Quotes from an article in The Economist about Google’s ability to sustain its market-share.

“For Google to stay permanently ahead of other search-engine technologies is almost impossible, since it takes so little—only a bright idea by another set of geeks—to lose the lead.”

“Yahoo!, in fact, will probably be the first to attack. It now … has under its own roof all the elements of the business model that made Google such a success.

“Even more frightening … Microsoft smells blood. It is currently working on its own search algorithm, which it hopes to make public early next year, around the probable time of Google’s share listing.”

I do feel that Google’s almost utilitarian design, core focus and loyal user-base certainly factor significantly in its market-share dominance, but as was mentioned in the article, Netscape had much of that as well. So at best, Google’s added advantages are short-term assets.

Related Posts

• IBM the Google for businesses? -- There are few specific details in this article on CNET about IBM’s push into the Enterprise Search market, but it does hint at IBM’s commitment to “higher-margin software and services” during its transition from the PC Hardware space. “IBM is...
• Teoma eclipsed Google?. -- The Wall Street Journal covers Google’s closest competitors (except Microsoft [for now]): “Some search industry gurus even preach heresy: that Google isn’t the field’s technology leader anymore.” Teoma’s providing more value by providing refinements from the “community” “Teoma’s software has,...
• Microsoft Targeting Google -- Some interesting quotes from this article on CNET News.com about Microsoft new search initiatives: “The fact that Longhorn is on the horizon raises questions to whether search services will be integrated into the Longhorn experience and what the ramifications will...
• Google Down, IPO Pricing UP? -- With Google recently releasing their IPO pricing estimates ranging between $108 to $135 per share with market capitalization between $29 billion and $36 billion, I suspect this doesn’t bode well: Update: Apparently Google’s problems are due to the latest MyDoom...
• Ask Google? -- AvaQuest has a neat Google hack called GooglePeople that demonstrates “it is possible to scour the Web for answers to questions using the vast data repository provided by Google.” “GooglePeople uses your question to do a Google search. It then...
• Gunning for Google Below the Radar -- Stefanie Olsen of CNET News.com pulls together a good overview of the start-ups targeting Google’s dominance. Some quotes from the article: “…Google also faces Lilliputian threats from a fast-growing group of start-ups that hope to replicate its own meteoric rise...
• Better than Google? -- "Vivisimo's clustering technology is based on a specially developed algorithm to group or “cluster'' textual documents … The output is a clear and hierarchical folder structure, allowing users to avoid “link overload'' and to click only on the specific category...