Google economy
NY TIMES: Just Googling It is Striking Fear Into Companies
Google’s recent moves have stirred concern in industries from book publishing to telecommunications. Businesses already feeling the Google effect include advertising, software and the news media. Apart from retailing, Google’s disruptive presence may soon be felt in real estate and auto sales.
Google, the reigning giant of Web search, could extend its economic reach in the next few years as more people get high-speed Internet service and cellphones become full-fledged search tools, according to analysts. And ever-smarter software, they say, will cull and organize larger and larger digital storehouses of news, images, real estate listings and traffic reports, delivering results that are more like the advice of a trusted human expert.
Such advances, predicts Esther Dyson, a technology consultant, will bring “a huge reduction in inefficiency everywhere.” That, in turn, would be an unsettling force for all sorts of industries and workers. But it would also reward consumers with lower prices and open up opportunities for new companies.
Google, then, may turn out to have a more far-reaching impact than earlier Web winners like Amazon and eBay. “Google is the realization of everything that we thought the Internet was going to be about but really wasn’t until Google,” said David B. Yoffie, a professor at Harvard Business School.
