Real problem is Google has no sustainable business model

[greggh]

I posted this on Google finance.

http://finance.google.com/group/google. ... 93ae?hl=en#

Real problem is that Google has no long term sustainable business model

This is not just true of Google. This is true for all web service
providers.

Free software + free hardware + free culture + free spectrum = a
networked world that is not dictated by a need to monetize it.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, and you are invested in
internet companies, you owe it to yourself to educate yourself.

I was curious to what extent it would even be considered by those who are probably completely unacquainted with the philosophy of free software.

I expected it would be dismissed out of hand, and not many would even bother responding, since I wasn't bringing up anything technical about the stock specifics or valuation. But it seems to have a struck a nerve and received quite a few responses.

Maybe people intuitively realize that the web will naturally evolve to a less commercialized thing. Interesting, and surprising.

[Gomer_X]

I think the first response was probably the best.

There will always be a market for advertising, and having the biggest database in the world gives Google an edge. In an information economy there needs to be more advertising, not less in order for people to get noticed above the competition.

Ad block or no, when I go to buy anything besides groceries Google is part of the process 90% of the time.

[greggh]

61 replies so far. Did not expect that.

[Prosthetic Head]

Urm, i think Google actually make more money by acting as a hedge-fund with their capital rather than directly from their on-line business. I could be wrong, but this is what i've heard.

[Brian]

They already have a business model. Their aim is to catalog* the world's information. Once you control information, you have a commodity that has value; value that can be sold or used to wield power. They are far far far far from controlling all the world's information and they may not even be the company that does it. But, one day it may happen and then, look out, no matter who it is. Right now, they are the avenue that people use to access easily accessible and common information. As time goes on, they will drill deeper and deeper into information and become the one company that can put it all at your fingertips - quicker and cheaper than anyone else can do it. This makes them part Wal-Mart and part Henry Ford and the aspect of information management makes them part Big Brother too. The complete control of information gave Big Brother his power. Imagine that control in the hands one one company. Imagine if we only had one newspaper or one TV news channel or one dictionary printer (Newspeak Dictionary) or, in the 1970's, one encyclopedia company. Soon, we may only have one company that helps us locate what's on the web. Damn scary.

*from the company information section of their site: "reflects the company's mission to organize the immense amount of information available on the web" A variant I found elsewhere was: "organizing the world's information and making it universally accessible and useful."