Warning: Google is becoming Microsoft's evil twinDuring its year of jousting with Microsoft, Google learned a lot from the software giant. Too bad it picked up Redmond's bad behaviors -- behaviors that are bad for both IT and the public at large.
The Google we all think we know is a kind, innovative, positive force. And because Google was the un-Microsoft, we have better tools for search, better platforms for e-commerce, and a whole new world of Web 2.0 applications.
But now it appears that Sergey Brin and the gang that will do no harm have learned the worst possible lesson from Microsoft: build a monopoly and they will come -- because they have to.
The deal to let Google sell its ads on Yahoo's Web site, and share an estimated $800 million a year in revenue, is bad for business, bad for consumers, and bad for IT. It will raise Web advertising rates by more than 20 percent. It ought to be stopped.
Just what we need: a new monopoly
Simply put, it will give Google/Yahoo a near monopoly on Internet advertising. Don't just take my word for it. Here's what Google CEO Jerry Yang told Microsoft's top lawyer Brad Smith: "If we do this deal with Google, Yahoo will become part of Google's pole, and Microsoft ... would not be strong enough in this market to remain a pole of its own."
Normally, I'd be skeptical of a braggadocio story like this, but Smith recounted the conversation under oath Tuesday as he testified in front of a Senate committee looking into the proposed arrangement.
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... This argument is confused. Almost every business enjoys "network effects." Wal-Mart, for example, is able to use its large base of customers to extract lower prices from suppliers, and is then able to use its lower prices to attract more customers. That's a network effect, but it's not a problem. What regulators have traditionally been worried about is not "network effects" in and of themselves, but network effects combined with technological lock-in. ...
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