When asked to respond to how I feel about Google an if theres to much power behind one search engine a few things come to mind. For starters, why wouldn't I want one search engine? The benefits are vast of course I like google. I would say that out of all search engines Google has the best customer support with its features one of if not the largest index in the world and makes surfing the web a whole lot easier.
Im sure there are some that prefer to use yahoo accounts and hotmail and so on. But, call me old fashioned if I like everything in one place. Yes I have tried other services and they all rate about the same. There are those that get the job done effectively and those that don't. Why not have everything in the same place? With Google I can post a document online check my email review my powerpoints on the go and download them to a local computer when I arrive.
With technology changing so fast people want more access and less fuss. Google seems to be the only company that is caring about this issue, other than apple that is. Google has gone ahead and created an operating system for smartphones that will gives access to all of the features that come with a Google account. What more could someone really ask for? Oh yeah, did I mention they do it for free?
My answer to the question, "Is Google too big, powerful or monopolistic?" My answer is yes but why not be? The fact is that no other company seems to care what the consumer wants and is only looking to compete with what is already out there. News Flash email is old news and while its useful have a cool user interface isn't going to get me running over to a hotmail or yahoo account, honestly I still have one of each but don't even bother to use them. So until one of its competitors comes up with a game changer I say more power to Google.
Good post Randal. It does seem like Google, unlike Microsoft, attained its monopoly position in the search engine market by legitimate means: by giving the customer what they want. But the danger is that like so many other monopolies before them (Comcast, etc.) they will grow complacent and unresponsive.
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