As I performed my ritualistic scan of happenings in the blogospshere (which is far more cost-effective than conventional browsing by the way), I encountered the piece below [via The Scobleizer Weblog]:

I was over at Chris Pirillo's blog, and see that Google just shipped a beta of a Toolbar. Oh, this is awesome. The toolbar is one of my favorite things.

There was a second of excitement, and then reality struck, one second I wanted to download in anticipation of being blown away, but in reality I knew I was on a quest to encounter an all too familiar problem (I've done many iterations of this loop since the late 80's across many initially exciting offerings):

Why to do great companies shoot themselves in the foot, time and time again? I ask.

What do I mean by this statement? Well Google has just produced a toolbar that only works with IE (applause), andnbspdelivered this at a time when Microsoft has made it pretty clear that they have Google in their sights as depicted in the blogosphere commentary below:

Just about a month ago, Tim Oren commented on some postings by Doc Searls and Dave Winer about Microsoft plans to take on Google. At the time, Tim questioned whether search could actually get enough Microsoft energy -- given all of the other issues at hand.

Earlier today, Dave updated the story, spiced up by some comments from a recent interviewee sharing what he learned in his interview with the GM of MSN Search. Fascinating stuff. Google in Microsoft's gun sights. With a small (50 people -- small for Microsoft?) team driving search at Microsoft -- they might actually be able to innovate quickly.

[Courtesy of: Scott Loftesnessnbsp]

This is also at a time when the "Macduff" in Mozilla is pretty much on it's way (moving bushes and all)nbspto decapitate IE's head (not a damned minute too soon in my opinion, Macbeth's time is up on the browser front!).

Bottom line,nbspcan't Google produce a browser indpendent toolbar? Or one for all the main browsers (there aren't that many) Why bolsternbspit's largest threat? Beta or not, the futility paradox remains.

And one final frustration, what on earth is a "BlogThis" feature that sends everyone to Blogger? Yes, I know Google owns Pyra, but so what?nbspWe have a number of Blog Servers and Clients in the blogoshpere, why pursue such a deliberately closed strategy in an inherently open realm? Having Microsoft as a competitive threat is one thing, but being your own worst enemy is simply scarey!

What'snbspwrong with us having a browser independent tool bar equipped with a "BlogThis" plug-in that could post to any Blog Host/Server using any one of the following; Blogger (1.0 or 2.0), Meta-Weblog, or MoveableType? This is standard functionality in most Blog Clients today.

Two Thumbs Down in my book.

nbsp