Category: Privacy

Just because something can be done doesn’t mean it should be done.

February 9, 2010, the day that Google Buzz launched, will go down in history as the date that Google crossed the line from good to evil. But not for the reasons most are citing.

Buzz critics, including yours truly, have focused primarily on Google Buzz privacy problems.

But perhaps the bigger problem with Google Buzz is its inherent anticompetitive nature. A comment on my first article about privacy problems with Google Buzz states:

You have to admit leveraging an installed base to enter a market is not unprecedented:

Google = Microsoft(?)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/feb/14/google-gmail-buzz-john-naughton

Yes, that’s it. Google 2010 feels a lot like Microsoft 1998. Consider the parallels:

	Microsoft	Google
year	1998	2010
dominant product	MS Windows	Gmail
inferior product	Internet Explorer	Google Buzz
excluded competitors	Netscape Navigator	Facebook, LinkedIn
litigation	US DOJ vs. Microsoft	TBD?
losers	consumers	consumers

In 1998, Microsoft gave preferential treatment to its own browser. Google is giving preferential treatment to it’s social network in 2010:

Social Network	How To Find Contacts Via Gmail
Twitter	1. Go to https://twitter.com/invitations?service=gmail. 2. Enter Gmail username and password. 3. Click the “find friends” button. 4. Wait for response (API sometimes times out). 5. Select those you want to follow and click the “follow” button.
LinkedIn	1. Go to http://www.linkedin.com/findContacts?displayFindContact. 2. Click the “Check Webmail” button. 3. Click the “Gmail” icon. 4. Enter Gmail username and password. 5. Click the “Upload Contacts” button. 6. Wait for response (API sometimes times out). 7. Select those you want to connect with and click the “Invite selected contacts” button.
Facebook	1. Go to http://www.facebook.com/find-friends/index.php. 2. Enter Gmail email address and password. 3. Click the “Find Friends” button. 4. Wait for response (API sometimes times out). 5. Give up if you have a large number of Gmail contacts (note: this process usually times out for me for this reason).
Google Buzz	auto-magically

Regardless of the outcome of the US DOJ vs. Microsoft case (the US “lost” and Microsoft “won”), the ultimate losers were consumers, who are still paying the price (malware, viruses, botnets and the like) of being force-fed Internet Explorer.

I am not suggesting that Buzz has security flaws, although it may. I am suggesting that Google has crossed the line. Lawsuits will come. User choice will be sacrificed. Uses will lose.

We all cheered for Microsoft when it was the tiny startup that challenged IBM in the DOS wars. As we did with Rocky, we all rooted for the underdog. Then something happened in the sequels. The underdog won. Then it became the defending champ. Then we stopped rooting for it. The Rocky sequels sucked.

So, too, with Google. Google began as the tiny startup that challenged AltaVista, Yahoo, WebCrawler, Excite, and the like in the search engine wars. Google won. Google is now the defending champ. I have stopped rooting for Google.

We need a new underdog.

External Links: How Good Underdogs Became Evil Monopolies

1. US DOJ vs. Microsoft re Internet Explorer
2. EU vs. Microsoft re Windows Media Player
3. Browser Wars: IE Usage Peaked in 2003
4. Google Buzz Warning: Force Feeding Users Can Result In Vomiting

Internal Links: Related Posts

• Drawing That Explains Google Buzz Privacy Problems
  Think visually before launching technology products.
• Drawing That Explains Contact Syncing
  Email is social networking glue.
• Google’s Antisocial Social Networking https://www.giantpeople.com/1461.html
  Google Reader’s new Comments feature highlights the major flaw with Google social networks: baffling user interfaces.
• LawLawLaw 2008-08-17
  Technology, Law, Baseball, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Etc.
• Microsoft Escalator Attendants
  Creating jobs.
• The Case For Breaking Up Microsoft’s ‘Monopoly’
  Why we consumers would be better off if Microsoft Corp.’s ‘monopoly’ were broken up.

---

Erik J. Heels writes about technology, law, baseball, and rock ‘n’ roll. You can choose to follow @ErikJHeels on Twitter.