__/ [ Dacron ] on Friday 19 May 2006 15:25 \__
> `Venture capitalist and Blogger Paul Kedrofsky has been critical of
> Google's "throw-it-at-the-wall approach"'
>
> `I'm not the only user who wishes Google would fix shortcomings in its
> core business products instead of buying in or launching unrelated and
> often poorly integrated ancillaries.'
>
> 'if you develop a Google search habit .. then you're going to find it
> increasingly tedious to switch. That's the idea.`
>
> A better way to achieve lock-in is to embed search directly in the
> applications and decommoditize the protocols, a bit like Microsoft is
> doing in the upcomming Vista. Now that's by far a much better idea.
>
> http://tinyurl.com/zht24
> http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1776717,00.html?gusrc=rss
>
> `OSS projects have been able to gain a foothold in many server
> applications because of the wide utility of highly commoditized, simple
> protocols. By extending these protocols and developing new protocols,
> we can deny OSS projects' entry into the market.' Vinod Valloppillil,
> Microsoft
>
> http://www.catb.org/~esr/halloween/
>
> See here where another MS spokesman remembers it differently.
>
> 'To better serve customers, Microsoft needs to innovate above standard
> protocols. By innovating above the base protocol, we are able to
> deliver advanced functionality to users` Ed Muth, Microsoft
>
> http://lists.essential.org/1998/am-info/msg06491.html
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_documents
I suppose this could refer to special syntax such as "site:" and "filetype:",
but the reality is more complex than that. Search facilities have no common
standards, as far as I know. Perhaps there should be, before it's too late.
Otherwise, there is a risk of fragmentation, which you find already.
Another intersting thing to await id the ability of online services to export
user data and settings. For that, you require standards (or
formats/protocols) as well. Services such as E-mail and calendaring may have
these, but what about site statistics? Or sitemaps? The competition is
sometimes forced to embrace s newsly-introduced feature where there is
little or no choice.
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