]

No, silly. It's saying that google's innovations are making companies afraid and fearful in a sense, because google is creating new competition in many areas of business -- real esstate, newspapers, etc -- due to all of google's innovations and expansions in its business. Read the article!

[summer]

esstate = estate

[1rudeboy]

There has to be a better word to describe what one should expect to happen when you alter or shake up the status quo.

Competition.

[austinaero]

What innovations? What expansions? This is just blowing smoke for Google. Whatever the point is about what Google can do here, it's being packaged (and apparently effectively to some) as brand new and innovative.

And I've been reading articles for over 40 years, silly.

[libstripper]

Whenever I want to buy a large, expensive consumer product, I go go Google and enter the product's name. You immediately get links to every on line seller and lists of the best deals. At the beginning of this year I purchased a 73" Mitsubishi HD TV for a base price of $3,380 and a delivered price (NJ to Knoxville, TN) of $4,820. That's a lot less than I would have paid for a 50" plasma screen here, let alone what I bought. Anyone who wants to get really good deals on consumer electronics should use Google as a starting point.

[Graybeard58]

Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, often intimidates its competitors and suppliers.

The NYT had to get that typical leftist slam in there didn't they?

[js1138]

I have a gmail account and my daughter uses it for her personal email. It is much less annoying than hotmail because the ads are text and don't take forever to load.

I believe that your emails are scanned in order to target advertising. If this bugs you, you will probably not want an account.

[summer]

This is such an interesting irony here, from the article:

Such advances, predicts Esther Dyson, a technology consultant, will bring "a huge reduction in inefficiency everywhere." That, in turn, would be an unsettling force for all sorts of industries and workers

So, in other words: eliminating "inefficiency" is predicted to cause a lot of initial angst. Wow! I always thought eliminating "inefficiency" would result in the OPPOSITE response from people! Seems the writer is implying humans are more comfortable in the current, inefficient mess!

[summer]

Thank you for comments there. Hotmail drives me crazy because it takes forever and I also can not stand many of the advertisements - they seem pornographic almost. It's very annoying. I used to like hotmai a lot more, when it first came out. It seemed less cluttered.

[Spirochete]

Have you tried the google email? G-mail? I am very curious to know people's experiences with that.

You get 2.4 GB of attachment space. I prefer Yahoo mail myself.

[summer]

Re your post #8 - Very good answer, 1rudeboy. Thank you for your insightful post.

[irons_player]

Goes to show you how poorly run these companies are. Harvard A-wholes.

Google is just a piece of software.

There is nothing stopping these corporations from doing their own google.

The day that one of them decides to do it their way is the day to dump your google shares.

[GoforBroke]

I use G-mail for what ever website I feel will eventually create spam. However, a friend uses g-mail as his normal e-mail account and he is happy with it.

One other thing, there is a second party software company that has developed some beta software that can use create a virtual drive on your g-mail storage and you can back up your files to it. Very handy!

[summer]

Now, what do you like about Yahoo email? I have thought about that, too. Are there less ads or any? Is it targeted advertising like g-mail, scanning the messages? What about storage limits? And how long does it take to open?

[Crazieman]

Used Google to get a 1280x720 HD LCD projector for a delivered price of $1960