Posted on 11/06/2005 5:51:08 AM PST by 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...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Wal-Mart may also be concerned that it could be falsely portrayed as a Miserable Failure.
RE your post #11 - I knew someone would point that out. :)
Wow, that link was fascinating. Really, I had no idea those entries would come up. Thanks, Martin.
Google is so cool. Yes, I turn to it for about anything I need to research a price on, get an address for, etc. And YES, I own their stock -- and like most people, I wish I had gotten more when it was cheaper.
Two of their apps I highly recommend if you haven't used them yet: Google Toolbar and Google Earth.
The Toolbar lets you search without having to go to their front page (you can do it from the page you're on). Really convenient. BTW, the Ebay bar is very convenient too.
And Google Earth is an app that lets you use satillite imagry to look at the earth. VERY cool. Search for addresses, or just use it for just looking for that new piece of Real Estate you're interested in. BE ADVISED that you need a broadband connection and about a 2BG processor to make it work well.
You can find both here:
http://www.google.com/downloads/
Have phun ;)
I agree. Thanks for your post.
Thanks so much for explaining that -- I will check out both. :)
That's right -- and that's what the article is saying; the real estate business is slowing waking up to how it may be forced to change. Other businesses, like newspaper, are basically having nightmares, since more and more people now turn to the web for news.
Here's a link to a rather prophetic movie about Google's expansion in the future. Very cool.
http://epic.makingithappen.co.uk/
I meant to type: like the newspaper business...
Did I catch a radio report this week that there is a coalition forming to shut down http://earth.google.com/
Thanks for posting the link to the movie! I really want to look at that more, and I will, later. However, again, thank you so much. Do you know anything more about that upcoming film?
I do that also: that is, I check Google for prices before making any large purchase. Often, I first enter the product name followed by the word review before making a decision about what specific product to purchase. The only trouble is, that I am directed to the same few websites time and again for both prices and reviews. This makes me wonder if Google isn't capeable of being being manipulated in some way that will, in fact, limit cometition.
gmail has free pop3 access. You can configure gmail to use outlook express if you like.
Therein lies the fly in the ointment. As Google is used for about 90% of searches if it elects to discard certain sites it can leave one with incomplete information. Because the web is so big it could be done without anyone really noticing or it could be that a particular site has been "Google bowled" and thus delisted, who knows? Were I WalMart or any large company part of the concern would be "what if I'm excluded, period?".
Yeah, it sounds like black helicopter stuff but the problem is when any organization dominates it can tend to pick winners and losers, even if they don't intent do.
I'm certainly not suggesting that there's any need for goobermint to get involved but I think a prudent approach is to use several search engines or perhaps a search engine of search engine like search.com or even one that's truly innovative like vivisimo.com.
Not that I'm gonna put a dent in Google's bidness....
Exactly, We are really in a technology revolution. Here is something I predict: If public schools don't offer students the choice of being in class online -- instead of in a classroom -- then, more and more public school students will exit public school classrooms, and head for online classes wherever they can find those classes. And, teachers who fear technology, and don't want to teach online, will find themselves unemployed.
Re your post #37 - That's good to know. Thanks.
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