Google Is Becoming Microsoft
A good friend of mine just sent me a link to a very interesting article on iMedia Connection about Google Analytics. I agree with the author, Brandt Dainow, that the analytics companies are in big trouble with the launch of the new Google Analytics interface. Web analytics are becoming a commodity now. But I haven’t looked closely enough to know if there is still enough value in WebTrends, HBX, or Omniture to justify the expense of those systems. They have enough extras like conversion funnel analysis, dashboards, cross-property reporting, etc that it may still be worthwhile for larger or more complex web businesses. But certainly for the majority of publishers, marketers, and other site owners, Google Analytics will be plenty for their needs … and you can’t argue with the price.
| Old Google Analytics Interface | New Google Analytics Interface | |
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But what is particuarly interesting to me is that Google is now doing what Microsoft did in the 90s. Slowly but surely Google is absorbing or competing with business partners and moving up the value chain. And slowly but surely they are taking things that people used to pay for and making them free to get people more entrenched with the Google platform … just like Microsoft did with Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, FTP, and other technologies to get people more and more reliant upon the Windows platform. Google is starting to look more and more like Microsoft, and Microsoft is starting to look more and more like IBM … finding ways to protect legacy products, focusing on high-end services and applications, and relying on brand marketing rather than true product innovation.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
7 Responses to “ “Google Is Becoming Microsoft”
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Eric -
Google’s new UI came out a couple of months ago. What’s to come will be even more exciting… blending FeedBurner and DART, for instance.
Read more at: http://www.pubexec.com/pubtalk/pubtalk.bsp?var=story&sid=70808
What’s also interesting Eric, is how the availability of these services (and others) will enable b2b publishers to lower their operating costs, boosting emedia profitability and countering expense trends in the print business.
I love your blog btw!
Yes, having these services as free can increase emedia profitability in the short term. But it also lowers the barrier of entry for non-traditional publishers. I believe that will lead to increased competition and potentially lower ad rates in the future even for B2B. Computers were supposed to help us only work 4 hours a day, but instead we simply work harder and faster than ever. Free web services will not increase media company profitability long term because competitors can lower rates and still maintain the same margins.
At least that’s what I’d do as a publisher … move first, lower my costs, lower my prices, and capture greater market share.
Ah, your view is that b2b emedia products are all commodities and that it would be rather easy for others to compete. With the right information, data, knowledge, people, contacts, and community, b2b web sites become more important and harder to compete with, at least IMHO. Thus, cheaper services that are actually commodities, will benefit the b2b industry.
I should clarify … I don’t think B2B media (or consumer media for that matter) in and of itself is a commodity. There is strong value in a brand reputation, an editorial position and mission, good content, and all of the relationship with readers, advertisers, and the markets. But yes, I do believe that the technologies are becoming more and more commodities and that it is more likely that the long-term result will be existing publishers and new, want-to-be publisher taking advantage of the lower costs to gain a competitive edge rather than increase margins.
The real competitive advantages will be to those publishers that do one of two things:
1. Host the community online and the community interaction. Forums are a great example.
2. Get into the business practices of their customers.
That’s a subject for another blog at another time, however.
IIt will enable the lowering of capital costs but even if the tool is free there is still the cost of knowing how (and in the case on analytics when) to use the tool — meaning more specialized knowledge of particular markets and less general knowledge of producing a particular report. The question will become more and more not what is this data, but what are the KPI’s for me and my market and what can I do with that once I know (or can guess) them. B2B publishers will have to be nimbler and run with much less procedural overhead.
One thing I like about Google is their ability to simplify their apps for the users at every level. It’s almost scary how intuitive they are. I find myself surfing through the features thinking, “…this is exactly how I want to use this.â€
The difference between Google and Microsoft here in my opinion is Google’s commitment to making their products work, very well. In the past year I’ve been regularly using Analytics, Adwords, Adsense, Docs & Spreadsheets, Gmail, Calendar, Google Earth, Sketch Up and recently iGoogle. Not to mention the variety of search apps, SEM/SEO tools and the much enhanced Maps.
I guess you could say they’ve had an effect on me, but my life is far more productive with Google.
That’s a lot more than I can say for Microsoft.