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Mark Cuban's Plan To Kill Google

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the well-that's-outside-the-box dept.

rsmiller510 writes "Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, has a plan to kill Google by paying the top 1,000 sites a cool million each to leave the Google index and move to Microsoft. But could such a plan ever work, and would it be worth the risk to abandon Google?"

11 of 773 comments (clear)

  1. Bribery by tsa · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I know bribery is accepted practice in the US but here in the EU it is still frowned upon.

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    1. Re:Bribery by mordors9 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I would be willing to happily accept $1M in cash to never use Google again. It may be a bribe but I would be willing to suffer your scorn.

    2. Re:Bribery by Pieroxy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What the heck is that all about? Google generates much much more than a million dollars to the top 1000 e-commerce websites, and in a few days. This has to be a joke.

      Seriously, the USERS decide which search engine is best, not the website owners. And why in the world would the top 1000 sites listen to an anonymous rich fool instead of Google which has provided a decent flow of clicks to their websites for ages....

      Are we the 1st of April or anything?

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    3. Re:Bribery by quickOnTheUptake · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Is anyone going to point out that this isn't bribery in any meaningful sense of the word?
      Paying someone to act a particular way is not a bribe, unless the guy being bribed has some moral or legal obligation to act contrary to the briber's interest.
      So do these websites have a moral or legal obligation to support or cooperate with Google?
      Oh yeah, and you're trolling.

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    4. Re:Bribery by interploy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Doesn't matter. Google's name has already achieved the marketer's dream: a generic name/verb. Which means it's in the same league as Coke, Kleenex and Xerox. Their name has become so big and so common it's replaced the real term. No one get's a soda, they get a coke, even when that 'coke' is a Pepsi. When was the last time anyone asked for a tissue instead of a Kleenex? And when you want something copied, you 'xerox' it. No one I know under the age of 40 searches for anything one the web, they 'google' it.

      So it doesn't matter what this guy pays, Google is simply too big to be replaced at this stage in the game. If Microsoft is smart, they'll work to make Bing number 2. If not, instead of becoming the search engine equivalent of Pepsi, they'll become the next Royal Crown Cola.

    5. Re:Bribery by damburger · · Score: 5, Insightful

      True. The plan takes zero account of the strength of the Google brand; if companies did desert them then people wouldn't stop finding companies in Google overnight. They would simply find other (suddenly very happy) companies.

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    6. Re:Bribery by Idbar · · Score: 5, Insightful

      As long as Mark pays Experts-exchange.com and they agree to leave my Google results alone once and for all, I'll be happy.

  2. So, the question is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is it worth $1 million to leave Google? I'm guessing most of the sites would say no, that's incredibly short sighted.

    1. Re:So, the question is... by shawn(at)fsu · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yeah if you're one of the top sites on Google a million probably doesn't mean nearly as much as Mark Cuban thinks it does.

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  3. 1 million is peanuts by guyfawkes-11-5 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    1 million is peanuts. Amazon, one of the top 100 sites, makes that during a coffee break.
    Why opt out of free product placement (Amazon usually ranks high in google) worldwide, for a pittance?
    Cuban's mojo has left the room.

  4. Mark's Resume by MyLongNickName · · Score: 5, Insightful

    From wikipedia: "In 1982, Cuban moved to Dallas, Texas. Cuban first found work as a bartender,[13][14] then as a salesperson for Your Business Software, one of the first PC software retailers in Dallas. He was terminated less than a year later, after meeting with a client to procure new business instead of opening the store.

    Cuban started a company, MicroSolutions, with support from his previous customers from Your Business Software. MicroSolutions was initially a system integrator and software reseller. The company was an early proponent of technologies such as Carbon Copy, Lotus Notes, and CompuServe.[15] One of the company's largest clients was Perot Systems.[16] In 1990, Cuban sold MicroSolutions to CompuServe--then a subsidiary of H&R Block--for $6 million.[17] He retained approximately $2 million after taxes on the deal.[18]

    In 1995, Cuban and fellow Indiana University alumnus Todd Wagner started Audionet, combining their mutual interest in college basketball and webcasting. With a single server and ISDN line[19], Audionet became Broadcast.com in 1998. By 1999, Broadcast.com had grown to 330 employees and $13.5 million in revenue for the second quarter.[20] In 1999, during the Dot-com boom, Broadcast.com was acquired by Yahoo! for $5.9 billion in Yahoo! stock.[21]"

    This man is not a business genius. He is a good self-promoter, and has leveraged this to making a lot of money. Re-read the last couple sentences. he had a business with 13.5 million in revenue in 3 months (not profit... with 330 employees, it was much, much lower). He then sold it for likely a 500+ P/E ratio.

    The tech stock market bubble made this man. I don't disparage him for that. However, any business advice coming from this man is virtually worthless. Self-promotion... he's up there.

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