Game On!

I am tired..and i know many others are too. Of the ongoing bing vs google vs windows vs chrome vs whatnot "thing".
(referred to as "thing" cos a. i am tired and b. its become too prolonged,boring and elastic-band-stretchy to be referred as anything else..yawn!)

But well...it does get those brain cogs rolling doesn't it. And leaves you amazed with how technology is outpacing even itself..and so fast. You think you have outdone yourself..and boom..here comes the competitor with something bigger and better. What do you do now?. Well..rush back ..rack your brains out..and do pressurized innovation.

But do it for whom?

Did i hear it correctly..they do it for us you say!

Hmm..OK..i want to pose this question to the people reading this.(does this makes it a self question..am i talking to myself..will i..."ok stop..we are not venturing into psychoanalytical behavioural analysis of the lmphycoma brain puddle matter"...umm who is this?.."I am the voice in your brain puddle matter. Now get back to your post which will be read just by you..especially after this")

How many of us actually pay attention to the ads placed somewhere on the google search page?...somewhere cos i pay such infinitesimal teeny weeny amount of attention to them..i don't even know where they are.

Or for that matter..on the gmail/orkut/facebook/_ home page.

(Fill the blank with whatever you like)

I just come..check my mails/whatever i am suppose to check..reply..and log out.

And i am guessing majority of us do that.

That generally means that the advertisers do not get a fair deal in the process. And so doesn't the search engine. It has to generate a profitable number of hits for these ads..else the investment stands unjustified.

So thinking from a broader perspective...we get the all info we want..with no strings attached.

But the penalty is paid by the search engines.Gee..they go through all this trouble so that we can be comfortable..i find this notion charming in a quirky way.

Microsoft's major revenues comes from their licensed Operating System windows and other tools such as word,powerpoint,outlook etc. They can thus afford a bing.

But google depends on you and me clicking at those godknowswhere placed ads. It really takes the community service theme forward with youtube..which is still grappling to come up with a eureka idea to generate revenue.

But..would I do it?

Naah...even before they start pestering me with monthly subscription requests..I will switch to some other video hosting site..where i can do it for free.

Don't blame me..its human nature..glee till its free.

So coming back to the main argument..this ongoing war.and usurping of territories ends up looking like an expensive and self harming game of upmanship between the software giants.

Their brand perception is definitely improving..so is the brand awareness..but its not generating money for them. And they continue to pool their resources(read geeky geniuses) to come up with a trump card everytime the other innovates..cos come on..they don't want to end up on the losing side.

Its good for technology.its good for innovation. its good for the future. But is it good for them??

Well...as long as its free....I will say..Game On!

Here is the article that got me thinking about the topic. The blog post is my view on the subject based on the facts of the article.