Jeff Jarvis

Welcome to the Google Economy

Bruce Timmons,
I like how you said that: "Manufacturers should shift into a view of selling the utility of the stuff rather than the stuff itself."
When I interviewed VC Fred Wilson for the book and asked him about a Googley car company, he thought for a second and said it was Zipcar. Right: utility over stuff itself.
I then riffed on that with a new vision for a car company as a getting-you-places company.
That, indeed, is a network as you describe it.

Newspapers: Not a Zero-Sum Game - A Minus-Sum Game

And Sam Zell is having to sell Newsday because he doesn't have the cash to maintain the purchase because his purchases in a recession aren't throwing off that cash. Not pretty.

The Google Economy

I look at it another way: Is there anything that will stop Google, anything standing in its way? I don't see it.