what will google buy?
the other day i was chatting with erik and we started talking about google’s recent acquisition habits.
that’s actually a bit of an exaggeration.
what really happened was that i Started to talk about said recent habits, but then realized i didn’t have that much to say:
12:54 AM
me: don’t some people think they’re being somewhat risky in the mergers and acquisitions department?
Erik: they haven’t merged with anyone. :)
me: :) i know , they just go together
Erik: who have they bought?
picasa?
keyhole?
blogger?
12:55 AM
me: they’re buying up little people pretty often
Erik: a handful of tiny companies.
they seem to be being pretty careful.
me: yeah, i don’t really know enough to say. i feel like i read something the other day about some going out on limbs, but i can’t remember what now, so maybe i made it up
12:56 AM
Erik: this is interesting: “As the market leader, we need to ensure search doesn’t become a commodity.”
that’s the kind of shit I think can hurt markets.
me: i don’t have enough delicious tags to be able to go google+acquisitions+shaky+recent+buzz
Erik: :)
can’t you search globally?
me: at delicious? yeah
12:57 AM
it hurts markets for search to become a commodity, or for people to talk like that
?
and thus the topic shifted.
we go through approximately 73,356 topics per hour, whether speaking or writing, but having google save some of them for us is a new twist. the task of managing threads inspired me to dream up this idea, and the potential of what remains unsaid inspired erik to dream up this one:
1:27 AM
Erik: you know what would be an interesting exercise?
me: what
1:28 AM
Erik: if we took this (or any other of our conversations) and made a pact to each write one weblog entry per day fleshing out some part of the discussion
and part of the pact would be that we couldn’t write about ANYTHING else on our weblog
except ideas that were originated in this discussion
and we have to post SOMETHING every day.
until we have exhausted the ideas.
1:29 AM
me: until we have exhausted the ideas>
?
woah
Erik: yeah.
so you may hear more about all that soon.
but for Now, what i’m sayin’ is this:
today i read that google just bought up writely, which is a web-based word-processor that i started playing with last fall. it works pretty well so far (with the “beta-meter” at 59%), and i am more than excited to see what google will do with it. i am one of those people who is convinced that google is setting out to move as much of the computing experience online as possible, and i’m all for that move.
do i think that they should control as much of the real estate as they seem set to capture? the verdict is still out on that one.
but
possibly because my attention was primed, i also noted the purchase of measure map (but not via that link, via mighty girl, and it just made me think that the point that i was really trying to make the other day was just that they are buying a lot more than we know about. it seems like whenever i plop in front of the blogosphere for a while i trip over another little note
for now, i’ve said enough.
ye gods.
if i didn’t have enough lenten pacts already, i’d take on “one short post a day, no edits.”
before i go, it seems appropriate to remind y’all that erik posted a simple mockup after an early rumor that google was releasing a web-based office suite last fall, and then, after the rumor caved, he talked about why it should happen anyway.