Why Google Isn’t Ebay

My thoughts on Google’s monopoly in Internet search. It’s not hard to imagine Goolge being knocked off the top of the search engine hill. Any one of three events happening will seriously damage their position. All three happening and they’re no longer serving the majority of search results.

1. Yahoo dumps Google
2. AOL gets their own good search engine
3. Microsoft gets a serious search engine

The weakness in Google’s position is that people can change where they search in a heartbeat. In fact, people can change where they search without even knowing it, for example when Yahoo changes from Google, Google loses a very large chunk of it’s traffic without people making any change in how they serf the web.
Individuals have no vested interest in using Google for seaching the web. If you get bad results there, you just go somewhere else. If you continue to get bad results at Google, why would you keep going back? Even if Google keeps the quality up, why would anyone rely only on Google when competitors who are as good or better show up. You can easily search the competing sites too, for a variety of results, instead of digging deep into Google to get what you want.
Don’t mistakenly see Google’s position as being strong. Make a comparison with another internet company that has a monopoly, Ebay. Ebay’s position is very strong, because there you find the traffic of buyers and sellers. The sellers don’t want to leave because that’s where the buyers are. The buyers don’t want to leave because that’s where the sellers are. With Google, searchers don’t want to leave because they get the best results there. Google’s monopoly is much more fragile, because they’re much more dependant on not having a viable competitor. It’s much easier for their customers to make the change individually than it is for Ebay’s customers to make a change. In order for Ebay’s customers to change, they’d have to do it all en mass, all to the same place that provides an equal or better service. Google’s customers can leave one at a time.

When do you know you’ve made it?

It’s a question all entrepreneurs grapple with, I think. What’s your definition of success? I seem to have a shifting sense of this, and what my goal should be. I used to think that having enough customers for my business to support myself, that I would have reached success. The closer I got to that goal, the more I pushed the goal back. Perhaps it’s a never-ending cycle. You start with what you consider a modest goal, then when you reach it, you set your goal higher. What is success? Happyness? Power? Money? Fame? My most immediate goal is to run a successful business. It’s an obsession. But, what’s the point?

When I got to the point where my business was bringing in as much as I would have were I working for someone else, I didn’t let up a bit. If anything, I bore down harder than ever before. I cut back on some actiivites that weren’t directly related to my business (no, not family). In fact, I’ve been about five times more productive in business development than before. So, did I really achieve a goal?

Would you sell ads on your hosting company site?

When I was running a hosting company, I would get contacted by some web designers at least once a week and they’d always be wanting me to link to their site. Sometimes they’d promise me a percent of any business I send them. I never took up any of those offers. Why should I send them my customers? When I was running a hosting company, I would get contacted by some web designers at least once a week and they’d always be wanting me to link to their site. Sometimes they’d promise me a percent of any business I send them. I never took up any of those offers. Why should I send them my customers?

It occurred to me recently that I should have sold them an advertising link on my site. Even something cheap, like $5 a month, would have added up. Even if ust 5% of the people who contacted me asking for a link accepted my offer, I estimate about a hundred would have been paying for ads by the end of the first year.

That’s an extra $500 a month. I could have used that to hire a remote server admin in India or something, LoL.

Domain Blacklist

This guy is keeping a list of domains that have been used by ‘comment spammers’. It seems like it will be a good idea to check this list prior to purchasing domains, LoL.

http://www.jayallen.org/blacklist.txt

Barter Exchanges

A barter exchange is any person or organization with members or clients that contract with each other (or with the barter exchange) to jointly trade or barter property or services. The term does not include arrangements that provide solely for the informal exchange of similar services on a noncommercial basis.

The Internet has provided a medium for new growth in the bartering exchange industry. This growth prompts the following reminder: Barter exchanges are required to file form 1099-B for all transactions unless certain exceptions are met.

Under the exceptions, barter exchanges are not required to file form 1099-B for:
Exchanges through a barter exchange having fewer than 100 transactions during the year.

Exempt foreign persons as defined in Regulations section 1.6045-1(g)(1)(i).
Exchanges involving property or services with a fair market value of less than $1.00.
For corporate members or clients, transactions may be combined and reported in aggregate.
Forms 1099-B are due by March 1, 2004 (March 31, 2004, if filing electronically).

Failure to file can result in significant penalties (Internal Code Section 6721). The penalty is based on when you file correct information return. The penalty is:

$15 per information return if you correctly file within 30 days of the due date (March 1, 2003), maximum penalty $75,000 per filing period.
$30 per information return if you correctly file after 30 days after the due date but by August 1; maximum penalty $150,000 per filing period.
$50 per information return if you file after August 1 or you do not file required information returns; maximum penalty $250,000 per filing period. A barter exchange is any person or organization with members or clients that contract with each other (or with the barter exchange) to jointly trade or barter property or services. The term does not include arrangements that provide solely for the informal exchange of similar services on a noncommercial basis.

The Internet has provided a medium for new growth in the bartering exchange industry. This growth prompts the following reminder: Barter exchanges are required to file form 1099-B for all transactions unless certain exceptions are met.

Under the exceptions, barter exchanges are not required to file form 1099-B for:
Exchanges through a barter exchange having fewer than 100 transactions during the year.

Exempt foreign persons as defined in Regulations section 1.6045-1(g)(1)(i).
Exchanges involving property or services with a fair market value of less than $1.00.
For corporate members or clients, transactions may be combined and reported in aggregate.
Forms 1099-B are due by March 1, 2004 (March 31, 2004, if filing electronically).

Failure to file can result in significant penalties (Internal Code Section 6721). The penalty is based on when you file correct information return. The penalty is:

$15 per information return if you correctly file within 30 days of the due date (March 1, 2003), maximum penalty $75,000 per filing period.
$30 per information return if you correctly file after 30 days after the due date but by August 1; maximum penalty $150,000 per filing period.
$50 per information return if you file after August 1 or you do not file required information returns; maximum penalty $250,000 per filing period.

Dedicated Server

How to choose a company to outsource your dedicated server hosting.

Today