Google: The Next Microsoft in the making???

[mrdosa]

Over the past few years Google has grown..and at a tremendous pace. Its becoming ever powerful. In fact, it has been aggressively entering new domains and subtly crushing its opponents [Just like Microsoft] With its web search, and email services and the popular Orkut, Google is collecting a lot of user behavior and personal information. Where will this lead to? Another Microsoft in the making? Or will Google remain a good friend of us all?

[phillipi]

Walmart, Starbucks, Microsoft, Google...
It is the nature of capitalism.

I set my home page to altavista for a while, I wanted to support a search engine other than google. I found that altavista just wasn't as good, so now I'm back to google.

Look, they are making their own browser and integrating all of their features into anything they can think dream up in google labs. Who wants to take bets that we'll see a google operating system someday?

[Icehuck]

Over the past few years Google has grown..and at a tremendous pace. Its becoming ever powerful. In fact, it has been aggressively entering new domains and subtly crushing its opponents [Just like Microsoft] With its web search, and email services and the popular Orkut, Google is collecting a lot of user behavior and personal information. Where will this lead to? Another Microsoft in the making? Or will Google remain a good friend of us all?

Honestly, a business is never the consumers friend. Anything they do usually has a specific agenda in mind that will benefit the business.

[RiceMonster]

I don't have a problem with Google, and I know there growing rapidly, so I don't care.

[Sinkingships7]

I believe Google will always be a friend. In any case, as long as they continue to push out quality products, I'll always be a loyal user.

[steveneddy]

I hope not.

I just left Yahoo! mail for gmail because I thought Yahoo! would be owned by Microsoft.

[phillipi]

I hope not.

I just left Yahoo! mail for gmail because I thought Yahoo! would be owned by Microsoft.

google supplies the search engine power for yahoo if I'm not mistaken

[mrdosa]

Google was my favourite. But now I have had an over dose. Their products are innovative, no doubt, but I am losing choice..The competition has almost vanished!

[LaRoza]

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=561944

[Jim!]

"Another Microsoft in the making" Dude, seriously you make it sound like they're the Umbrella corporation from Resident Evil or something.

[Canis familiaris]

Seriously you can leave all Google Services with few clicks (except maybe E-Mail) while this is not in case of Microsoft.

[doorknob60]

C'mon, Google's Linux and FOSS friendly, and their products are good quality, there's a big difference between Microsoft and Google...

[mdebusk]

Another Microsoft in the making? Or will Google remain a good friend of us all?

There's one massive difference between Google and Microsoft: Google's products are worth using, so Google has actually earned its market position.

[Jim!]

There's one massive difference between Google and Microsoft: Google's products are worth using, so Google has actually earned its market position.
A lot of Microsoft's products are also worth using.

[vishzilla]

3 words 'I don't care'. As long as some of their services are good. I will continue to use them.

[quinnten83]

"Another Microsoft in the making" Dude, seriously you make it sound like they're the Umbrella corporation from Resident Evil or something.

well, aren't they?

[Gutt]

3 words 'I don't care'. As long as some of their services are good. I will continue to use them.

Exactly.

[tariquepark]

A lot of Microsoft's products are also worth using.

hey jim
mind letting us in on a good microsoft program?
cause i sure dont know any :lolflag:

[Canis familiaris]

mind letting us in on a good microsoft program?
cause i sure dont know any :lolflag:

It would be MS Office and Visual Studio I guess.

[ankursethi]

Monopolies go bad only if they start working *against* the consumer. As long as Google doesn't do that, it will grow. Once it starts becoming evil, I'm sure someone will come up with a solution. After all, the free software movement started once proprietary software started to become a problem (epidemic?).

[tariquepark]

It would be MS Office and Visual Studio I guess.

thats a joke right?
visual studio maybe, but office? nah:)

[wersdaluv]

thats a joke right?
visual studio maybe, but office? nah:)
MS Office is _the_ office suite.

[mrdosa]

The only reason Microsoft has grown over years is because it eliminated all its competition. Though google has some great products, over time they wont have any competition. I hope then, google will do what microsoft wont ever do..Be true to open source and remain consumer friendly.

[Frak]

Honestly, a business is never the consumers friend. Anything they do usually has a specific agenda in mind that will benefit the business.
Newman's Own donated nearly all of it's profits to other non-profit organizations. Pretty friendly to me.

[Canis familiaris]

thats a joke right?
visual studio maybe, but office? nah:)

Many people do prefer MS Office. My sister loves Office 07 and its ribbon interface. A lot of people claim MS Office has more features. I have no idea since I dont use MS Office and personally for me OpenOffice is sufficient.

[Frak]

Many people do prefer MS Office. My sister loves Office 07 and its ribbon interface. A lot of people claim MS Office has more features. I have no idea since I dont use MS Office and personally for me OpenOffice is sufficient.
Aye, there are those that would prefer Office for their work. (I'd prefer 03 since 07 is much alien with the interface to me) Though, for any home user, I could see OO.o, KOffice, or Abiword being fully sufficient for the needs.

[MONODA]

MS Office is _the_ office suite.
if by that you mean standard, then you are wrong, openoffice is the standard

[Frak]

if by that you mean standard, then you are wrong, openoffice is the standard
Actually, MS Office is the standard. Has been for some very long time. It doesn't have to be open source to be a standard.

[phillipi]

Competition is what usually breeds innovation, but if you look at the google labs they have dozens of projects and really no competition out there. They supply the search results for Yahoo!, AOL, Netscape, Lycos, CompuServe, Earthlink, and AT&T Worldnet. Between these sites and google.com they account for over 80% of all searches. MSN, Ask.com, and Altavista are there only competition.... when is the last time you used one of those?

[cardinals_fan]

Walmart, Starbucks, Microsoft, Google...
It is the nature of capitalism.

I set my home page to altavista for a while, I wanted to support a search engine other than google. I found that altavista just wasn't as good, so now I'm back to google.

Look, they are making their own browser and integrating all of their features into anything they can think dream up in google labs. Who wants to take bets that we'll see a google operating system someday?
Canonical is also a for-profit corporation. Just throwing it out there...

[-grubby]

It would be MS Office

+1, Ms office 2007 is my favourite office program

[mrdosa]

The only reason I end up using Microsoft Office is the fact that my school uses it. And when I do my work on Oo Writer or slideshow, I have to redo the formatting when I have to make a presentation on my school PCs!!! If even the formatting is taken care of, better still, there is an agreement for Industry Standard, I would certainly prefer Oo!!

[Frak]

Canonical is also a for-profit corporation. Just throwing it out there...
Then that must make them evil.

Aim your muskets men!

[aysiu]

The problem with Microsoft is its lock-in.

Opera is proprietary and for-profit, but it adheres to W3C standards.

Microsoft wants to keep you using its products not based on their quality but based on difficulty of migrating to something else.

Seeing as how GMail (unlike Hotmail) can work with any email client, and you can easily move over your messages, Google is not locking you into its services. At any time if a better search engine comes along, you can switch in a heartbeat.

Migrating operating systems is a bit more difficult, especially if you use Windows-only software or Windows-only formats (Microsoft Publisher, for example, can't be opened with InDesign or Scribus).

So I don't care how big or successful Google gets, as long as it doesn't lock you into its services.