Tim Howell’s Weblog

Yet further analysis of Google and what it is doing has appeared in both print and on TV in recent weeks, with the following two examples interesting for different reasons.

MIT Technology Review has published a detailed analysis of Google and where it might be heading and how, in particular, it is inevitably positioning itself for a showdown with Microsoft. Written by Charles Ferguson, who co-founded Vermeer Technologies which was acquired by Microsoft several years ago, the piece is a combination of detailed analysis of the current status of Google, and intelligent speculation as to how Google might leverage its platform in the future. This is worth reading several times, as this will be one of the closely fought battles of 2005 and beyond. If, like us, you are interested in the Microsoft and Google worlds, then this is recommended reading.

Living in New Zealand, it will probably be a few months before we see this on our screens here, but on January 3 the US-based 60 Minutes show profiled Google in one of their segments, the transcript of which is available online. For those of us who watch the search industry, and who want a mainstream insight into a company which arguably had the highest profile of any tech company in 2004, this is also worth a look.