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