The Battle To Own The Internet

Predictions

from the shaping-up... dept

While there had been a lot of talk in the last year or so about “Google vs. Microsoft,” much of that has been quiet lately, as both sides (and don’t forget Yahoo) figure out exactly what strategy to take. Charles Ferguson (author of the you-must-read-this-if-you-ever-start-a-company book High Stakes, No Prisoners) has written a long, but fascinating look at what he believes is the battle to control the internet: Microsoft vs. Google in terms of search architecture. His basic point is that the only way Google wins this battle, despite their leadership position right now, is to create open, but proprietary APIs into the Google search engine, basically becoming the locked-in platform on which web applications and services are all built. He’s worried that, so far, Google doesn’t appear to be heading in this direction, though he wonders if it’s just because they’re storing it up until they feel the battle should really begin, and not showing their hand too early.