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August 14, 2006

Has Google jumped the shark. . . .

Internet behemoth Google, seems to be setting itself up to jump the shark. From censoring results in China, to some dubious methodology in it's click-based advertising system, Google has already been under fire.

Now it seems they are taking offense to the terminology "to google" claiming that its use by media outlets is approaching trademark infringement.

While I can see Google's point, and I can almost agree with its, I think it's a seriously bad move to send menacing legal notices to media outlets. Google is on shaky ground with the rest of the world media via it's Google Video and Google News services. Further, their plans to digitize and make available on the web, every book ever published is setting the internet giant up for a showdown with Big Media over intellectual property rights.

Personally, I think they are setting the stage for a battle they cannot win by antagonizing the media and trying to play the bully. When push comes to shove, it's highly unlikely that their plan to digitize and offer up every published work will succeed. Authors like readers, for sure, and so do publishers, but both groups also want to be paid for their intellectual output and the resources used to publish such works. If Google succeeds in dealing such a fatal blow to print media, the public will be ill served as publishers will begin to step back from publishing hard copy and publishing only via electronic means where they have a greater control over who can access their content.

To take books away (as Google is unwittingly trying to do) would be a significant negative blow to the education of the masses. As much as Google would like it to be so, access to the internet is not universal and it never will be. Additionally, the ability to transfer knowledge without additional technological support (other than handing over a book) will be seriously harmed. Google is facing a showdown and before they get to the dance, they are further antagonizing their partner and will only gain enemies by trying to buck common vernacular and determine how people use the English language.

If Google wants to fight the use of their name as a verb, they need to go first to the publishers of Oxford's English and other dictionaries, not the people using the terminology found there.

Google is severly over-valued as a company, their position is far from stable at the top of the heap and as we've seen time and time and time again, your position on top is short-lived if you go after the people who put you there.

If they press this particular issue with the media, eventually they'll get a backlash, and the lawsuits over Google News and other services will begin to mount up. Remember, it only takes one successful lawsuit to force Google to shut down it's News or Video services. The sudden injunction on either of these services would severely hurt Google's stock, it will also produce a pile on effect as lawyers descend on Google en masse to begin a "death of a thousand cuts" which will be championed by the media that Google is antagonizing. Google has alot of cash, cash that once tapped with a successful lawsuit, will bring about a legal swarm of locusts that will make drug company liability cases seem pale in comparison.

For me personally, I don't rely on Google as I once did. I found over time that there were other search engines which produced better results with particular subject matter. While Google's interface is clean and fast, their results are being "gamed" more and more everyday. Just like Windows is targeted by virus developers because it's the prominent platform, Google is targeted by SEO con-artists and spammers because of it's position at the top.

Unlike Microsoft, there are simple and widely available alternatives to Google. Their position is not secure, they live in a multi-layered glass house, and if they start throwing stones at the brick and mortar media, the brick and mortar media will throw back. It doesn't take a structural engineer to determine who will win the rock throwing contest.

--Jason

Posted by JasonColeman at August 14, 2006 12:54 PM