steveb - 10:47 am on Dec 6, 2003 (gmt 0)

Hmmm, anybody surprised at seeing Froogle might be surprised to know the sun rises in the east. This has been on the horizon for months.

Also, when it comes to products, centralization with a few "big boys" outfits competiting is also inevitable. If Amazon sold every product on earth, at the best price, and with the best service, why wouldn't they appear first for all "I wanna buy this product" searches? Of course, they aren't that diverse or have clearly the best service, but buying on the Internet is going to get more and more centralized. It has to. And so do search results for buying stuff. 10,000 sites selling the same thingee can only end up having ten sites in the top ten.

Good or bad, that's another issue, but this has to be the least surprising development in the history of search engines.