3 ms·
> Or Google can pass my flight status request right into flightstatus.com and return information... again, leaving that option open for any of their competitor
by DocTomoe 9y ago
> Or Google can pass my flight status request right into flightstatus.com and return information... again, leaving that option open for any of their competitors.
From a consumer perspective, that is a one more extra step for me to take I would rather not take. Technology should be about making my life easier, not worse. What I want is reliable data about when the flight will be departing, arriving and if or if not it is delayed, cancelled or on time. I do not want to choose from a myriad of options of websites I do not know how current they keep their data.
From Google's perspective, now they have four thousand flight status websites, some more reliable than others, and each one will have a case to sue them that they do not get shown equally well.
The same can be said about your music example. If I enter an artist / song title, I do want to hear that song, I do not want to choose between different services, some of which require signup (and the one I already signed up for might appear on page three of that SERP). When I wonder if it is going to rain later today, I want a yes/likely/unlikely/no answer, not a choice between different websites who may or may not have the data for me/my location and today, filled with gigabytes worth of ads and self-playing videos.
Pruning worthless competitors (see: price-comparison websites which don't give you the cheapest option, but the option which gives them the most referal revenue) is not problematic, but the beauty in the eye of the customer.
- oblio 9y agoAre you sure you're not eating your own seed corn? If Google eats all those sites and services up, what stops them from doing all sorts of nasty stuff once they're in the dominant position later on? How are the little guys supposed to compete with premium-space on Google's search pages? Nothing on this planet is a stronger marketing engine than that.
- DocTomoe 9y ago> If Google eats all those sites and services up, what stops them from doing all sorts of nasty stuff once they're in the dominant position later on? And if I had wings, I could save me the airline fares. There is zero indication of Google actually being a Bondesque supervillain organization out to destroy the world. > How are the little guys supposed to compete with premium-space on Google's search pages? Nothing on this planet is a stronger marketing engine than that. Back in 1997, I used Altavista for search, sometimes Metacrawler, very rarely Yahoo. I got a hint from a friend about this new thing called Google - back then, they were the underdog. They surprised me with their vastly better search results. I never looked back to the "stronger marketing engines" that was Yahoo. Or Metacrawler. Or Altavista. In truth, marketing engines mean shit if your product is bad. Google today is the company that gives people what they want, at a reasonable quality. If you are a little guy, you can compete if you are better than Google.