Learning from Google: Openness is the Key

When someone came along who actually managed to compete with, and even frighten Google (GOOG)— namely, Facebook — how is Google competing? By going open. There’s a lesson in that for the rest of us.

I keep saying that media companies should ask WWGD – What Would Google Do? — in formulating its digital strategies. Well, in Google’s Open Social, we see that the best competition against a growing monopoly is openness.

So how should we compete with Google, or at least challenge its monopoly? Openness. I’ve argued for sometime that we need an open-source ad infrastructure. If the rest of the world other than Google — that is, those who have the other half of advertising Google doesn’t yet have — can gather together, and create standards, then Google would be faced with the same decision Facebook is now faced with: whether to use those standards. What organized Facebook’s foes? Ironically, it was Google. Who could organize the non-Google ad universe? I see no one on the horizon. That’s why Google keeps growing. We’re letting them.

Comments

[Tom B:]

Googles' "Open Social" is sheer brilliance because: 1) it benefits the USER by expanding his or her social network 2) It benefits Google by assuring access 3) It turns that $240 M MSFT just blew on Facebook into so much worthless "Monopoly" money. Monkey-boy Ballmer must be throwing chairs around the room at this point.

2007 Nov 01 04:45 PM

[GRiddick:]

Google - Mike Tyson with a PhD

Good morning, Jeff

These Googlites are simply brilliant. They are the "baddest". They remind me of Mike Tyson in his prime ... only this time he has a PhD.

Microsoft cannot seem to out-maneuver them at any turn. Here, Microsoft pays a hefty premium for a small stake in Facebook, and Google has them both back-peddling around the ring before the end of Round One.
Don't you think the immediate availability of "OpenSocial" kind of takes the wind out of Facebook's sails as it prepares to announce its own advertising business model next week?

Google is undefeated ... and carries a powerful knockout punch, the likes of which we have never seen in this industry. Every move they make is feared. They are always moving and jabbing ... jabbing and moving. They hit you with an uppercut (strong stock price surge after their third quarter earnings are announced), follow that with a left hook (delivery of "OpenSocial" with all of powerful third parties already on board), and, before you catch your breath, they nail you with a powerful right to the chin (the Google phone plan).

Virtually every Google opponent ends up flat on their back on the canvas. Some never regain their former self-confidence, determination or pride.

But hasn't the Google arrogance and lawlessness started to wear thin ... both on consumers' minds and in the eyes of the investment community and the regulatory authorities? I think so. If not now, then soon. Let's hope I'm not wrong.

But Google doesn't think so. They seem to think they are anointed with a unique right to set their own laws and rules of conduct (business and social) ... both here in the U.S. and across the globe.

You see, Google has its own unique brand of "rape". They too, have tattoos painted on their face. And they'll bite your ear off in a flat second if you get too close to them.

Their entourage includes some of the brightest investment bankers, public relations specialists, and IP defense attorneys in our land. All as determined as the three amigos at the top of Google to snooker Internet users, business partners, and advertisers for every dime they claim to own.

And all supported financially by the largest group of self-serving advertisers, lawyers, and investment bankers on the planet ... bar none. Aren't you growing tired of these claims of "willful blindness" we hear virtually every day coming from the folks in Mountain View and their supporters? "We didn't know we were doing anything illegal, your honor."

Google has gained much of its prominence on the backs of other people's hard-earned properties that have been stolen. They are among the most notorious copyright infringers ("pirates") this country has ever seen. They are brilliant ... I'll give them that. But, they are also unethical at almost every turn ... they are arrogant, greedy, hypocritical, and deceptive ... AND illegal.

They routinely treat other people's property as their own. Not just with YouTube, but with many software and search functions within Google itself. They perpetuate "public domain" scams. They routinely ignore U.S. Copyright laws ... and subsidize willful copyright infringement at thousands of web sites around the world.

In countries where Copyright compliance is a joke (such as Brazil), Google reigns supreme.
I have studied the U.S. Copyright laws (both civil and criminal) closely now for over twelve years. The U.S. now claims to be requiring copyright "enforcement" enhancements in its trade negotiations with other countries in Asia, Europe, and South America. Who are we fooling here?

We don't enforce our own copyright laws fairly in this country. How do we expect Brazil, Russia, India and China (the "BRICs") to follow our lead? ... let alone the hundreds of other countries who are not nearly as close to the spotlight.
Read our criminal copyright laws. You'll see that Google has violated these laws at a rate over 5,000 times the volume (both in dollar volume and quantity of works infringed) as is required to receive the maximum criminal penalty of $1,000,000 per willful infringement and up to five years in jail.

Is the Department of Justice asleep at the wheel? Or, are they, too, simple afraid of being hit by the Google right cross?
Why aren't these laws being enforced? Why is this country leaving it up to the small companies (like my own) and individuals who produce over 85% of new and original copyrighted works to tackle Google and its growing army of IP attorneys and pirating web site partners worldwide?

Only three things stopped Mighty Mike in his prime:

1. His friends and wife told him they were sick of his shenanigans and were leaving him.
2. He couldn't control his own greed and arrogance ... let alone his temper.
3. We put him in jail for breaking the laws of this land.

Don't you think it's high time we consider some of the exact same type of remedies for mighty Google? I do!
I am sick and tired of suffering marketplace knockouts at their expense ... especially when their activities are both unethical and illegal.

We need a company we can all be proud of the carry this belt as "World Champion" of the Internet space.

Your thoughts?

George P. Riddick, III
Chairman/CEO
Imageline, Inc.
[e-mail]...

2007 Nov 02 01:46 PM