Google Might Disappear in Five Years

An anonymous reader writes "Speaking to a packed auditorium at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., on May 12, Ballmer trumpeted the ripe opportunities around Microsoft's sprawling business and questioned the ability of Google to maintain its edge. Clearly alluding to Microsoft's key Internet search rival, Ballmer said: 'The hottest company right now -- the one nobody thinks can do any wrong -- may just be a one-hit wonder.' According to concept developed by Ballmer, the online search engines represent the key points of the future technology, and the leader in this domain, none other than Google, is destined to perish in less than five years. These predictions belong exclusively to Microsoft's CEO who sounds a little like Bill Gates announcing iPod's death."

Comments

Re:case in point

[Synkronos]

Which is why they are branching out into about twenty thousand _other_ ventures. Maps, Blogger, Video search, Keyhole, Picasa... etc etc etc http://www.google.com/options/

Re:case in point

[SillyNickName4me]

Given that internet search/indexing is a commodity Google will have a hard time sustaining any profitability in the long term.

Spidering and indexing might be considered comodities, catagorizing is not, at least judging from the difference in qualitz of results between the different engines.

Also, I do not remember Google (or any other search engine) asking me for money in order to get search results, so I somehow suspect Google doesn't earn its money from just being a search engine. Search technology is extremely important for them of course, and is the backbone of their enterprise, but its services on top of searching that is what the game is about.

Re:case in point

[david.heyman]

Speaking of Web Platforms. Check out Robert X. Cringley's column this week. He discusses the Google Web Accelerator (which currently can't be downloaded) and says:

what I DO know is that the Google Web Accelerator effectively turns every user into a thin client, whether they know it or not.

He also says about some point in the future when Google is a platform that at that point:

Its a GoogleWorld that requires no AOL, no Microsoft, no Intel, no HP or Dell -- only Google, cable companies, telephone companies, users, and of course advertisers and web page producers.

Re:We have heard it before from M$

[thparker]

I trust Apple a great deal more than I trust any cell phone company.

Yup. Conveniently, an article in today's USA Today discusses the wireless industry and their abysmal record of customer satisfaction.

"In nearly every gauge of customer satisfaction, the wireless industry scores at or near the bottom. Worse than insurance companies. Worse than credit card outfits. Worse than car dealers."

You'll forgive me if I don't want these people to have anything to do with how I obtain and listen to music. The wireless providers want to maintain of lot of control over these heavily subsidized handsets and what we can do with 'em.

That's rediculously misleading

[KalvinB]

WISENutbot 1866 20.45 MB
Googlebot 1797 124.28 MB
MSNBot 923 14.41 MB
Inktomi Slurp 658 15.96 MB

The first number is the number of pages for the month, the second is the bandwidth used for the month. WISENutbot indexed more pages than Google but used 1/6th the bandwidth.

Google indexed twice as many pages but used 9 times the bandwidth as MSN

Your numbers assume

a) all the bots indexed the same pages
b) all the bots indexed the same number of pages

There's nothing unusual about bots not using the same amount of bandwidth. They're rarely indexing the same pages or the same amount of pages. They're on their own schedules.

Talk about Grade A FUD you're throwing around there.