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Google probably is not scared, but what I found out, unexpectedly, that Google's services are indispensable less and less for me. In the past decade, Google se
by greyman 17y ago
Google probably is not scared, but what I found out, unexpectedly, that Google's services are indispensable less and less for me.
In the past decade, Google search had been essential for my internet life. But in the last months, when I was to find out what is happening now in certain area, Twitter search does it for me; if I want to watch some area for longer time, I subscribe to a few rss feeds. If i want to find out basic facts about something totally new to me, Wikipedia will serve that. And in rare cases, when I need to find out something specific, I use Google. But even in this area, Bing is catching up.
Then, I use a few Google services like GMail or Greader, since I found them to be the best, but if some better clients will arrive, I'll switch.
To sum it up, it seems to me that Google doesn't have anything truly irreplaceable now - they were ahead of the game with the general search, but they couldn't maintain their focus on it, so the margin isn't that big currently.
Now, it seems to me that the main battle is fought about what will be the ultimate Internet platform in terms of hardware+software. Here, Apple and Microsoft are the biggest animals so far, with Google and maybe Amazon trying to participate. But in the grand scheme of things, Google already isn't the main Internet player it maybe used to.
- Tichy 17y agoExcept that atm Twitter search only reaches back one week, and to get older Tweets, you have to go to Google or Topsy or something.