- Wired, Tuesday, November 29, 2005 11:15 AM
Wired analyzes the threat Google's rapid growth poses to established companies in different sectors, describing each threat, identifying the threatened companies, highlighting signs of panic
and then adding a reality check. The article contends that broadband video companies and those looking to enter broadband video should fear the search giant, but even Google will not be able to
acquire the content necessary to meet its ambitions, meaning it will likely look to make an acquisition. Classifieds and auction companies like Craigslist and eBay should be very worried about
Google's plans for Google Base, its free classifieds listings site, which caused eBay's market value to fall by $2 billion within hours of its announcement. Google will most likely mesh Google Base
with other services like Froogle and Orkut. Telecom companies could be threatened by Google's bid to provide San Francisco with free Wi-Fi, although the company says it has no plans to offer Wi-Fi in
other cities, but that may be because its San Francisco bid is yet to be approved. Microsoft, Apple, and other providers of Operating System software could be under threat by Google's presumed plan to
develop its own OS, although given its enormous index of 9 billion sites, the company may be closer to realizing this than we think. And finally, Google Book Search is aimed squarely at Amazon.com and
offline book retailers, but its unclear how vociferous opposition to Google's plan to index the world's book content will shake out.
Read the whole story at Wired »
