I just came across with I think one of the most interesting comparisons made of four companies, ever. It’s so interesting, I think it can be almost used to define where Google is heading. If you have a look, Google is basically a few things short of what Microsoft and Yahoo! have (sorry, but I think AOL needs to be left out of this one). If this post was made an year or so ago, Google would’ve been more things short. A few more years, almost empty except for the "search space". What does this tell you?
Google is one of the companies I admire, but as Jeremy Zawodny puts it, Google is building Yahoo! 2.0. They’re almost doing the the same things Yahoo has in the past, but better. Whether it’s e-mail, auctions, IM, maps, personal page [My ....] or anything in the "non-search space" for that matter. Of course, one would also notice the opposite in the search space, where Yahoo! is building Google 2.0. Whether it’s blogs, books, web, video, those are only some of the things. Calls for a merger? Theoritically possible, but financially and as a choice, I think not.
The thing I find interesting, though, is the developer space. One might think Microsoft, but Google’s leading here, as well. They were certainly there first with almost everything listed in there. Advertising program, developer APIs, new services preview (labs) — Google has been doing all this for quite a while. The only thing Google is missing which the other two have is web hosting, which I certainly think is a mismatch for Google’s vision.
I think this does tell you in some way or another, that Google is winning in doing things first (2/3), Yahoo! second (1/3) and Microsoft is basically following. AOL? Pfff…
