Google, the new Microsoft?

Scott Berkun’s latest posting captures a subject I’ve been discussing with colleagues over the past year or so, Does Google 2008 = Microsoft 1998?

Google increasingly are to the Internet what Microsoft were (and are) to the PC, but without the sinister connotations (for me at least). Google genuinely appear to be innovating for the customers good, rather than growing, and creating monopolies for the benefit of their executives (I am sure their approach is also very beneficial for their executives!).

I’ll declare a little inside knowledge, I have a friend who is working at Google as a researcher. Their current investment in understanding real user requirements – rather than simply making their own ideas usable – is impressive. My gut feeling is that the output from the company is going to get better, rather than worse in the next few years.

From the rumblings and announcements coming out of Google, if you thought Google was everywhere in 2007 you haven’t seen anything yet – lets hope they continue to work for the benefit of the customer rather than the corporate dollar.