BillyS - 12:28 am on Dec 21, 2005 (gmt 0)

I think it is foolish to feel that you can give something away, have people grow to depend on it and think you can charge for the service in the future. I used a service to deliver groceries to my home. We used that service for months. It was free and the service was great. One day, they decided to start charging for the service - they are now out of business.

Google decided to invest millions in Broadband over Powerline - in a company called Current Technologies. They have a pilot with Cinergy and they were supposed to have 50,000 customers at this point. They have a fraction of that number. Last time I looked at this the company couldn't deliver the service in an underground system (think Cincinnati).

Google appears to be casting a wide net in an attempt to capture another winner. Then again organizing the world’s information is a pretty big task. That net might catch some winners, but they are going to catch some losers too.

I actually like Google, there is no reason for me to dislike the company. But that doesn’t mean I have to like everything they do. Adwords is a great system – their bidding / ranking logic is something that Overture should follow.

Perhaps I am too stupid to understand the path they are taking. For me, Microsoft has a very clear strategy and it’s something I think they will pull off because everything they do seems to support that strategy. I don’t see that YET with Google.