ABC Article Directory Blog

By: Emmanuel DeFreitas

Google Inc., is  getting old, or at least a little older, as it officially turns ten on September 7, 2008. Who would have imagined that ten years ago, Larry Page and  Sergey Brin would have been able to create such a monstrous success. Starting with four computers and $100,000 in investor’s faith money, they forged an Internet search engine dynasty that changed the world.

I’m sure that it may have seemed a little ludicrous ten years ago but any way you slice it, Google’s success is beyond compare. Google now has a gargantuan network requiring nearly 20,000 employees to  manage and now demands a 150 billion dollar market value. Both founders, Page and Brin, are worth an estimated 19 billion dollars apiece.

So far, so good. The big question is, “What next?” How will Google stand up to the next ten years when everybody and everything is looking up at the market leader. Once you are at the top, you have a giant Bullseye painted across your logo and you will find yourself in the sights of both governments and competitors. You’re no longer cute and unique. You are the 800 pound gorilla that everyone would like to see stumble once in a while and bleed a little.

With very little competition in the pay per click marketplace and an ever expanding monopoly over acquisitions of Internet assets (YouTube, Feedburner, Doubleclick, AOL + 50 others and counting), Google does as Google wants. So far.

Even now, U.S. antitrust regulators are going to challenge Google’s plans to sell ads for Yahoo Inc., a company that seems to have lost their way in the marketplace. Their Yahoo publishers program has been in beta (U.S. only) for an eternity.

Google’s data collection capability is becoming frighteningly “big brother” in its capacity and sophistication. Their tentacles seem to envelope every nook and cranny of modern society and information portal. If it can be electronically collected and stored, Google wants it. I believe that too much information in the hands of one corporation is extremely dangerous to society as a whole. Their data collection capabilities should be monitored and regulated more closely.

Google will continue to not just push the envelope but break through it and redefine what an envelope should be. We may find many new wondrous innovations ahead from the market leader but, we should also be keenly aware of the dangers posed by Google’s seeming omnipotent power.

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