Friday, 6 February 2009

Forecasting the end of Google

Forrester has released a report that suggests Google may not be the major player in Search in years to come.

The conclusion seems to be that in a market where switching costs are zero and customer loyalty is low, the Next Big Thing could come along and end Google's dominance.

It's not going to happen! Although it is true that when I started searching the web in the late 90s, everyone used Alta Vista and the rapid growth of Facebook (among others) shows how fast users of the web can flow towards a new entrant.

Google's dominance will continue. Not because their researchers are definitely building the best next generation search engine, but because with cash reserves of 15.8 trillion dollars, if anybody even looks like threatening Google's position, they'll be reporting to Mountain View before you can say 'hostile takeover'.

2 comments:

Steve Simpson said...

good post - deep thoughts on the guys with deep pockets

Neil C said...

Thanks!

I did forget to mention that if Microsoft work out how to make search work better than Google, then I'm wrong.

But that's not really very likely...