What’s Your Damage, Google?
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Written By Reprise Media | October 5, 2005 | Share This
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We’ve all heard the talk of Google taking on the persona of a younger Microsoft - smart, brash and highly competitive.
But in the last week two announcements have shown Google moving up a notch or two on the ol’ greed scale to a level of epic proportions, all the while forgetting who helped put them in the catbird seat.
The first is the creation of the Commercial Developer program. This program takes a beta (read: not enterprise just yet) API program and puts a premium on it for increased usage, better service and a secret (ok, not so secret) high dollar figure to get in.
For those that don’t speak geek, an API is an interface that organizations such as ourselves use to add scalability to the management and optimization of our clients’ campaigns. Through the API’s elimination of human to human interactions via technology to technology interactions, our SEM managers are able to concentrate on strategy and tactics rather than engage in the old school method of spreadsheet heavy-lifting.
Why is this important? Well, since Google now controls the search superhighway, this means they are essentially charging you a high toll to get into the fast lane and penalizing the very companies that helped them achieve a $300+ stock price / $86+ billion market cap.
The second noteworthy announcement is the construction of a R&D center on the grounds of the NASA Ames research center. While the joining of NASA and Google is sure to fuel dreams of one day getting lost in the Sea of Tranquility and SMS’ing Google directions to the Dark Side of the Moon, the reality is that a significant amount of local tax dollars will be lost because of the project’s construction on federal tax exempt land. I guess the schoolkids won’t need new textbooks anyway if all content is digitized and indexed by Google.
Whether you’re a partner company that helped Google achieve a state of wealth greater than most developing nations or a member of the community that provided the foundation for Google growth, it makes no difference. You’re all part of the supporting cast in every 80’s teen angst movie - sitting in the cafeteria and wondering why your best friend forgot who you are after becoming so popular…
Prashant Desai is Director of Product Management at Reprise Media who happens to do a mean impression of Emeril Lagasse.
Topics: Google |