

Search is Google's castle, everything else is a moat. - dave1619
http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/25/search-googles-castle-moat/

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raganwald
The moat and scorched-earth metaphor also describes Microsoft's development of
Internet Explorer. IE was given away to protect the economic castle of desktop
development. Incompatibilities delayed and added expense to web development
for decades, all to defend Windows and Office sales.

~~~
mkuhn
That doesn't really go hand in hand with my recollection. If i remember
correctly Internet Explorer actually was the far better browser then Netscape
at least once IE6 got released. But it is possible that Microsoft's refusal of
continuing to develop its browser has had the effect you mention and has
hindered the web overall from developing into an alternative to desktop apps.

~~~
raganwald
Of course! If you give a crappy browser away for free, nobody will use it.
However, if you make it good but you don't support Netscape's server-side
integration, you kill their server business and their browser business.

Then after they implode rewriting Netscape, you pull almost everybody off the
project and rake in the billions.

Until, inexorably, people work around your cruft and release cross-browser
libraries that eliminate the "lock-in effect" of websites that require IE. Now
you scramble to put people back on it and start active development again.

I think the point about the moat and scorched earth stands. For a very direct
comparison, consider Android. I believe Google are trying to make it superior
to iOS, even through they give it away. Their plan is to scorch the earth so
that neither Microsoft nor Apple can turn mobile devices into a Google-free
browsing device.

~~~
yuhong
>Until, inexorably, people work around your cruft and release cross-browser
libraries that eliminate the "lock-in effect" of websites that require IE.

And also that they recover from the rewrite and released and marketed Firefox
enough to make it real competition to IE.

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petervandijck
A rewrite of this: [http://abovethecrowd.com/2011/03/24/freight-train-that-is-
an...](http://abovethecrowd.com/2011/03/24/freight-train-that-is-android/) (he
even used the same picture!)

~~~
zdean
I think "rewrite" is too gentle. this kind of plagiarism would get you kicked
out of school or fired from any reputable media company...

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cosgroveb
"Remember, what is the default search engine of Android and Chrome? It’s
Google."

Actually every time I've installed Chrome it has given me a choice of search
engines. Maybe he meant Chrome OS? I don't recall choosing a search engine the
first time I booted up my CR-48.

Edit: Here's what it looks like for the doubters <http://imgur.com/dobse>

~~~
edanm
I don't remember Chrome giving a choice. But I guess it's possible that it
_is_ one of the configuration options, and I just do what almost everyone
does: click next without looking at it. The article's point still stands.

~~~
tonfa
If you've been using chrome since a long time you haven't seen it. I think
they introduced it right before their marketing push in Europe...

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jbooth
This is almost right. Right in one sense.

But in a more expansive sense, I read a great quote from some higher-up at
Google a year back that really put things in perspective..

He said, "Look, over 50% of the Internet uses Google for search,
conservatively speaking. So if we make the Internet better in a general,
altruistic sense, and create 2 new internet users, we just created a Google
user."

So it's a more positive gesture than the denial-based moat metaphor or
'scorched earth' language imply. (The moat metaphor made me think of IE vs
Netscape).

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wladimir
_Advertising_ is Google's castle. Search is also in the moat.

Then again, the quality of Google's moat is often better than other companies'
castle.

Also, Google doesn't so much 'ravage industries', it innovates in them. Which
can be the same. The industrial revolution 'ravaged industries' too.

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spoiledtechie
This made me think of the olden days when countries waged war for natural
progression of the country. I guess its a good analogy for how we progress as
a life form. Instead of killing people to get what we want, companies wage war
to get what they want. Same aggression and reasons, different tactic.

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dave1619
When do you think Facebook will enter search?

~~~
codingthewheel
Not until well after their IPO and the bubble bursts on the absurd 40, 50, 75
billion-dollar valuations we're seeing now, IMO. Entering search actually
brings on some risk, because if they screw it up, or if it doesn't take, a lot
of Facebook's future equity goes up in smoke.

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gojomo
On the one hand, Google doesn't need to make any money from these moats. They
can all be loss-leaders defending search. (Eventually this will raise
antitrust issues but usually only long after the damage is done.)

On the other, perhaps once the 'scorched earth' field _is_ cleared by Google's
search-revenue subsidized entries, Google's remaining entries will turn out to
be capable of becoming giant profitable businesses on their own.

So there's two ways for Google to win: defending search, or discovering the
next bonanza in a field where all scalable competition was decimated by
search-subsidies.

