After taking a one-week vow not to use Google, I was doing so well until the pressure got too much. The bottom line is Google's results are better because they give you want you want. At the same time, the presentation is cleaner so that the mountain of information presented does not seem overwhelming. This makes it superior to rivals such as Yahoo, Teoma, alltheweb or Wisenut. Of course, Google has the advantage of being the incumbent a legitimate rival has to have something tangibly better to replace it. People who contend that Google's dominance is far from assured, clearly under-estimate the power and simplicity of its appeal. Google has become the default search engine. The biggest challenge for management is leveraging this dominance to gain strong footholds in other markets. Of all the strategic forays the company has made recently, I'm starting to get increasing excited about television. The combination of search, contextualized advertising and television (perhaps video-on-demand) could be quite powerful. Given this potential, the idea of buying Tivo for $1-billion appears completely logical because it offers Google a way to establish a solid foothold in the TV market with a strong brand name and millions of existing customers. In the meantime, it will be interesting to see how Google evolves its video search beta.
Update: For anyone looking for a free blast from the 70s, the Washington Post is reporting that AOL.cm will start showing free re-runs of TV shows such as "Welcome Back Kotter" and "Chico and the Man" in January on six new online on-demand channels called In2TV.