“The upcoming IPO of Facebook, the flak surrounding Twitter’s decision to censor some tweets, and Google’s weaker-than-expected 4th-quarter earnings all point to one of the big events of our times: The crazy, chaotic, idealistic days of the Internet are ending,” Keith Woolcock reports for TIME Magazine. “Once, the Prairies were open and shared by everyone. Then the farmers arrived and fenced them in. The same is happening to the Internet: Apple, Amazon and Facebook are putting up fences — and Google is increasingly being left outside.”
“When Google reported its results two weeks ago, the first headlines focused on the 25% increase in fourth quarter revenues compared to last year. Investors, however, focused on the drop in the cost per click that Google is able to charge advertisers,” Woolcock reports. “The main reasons for the decline in this all-important metric is increased competition from Facebook, Amazon, and Apple.”
“Start with Facebook, which has erected a cyber fence around its 800 million-plus users and refuses to share some important data with Google. This means that Google’s searches are not quite as valuable to advertisers as they used to be when the Internet was open and when Facebook was much smaller than it is today,” Woolcock reports. “Apple’s land grab, meanwhile, may be the most definitive. The Apple universe is like a cable TV network that owns content or aggregates it. It’s phones, computers and tablets are like the set-top boxes your cable company gives you. The content you consume might be a film that you download, a song, a book, an application or something you buy on line, like a pair of shoes. And none of the data Apple’s customers generate is available to Google… Android may have market share, but more than half of mobile searches come from iPhone users. Google may have developed Android but, unlike Apple’s iPhone, it does not really control it… And smart companies like Amazon are getting a free ride on Android while sharing little of the spoils with Google.”
Woolcock writes, “The danger to Google, in other words, is that as social networking, smartphones and tablets increasingly come to dominate the Internet, Google’s chance to earn advertising revenues from searching will shrink along with its influence.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dale E.” for the heads up.]
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ABI: Apple iPhone tops smartphone market as Android suffers its first decline in share – January 27, 2012
Apple overtakes Samsung to take world’s largest smartphone vendor crown – January 27, 2012
These charts will make the Fandroids want to puke – January 26, 2012
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Apple’s iOS passes Google’s Android to take U.S. smartphone market share crown – January 25, 2012
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hahahah Take that Eric. Next…that Facebook buffoon….Go Apple.
Nevermind the shifting search paradigm as Siri and apps like her begin to dominate the field that Google stole from Yahoo…
Google’s days are numbered.
What is grossly missed is that Siri doesn’t stop to read ads. Siri is in Beta. Siri will be on all Apple products and devices before the year is over. Google RIP … the biggest Apple iRoadKill of them all. I think Steve Jobs called it “going thermonuclear on them”.
Android is stolen technology. Google has sowed the seed of thievery, so they reap a harvest of sorrow. May sickness and unhappiness follow them and their shareholders for the rest of their days. And when they do die, let them be cast into the flames of perdition to be torn asunder be demons until the end of time. Or, as the young people say: F*ck Google!
Look, we have enough going on down here already. Just hold on to it. We’ll get back to you.
+1
LOL
1 to that. Nice closing line!
Looks like Apple has the market all sowed up.
I think this guy’s premise is wrong. Google’s problem is not Apple, Amazon & Facebook. Google’s worst enemy is Google. They’ve taken their eye off their core business and forgotten their mantra of not doing evil.
Nailed it. Google’s best product used to be their search engine. But they have ceased to improve it and now it sucks, delivering 90% irrelevant results. Now they are adding even more clutter and skewing the results by adding in their own social network results. Someone else is going to invent a better search engine and then Google is gone.
Dead on!
I have switched to Bing.
duckduckgo
No need to involve the Balmer
Nothing so benign as ignoring search… they purposely have been dumbing results down – it was too good! People a year + ago were clicking less on ads…. what to do? Make ads return more accurate results by dumbing down search results… Yeah thats it!
The biggest concentration of smart (phd’s etc) in history is now an organized crime ring. Be very afraid!
Kaaaarma
I do not believe any of this. Whenever Time magazine fails to name Steve Jobs Person of the year MDN is quick to remind us that Time magazine has gone downhill and is worthless. Obviously they are wrong about this too!
I totally agree!!! Time is finished !
Damn it, and I just put new batteries in my clock :/
+1
Google is motto is Don’t be evil.. but they ARE!!!!
Google’s motto is don’t be evil… But they are!!!
Google’s motto is don’t be evil But they are!
Wish them nothing but ill will. Thieving bastards. I use them for nothing and block all of their tracking domains. FOAD!
Google’s motto is don’t be evil But they are!
Could you repeat that?
I’m still waiting for “Google’s motto’s don’t be evil—but they are!”
Not surprising. Darwin knew it. Society evolves, just like critters.
Dozens fade away and a few survive over time.
Advertising is a cancer. It would do my heart good to know that Google, the king of internet advertising, was going downhill.
What a load of bull manure!
Not that Google doesn’t face challenges, but this clueless author doesn’t know what they are.
And I’m no fan of Google.
I do believe Google’s dilution of their search results is doing them great harm, . . . and might actually lead to their demise.
Who is Google, and why do they keep following me?
Google’s motto is don’t be evil But they are!
Google is done. Watch this video presentation by Silicon Valley venture capitalist Roger McNamee.
Siri might bypass the need to go to the google home page, but isn’t she (it?) just searching google in the background. Who else other than google knows what’s on the internet so well?
Whether the Google search engine is used or not the point is that the ads don’t get clicks or eyeball exposure, and that is how Google makes most of its money. They are in BIG trouble.
I think Siri was the “thermonuclear” option to which SJ was referring. When has Apple EVER introduced a product in Beta form? I think they wanted it operational so Steve could see it before he died. Otherwise they would have waited for a Production version of Siri.
Boot camp was beta for years
Siri uses a variety of sources only one of which is google. There are a few information banks that specialize in providing correct answers rather than web page links. I don’t remeber off hand the names of these sites.
But essentially Siri determines the nature of your request, then chooses which information point to go to. For instance weather, or a sports score, versus a geographic question. Only a few of these query types may make it to google, and when the time is right, a different page search engine. And the switch would be largely invisible to the millions of users.
In a word – NO
Siri uses Wolfrem Alpha, Wikipedia and Yelp to do it’s searches. Apple has promised additional databases will be linked into Siri in the future.
If Siri cannot find answers in it’s databases then it will search the web. (possibly Google but maybe Bing). Probably which ever is your chosen default in search settings.