Really @Rafer? "Google has no choice #spyw"

Really @Rafer? "Google has no choice #spyw"
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Upfront, I should say that Scott Rafer is a guy who I really respect - probably as much as anyone in the tech community. He’s been a mentor / sounding board for me for years. However, I couldn’t disagree more with the argument that “Google has no choice.” rafer said:

I certainly sympathize with people’s angst about Google’s more explicit search partiality. However, its the only thing they can do. Otherwise, we’d instead be complaining in 2017 how they missed the boat back in 2012.

Personally, I think it’s more likely in 2017 that if they continue down the path of #SPYW we’ll end up pointing to this decision as the day they finally lost user’s trust. To be fair, back in 2007 on RWW, I wrote about my perception of another vulnerability within the Google cash machine.

Just like Microsoft saw open source projects emerge and disrupt their dominance, I believe a competitor in the ad network space (hereafter referred to as an “open ad network”) could introduce a new more open and transparent economic structure to the ad network ecosystem and disrupt Google’s Network Revenue.

This actually resulted in some interesting meetings around the concept with a few industry leaders (including one at a very large company) but ultimately nothing materialized.

So with a track record of me being completely wrong about this exact type of vulnerability within Google in the past - I’d argue this time on their real cash cow the Google search engine or as John Battelle calls it their “database of intentions” is at risk with SPYW.

If the users starts to fear / dislike the results and hear about a new alternative it’s not like the ‘switching cost’ is significant to move to a different open / full alternative.

Posted 4 months ago 6 Notes
Google SPYW open alternatives