The Geeks Will Inherit The Earth

Last week Internet search giant Google’s chief executive Eric Schmidt told the BBC that staying quiet about its operations was no longer an option.

"We are doing too many things that people care about to keep our mouths shut," Schmidt said. "We have to tell people what we are working on so they can anticipate where we're going."

Anyone who works in the press and has dealt with Google will find this highly amusing, but nonetheless Google invited the world's media to Googleplex headquarters in California to talk about new developments.

Mr Schmidt said he believed that competition in the Internet search business, especially from Microsoft and Yahoo! would drive up prices and increase revenue rather than threaten them and that Google appeared to be benefiting from its ‘limitless growth model’, with profits in the first three months of 2006 up 60% to $592m (£333m), from $372m a year ago.

Mr Schmidt is undoubtedly a very smart man, and Google is making vast amounts of cash, but anyone claiming to have a ‘limitless growth model’ needs to have their head read, or at least sit down for a while.

Those of us that went through the late nineties and early noughties saw first hand the pride that come before a fall when terms such as ‘limitless growth’ and ‘exponential’ are bandied around.

Google should take a look at how Microsoft has been treated in its rise to dominance in the computing world; Anti-trust cases await Google, you can count on that.

But on the upside for Google, it has made a great start in the time that it has taken for its competitors to catch up. Schmidt is right again to identify Yahoo! and MSN as its main competitors, but it will be MSN’s relationship with Microsoft that will be the real battle for Google. It will be interesting to see how ‘limitless’ its growth is when it comes face to face with Microsoft on a more regular basis in search and advertising circles, as Microsoft sets out its stall to be a major player in both.