Whimpering At Uncle Sam Apparently Gets You Attention...

[rayzoredge 2]

I read an article recently basically explaining that with Google's growth, government fingers are prying into its operations to make sure that it doesn't end up dominating the market for everything it touches.For example, people are worried about Google dominating the search engine market, considering the possibly-scary fact that it owns 64% of the market. That might not sound so bad, but when you see that the next contender is Yahoo at 19.3%, followed by Microsoft at 9.3% and by Ask and AOL with even pidlier numbers, I can see how people can be concerned.I understand the concern, but at the same time, if it's only to impede what good Google can do, why stop it? Throw some government regulation into it and call it good, if we're all really that scared of it dominating.As for other companies, I'm all up for them thriving, but they have to come up with something that actually trumps what Google has to offer. That's competition and innovation. If you're going to come up with some crappy software or technology and it doesn't sell, how much better would it be just to bark up Uncle Sam's leg and ask for help? Surely, Google can't be the ONLY innovator around here...Forgive me if I sound like a fanboy, but it's hard to dispute (IMHO) that there's a better or equivalent alternative to GMail (although I hear that Yahoo is close nowadays), Google Docs (although Microsoft Office online as a cloud concept would be pretty cool since most of us are very used to the Office environment), etc. I still like Mozilla Firefox over Chrome, although I haven't given Chrome another shot since beta. (Chrome might be a decent alternative now... it chalks up as much attraction as Opera to me.) Microsoft Office will always be on my desktop because it works and I've used it forever, but with how things are going with the gay ribbon bar, I might be looking elsewhere to upgrade. Never had an interest in Picasa since I'm an Adobe guy when it comes to photos.Innovation drives competition. Build it and they will come. If you're going to offer a crappy product, don't expect people to flock to you. If you have an outstanding product, throw some focus onto marketing it. Make it so that people have at least heard of it. Don't whine and whimper to Uncle Sam because you suck at what you do. It's as bad as the automotive companies asking for bailouts because they screwed up and now need federal help to keep from going under. As much as I would like to say that we shouldn't have bailed them out and let the free market reign, I understand that with huge companies like those going down goes jobs for thousands if not millions of people, which would suck.Funny how we have to impede on Google as a potential tech giant bully... but it will be a snuggly, cuddly, embracing bully that gives us lunch money and lollipops instead of what Microsoft was with its choke hold on the operating system market and bundling their software (i.e. IE ) with it.

[sheepdog 10]

You are touching on a subject that has been a pet peeve of mine for a long time. While the great American dream may be to work hard and prosper, if you come up with an idea that really works and you make it to the top of the ladder in whatever your endevor was, it seems the government steps right up to screw you over big time. Many years ago the government forced the breakup of Standard Oil company as it was getting too big. AT &T also fell under government scrutiny in more recent years. And we all followed the various lawsuits the government attacked Microsoft with, which I'm sure cost the company more in Lawyer fees's than most of us will make in the next 20 years. So...it seems you can live and dream big, but watch out, because if you get too big, forget it, they are going to ruin you.