All good things come to an end, as my mother used to say. The question now is whether this applies to Google, the search engine to end all search engines.
How come? Well, Google is a private company, based in Silicon Valley. It was founded by two Stanford students, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who invented a clever set of algorithms for ranking web pages. It was a classic case of disruptive innovation -- a smart idea, embodied in computer code, which comes from nowhere and conquers the world.
For most of us, internet chronology divides into two periods, BG (before Google) and AG. Nobody who used Google ever went back to anything else. At a click, all the other search engines were dumped on the rubbish heap of history.
Unlike most Internet start-ups, Google made money virtually from the outset. One revenue source is licensing its search technology to other Internet portals such as Yahoo and AOL. About 75 per cent of all referrals to Web sites now originate from Google's algorithms. A second revenue source is discreet, paid-for advertising on the right-hand side of the Google search page. And finally, the company makes money from "contextual advertising." This is where Web publishers allow Google to trawl through their pages and place relevant text advertisements in the right margin. Once visitors click on the links, the webmasters share the revenue with Google. All told, Google brings in something like US$200 million a year, which you'd think would be enough to keep anyone happy. Not so.
Among the early -- and most influential -- investors in Google were two of Silicon Valley's leading venture capitalists, John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital. These gents are interested primarily in capital growth, and they have come to the conclusion that payback time on their Google investment is nigh.
Consequently, Google is moving inexorably towards flotation. Investment bankers -- including, no doubt, some of the geniuses who brought us the last internet bubble -- have been whispering figures like US$15 billion as a possible valuation for the company. Google is, after all, overwhelmingly the market leader and a truly dominant global brand, like Amazon, Ebay and, er, Microsoft.
Which is what ought to set alarm bells ringing. For there was a time when a company called Netscape was overwhelmingly the market leader in the web browser business -- and we know what happened to Netscape. And it emerged last week that Microsoft approached Google a few months ago to inquire whether it would like to be bought by the Gates empire. We are told that Google declined. But Microsoft has been working on search technology -- which it naturally plans to build into Windows in due course. Just as it once began work on a browser which was eventually folded into Windows.
History repeats itself, said Marx: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce. Netscape went public without a strategy for dealing with Microsoft's ruthlessness. The original investors made fortunes, but the company perished, and the world is a less diverse -- and therefore poorer -- place.
As Doerr and Moritz prepare to cash in their Google chips, I wonder if they have a game plan for their amazing company beyond the IPO. If they have, then they will sell its shares on Ebay rather than via Wall Street. Google should belong to the world and not to the banks and pension funds who will cave in to Microsoft.
A series of strong earthquakes in Hualien County not only caused severe damage in Taiwan, but also revealed that China’s power has permeated everywhere. A Taiwanese woman posted on the Internet that she found clips of the earthquake — which were recorded by the security camera in her home — on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu. It is spine-chilling that the problem might be because the security camera was manufactured in China. China has widely collected information, infringed upon public privacy and raised information security threats through various social media platforms, as well as telecommunication and security equipment. Several former TikTok employees revealed
The bird flu outbreak at US dairy farms keeps finding alarming new ways to surprise scientists. Last week, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed that H5N1 is spreading not just from birds to herds, but among cows. Meanwhile, media reports say that an unknown number of cows are asymptomatic. Although the risk to humans is still low, it is clear that far more work needs to be done to get a handle on the reach of the virus and how it is being transmitted. That would require the USDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to get
For the incoming Administration of President-elect William Lai (賴清德), successfully deterring a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) attack or invasion of democratic Taiwan over his four-year term would be a clear victory. But it could also be a curse, because during those four years the CCP’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will grow far stronger. As such, increased vigilance in Washington and Taipei will be needed to ensure that already multiplying CCP threat trends don’t overwhelm Taiwan, the United States, and their democratic allies. One CCP attempt to overwhelm was announced on April 19, 2024, namely that the PLA had erred in combining major missions
On April 11, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delivered a speech at a joint meeting of the US Congress in Washington, in which he said that “China’s current external stance and military actions present an unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge … to the peace and stability of the international community.” Kishida emphasized Japan’s role as “the US’ closest ally.” “The international order that the US worked for generations to build is facing new challenges,” Kishida said. “I understand it is a heavy burden to carry such hopes on your shoulders,” he said. “Japan is already standing shoulder to shoulder