Google > Everyone Else

I don’t mean to sound like a Google diehard, but I have an admiration and fear for Google. After reading what Bill Gurley wrote about Google’s true value in Android, my respect for the company and its strategy has only grown.

With the recent company’s interests in music, mobile payments, consumer shopping, and social networking, the free approach to consumer software/information is making Google a gatekeeper to nearly everything in the Internet. The ability to collect data on what consumers are reading, listening to, eating, and buying gives them a humungous informational advantage over any other company trying to break in advertising.

Google can definitely falter in the face of competition from Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, and numerous companies that are developing new ways for consumers and advertisers to connect. However, in the short term, Google is developing an intimate relationship with most Internet users, a relationship that other brands will have difficulty eroding.