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At the time, sources said, Google told Flipboard execs that if it did not buy the start-up, it planned to do a version of its own. This kind of 90's era Micros

• yanw 15y ago
  It's always buy v build, the rest of your comment doesn't make sense.
  • chugger 15y ago
    Google is a copy cat. Yelp, Groupon, Facebook, Twitter, Skyhook, Flipboard. See any pattern? Does it make sense now?
    • nextparadigms 15y ago
      Skyhook??
    • yanw 15y ago
      Coupons, reviews, social networks and aggregation are hardly novel ideas. They've existed long before computation, and even were implemented in software before those you mention.
      • willifred 15y ago
        While you make a valid point, I also think the parent post might have been also making a different one. It's not so much whether these markets existed prior, but that Google is entering these markets with vastly more resources and (often) with an intent to commoditize the market by giving the product away or undercutting everyone else by a significant margin, so that they can grow their own data-driven advertising business--effectively turning each market they enter into just another 'moat' around their core product. While I wouldn't deny their right to do so, I also wouldn't deny that it often casts them as a bully.
        • chii 15y ago
          "I also wouldn't deny that it often casts them as a bully." nothing wrong with throwing their weight around, provided the peopel that matter (who, in my eyes, are the consumers) are treated right. I don't care if a few businesses suffer because of commoditization of their product.
          • chugger 15y ago
            "nothing wrong with throwing their weight around" there's a term in business for that. I believe the word is "anti-competitive".
            • John212 15y ago
              I agree that their search engine and ad platform could be classified as monopoly. However I disagree that their actions have been anti-competitive in any manner. They have a huge chunk of the search market but you can still use very good search engines like bing, yahoo, ask, aol or the awesome duckduckgo. Google is continually tweaking and improving the design, speed, results and features of their search engine in an effort to stay ahead of the competition. The reasons that people don't use the other engines are not because of google being "anti-competitive" but rather due to them offering a superior service.
    • kkowalczyk 15y ago
      Facebook is a copycat (Friendster, MySpace, Orkut etc.) Yelp is a copycat (CitySearch etc.). Groupon probably isn't the first deal site. If we didn't have VisiCalc and 1-2-3 and Excel, we wouldn't have Apple's Keynote. That's how this industry works: large enough markets attract multiple companies. Increased competition causes all players to step up their game and lower their prices. This benefits consumer i.e. you and me. This is exactly how things are supposed to work.
      • brfox 15y ago
        Innovation is the commercialization of a good idea. So, the ideas are easy to come by, but combining the good idea and the commercialization is what really makes something innovative.
  • technogeek00 15y ago
    That is definitely what it is about. And I don't think Google would consider buying or building something if they didn't believe they could bring a substantially different or greater view to the idea.
• nextparadigms 15y ago
  Really? They are at the mercy of Google because they are going to compete with them? They even told them a year ahead they are going to do it. You don't get that from other big companies.
  • joezydeco 15y ago
    Good point. Microsoft would just make a product announcement and wait for the competition's sales to dry up.
• angryasian 15y ago
  absolutely doesn't make sense, theres probably more stories of failure of big companies trying to copy another companies product than there are success stories. Thats why big companies purchase startups that are innovative and market leaders because its copying just doesn't work. Otherwise I'll wait to hold judgement till I see their product. As someone who's not a big flipboard fan, I look forward to a competing product.