Google - Is the Tide Turning?

America is a funny place. It's a place where you can become wildly successful in a relatively short amount of time. But as soon as you get to the top, people find a way to tear you down. America seems to love the rise and fall story. I think next in line is everyone's favorite search engine, Google.

2005 was Google's year. The stock has been on an absolute tear this year. Google keeps releasing great and wonderful services. Obviously I'm a fan of their Blogger service. I use their Google Maps service, and their mail service, and pretty much everything else that Google throws out there. Their mantra of "Don't Be Evil" is admirable and speaks to a lot of ordinary people tired of the Enrons and WorldComs of the world. But the tide may be changing.

Google has been wildly successful. But for some reason people don't want to see others be too successful. There was a time when people all loved Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Starbucks, etc. But at some point, these companies became pariahs. When a company gets big enough to dominate its space, people start complaining about the company being too big and too powerful for its own good. You are slowly starting to see people who don't like Google. They complain about how it is too powerful in deciding who comes out on top in search. There is the Book Scanning controversy, and very soon there will be even bigger uproar of Google's Video plans.

Is it jealousy? Fear? I'm just not sure. I will be interested in seeing the evolution of this company to see if it suffers from the same fate as other market dominators.