In September of 2008, I asked the following question from Google in a post entitled, Making Friends 101: Annoy Mega-Telco:
Is this arrogance, hubris, confidence in your technology, assurance in the righteousness of your now-discredited mission statement*, faith in your barrister, a belief in your manifest destiny, or worse, a deadly combination of all of the above?
Fast forward to 2010, and the question on my mind as I previewed Google Buzz these past few days was, “Why?”
What makes me even more astonished at the deafness exhibited by the Googligans is the fact that they have history all around them, namely their favorite target, Microsoft.
I know these guys are supposed to be brilliant, but, can’t they read? Is history beneath them?
One of the things Microsoft did on their way to dominance was to stick with the letter of the law. Which is a good thing.
However, laws are fluid, as Microsoft has found out. So did Michael Milken, who went to jail for daring to be successful.
For in such cases, the prosecutor or the plaintiff’s attorney appeals to the jurist to ignore the letter of the law, and instead rule on the spirit of the law, making new case law!
Right now, Google is riding a false wave of confidence brought on by an adoring, and fawning press. Lesson: the press is the most finicky amore anyone can have. Ask former darlings Real Networks, AOL, etc.
In most of my writings about Google, I have always referred to it as a one-trick pony, based on the fact that it has just one revenue stream, and is desperately looking for the next big thing.
But for the fact that Microsoft is busy playing defense with regards to Google, it should have realized that the best way to defang Google was to take up flanking positions – excel and dominate in niche search verticals – chipping away at Google’s number one position bit by bit. In this instance, I am surprised that Microsoft has not realized that the nuclear approach, a direct hit inflicting a mortal blow, would not work. Unfortunately, Microsoft is still trying that gambit.
Google, on the other hand, seems to have lost its mind!
It is dumping on all partners in this quest, and will soon start to see pushbacks from them leading to a groundswell.
In Buzz, Google is biting the hands that feed it, trying to be the Big Dog in social consciousness from the git-go. In the process, it is attempting to make its current partners irrelevant.
Listen, I do not blame Google one iota. Take Facebook and Twitter for instance. These two companies signed agreements with both Microsoft and Google with days, even hours of each other. Outwardly, they assured us that such moves were to keep the flow of information open. We, in turn, laughed at them, for we knew the reason for doing so was the corporate equivalence of ‘Obtaining Research Grants for Yours Truly’, or getting the most from a desperate suitor. Unfortunately, no one told these new companies of that old saw, ‘Beware of Googligans bearing gifts’.
Now, they see that Google is the company that was desperate, and the one they should have been wary about!
Coming back to Google Buzz.
In using Google Buzz, everything there is opt-out!
Are you kidding me?
I see nothing in the product that makes me want it.
In fact, I have downgraded my views of the digerati that drooled needlessly over it the day it was released.
Schmidt’s dismissal of people’s privacy concerns pushed Google from a company I was dismissive of, to one I am petrified about.
Think about it, this guy is running roughshod over our privacy in order to mint more ducats!
Thankfully, the EPIC has filed a lawsuit to stop Google Buzz as it is currently constituted.
Hopefully, enterprising emergency medical vehicle pursuers will bring class-action lawsuits as well.
Google Buzz: stay away from it*!
* Give it the Google Wave treatment: ignore it!
