Today, I was reading a back issue of the Wall Street Journal that had gotten buried on my desk. There was a feature article last week titled “Rising Clout of Google Prompts Rush by Internet Rivals to Adapt [subscription]“. Market research shows Google getting 32% of all search request (is that all?) and the article goes on to give the many reasons that Google should be worried about Yahoo and Microsoft.
My thoughts:
- First, Fast Company published a more interesting article about Google in April.
- Google is still the best search engine. It provide the most relevant answers to my searches. They make it easy to use their technology on others’ sites (see the archives). They are always trying new ideas (check out Google Labs). Easy to use and I get the best results.
- Yahoo! has lost its direction a bit. The home page is disaster. Their innovative products like My Yahoo! haven’t really progressed much lately. I still use Yahoo! Mail, but Oddpost is making me consider a change.
- Microsoft is too slow. The WSJ article talks about them building search technology into the next version of Windows. They can build things into Windows that are no longer evolving. Blogging software, music players, IM are all examples of products that are contining to evolve. Stop innovating and risk being consumed by the Windows Machine.