Isn't competition supposed to make things better?

Why not search?

[grnidone]

Way back in 1997-98, one had their choice of which search site to use. Now, it is down to Google and a bunch of smaller sites.

The Yahoo directory, which was so big in the game in the beginning deterioriated instead of becoming stronger. Yes, the company is buying everyone else out, but the quality of their directory STINKS. AltaVista which was THE search site in the day stumbled and got bought out. Countless others died well before that.

Why is this particular market so much different than everything else? It seems that the competition in the early days of the web would have made search sites as a whole stronger instead of just having one search site stand out above all others.

[trillianjedi]

It seems that the competition in the early days of the web would have made search sites as a whole stronger instead of just having one search site stand out above all others.

Google nailed it on every front, from front-end to back-end design and the others just got caught napping in my opinion.

They're now so far ahead of the competition it will take someone with huge pockets to catch up and compete. And we all know who the challenger is.

In fact, thinking about M$, they had the same google experience in the late 1970's early 1980's with software. Ignoring the way that Mr Gates actually made it a success, ultimately they had the right product at the right time and got so far out in front of the field, it's very difficult for others to catch up.

Why is this particular market so much different than everything else?

That's a really interesting question that I haven't really thought about before.

I think this is an industry which permanently needs to be on it's toes. People tend to use the best product available when it comes to websites (why not, they're all "free"). It doesn't surprise me that there is one clear leader, and I rather suspect that could always be the case. There is very little "loyalty" in a web brand.

I love google and use it all the time, but if M$ come out with something that works better, I'll switch without a second thought. I don't owe google anything.

Who's to say that google are not about to get caught napping and become the next AV. History has a habit of repeating itself.

TJ