Tuesday, May 15, 2007
First the Internet, then the World?
Everyone jokes that it's only a matter of time before Google takes over the world, and while this is probably a bit of an exaggeration, it may not be long before they own your home PC. Although it's in all likelihood a long ways off, this would perhaps be the ultimate example of a network externality, Google gives you the computer, then reaps the benefit of you surfing the Internet (while viewing their ads) and even doing day to day work using their free but ad-supported software.
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A fascinating article! Apart from the free computer angle, which is certainly interesting, another question came to mind: does Google have an incentive to keep shifting its algorithm so that different results come up on top? Would a more stable algorithm help or hurt its profits? To what extent is a stable algorithm a substitute (and free) good for paid advertisements?
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