Skip to main content

The End of the Web? Not Even Close.

Everyone's got their tin-foil hat on today, it seems.

Scoble posted this morning on twitter - http://twitter.com/Scobleizer/statuses/814823578

That if Microsoft buys Facebook and Yahoo search - the end of the web is coming.

There will be a lot shaking out from that but I wanted to reply specifically to this post on Herd Watching - Special Microsoft / Facebook Edition - The End of the Web?

where the statement is made "first off, Microsoft is just evil".

Really? I started to comment directly there but then figured it would be best as a separate post.

First off, MS buying Facebook/Yahoo search doesn't mean the end of the web. To me, Facebook and other "closed" platforms (as they are referred to) remind me a lot of CompuServer, AOL and even MSN in their infancy. The goal was to keep everyone inside their environment.

As the web grew, that changed. This is NOT about being locked into a platform and if it is, it's not going to be good for those involved.

But moreover, I disagree that Microsoft is evil.

(that said, their lawyers and some of their business practices are definitely questionable - but this post is about PLATFORM)

They are a company struggling to come to grips with a slowly crumbling platform in the current world of technology - which is hard to deal with when you were the former giant. (I say former with tongue firmly in cheek - they are still the #1 software company in the world, - at least I'm pretty sure they are. )

So they are clinging on to what they know best - the closed platform. Windows is a closed platform - but because it's everywhere, it doesn't feel like one. But guess what? The Mac is a closed platform - both hardware and software wise. iTunes/iPhone? Yup - all closed. Very few platforms are completely open.

It’s ironic because so many of the great people at Microsoft are very open - and want to share - but MS also knows that to stay successful in business, you DO want to keep people in your platform (hence the reason why they kill off product development on non-important platforms or EULA you to death).

Google is exactly the same but they fight it differently because they are open to where you want to go - they just want you to START with them and ensure that wherever you go, you see them there.

This is the web "platform" of today. (Scoble has actually said as much before so I'm surprised he's jumping all over this - although I just can't find it right now).

Struggle may be a strange word to list next to Microsoft but it is a struggle that I definitely see. It has to do with upgrades in the face of new applications. Another case in point - last year, I would look for a photo editing package to do basic photo fixes like RedEye, etc. Today, I'll use picnik or something like it.

Microsoft isn't evil - they are protecting "their own". If you own or distribute your own product, you likely do the same - and I don't think you're evil.

The main point here is that if they do buy Facebook and try to keep it closed off, they are simply prolonging the inevitable.

Even MS developers don't use ONLY MS products - they use the best tools they can get their hands on. And if that's NOT a MS product , then they try to find ways of bringing similar functionality in those products.

If you make the best products, eventually everything will/should fall into place. Because the end of the "closed platform" era is upon us. And as Ted Roche's blog originally put it, as long as the mission is "Interoperable. Competition breeds Innovation. Monopolies breed stagnation. Working Well with Others is Good.", every company (including Microsoft) will play a part.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Who Wants To Be Logical? I Do! I Don't! (with Claude)

In my book, Towards Consciousness, I explore PET , a theory that attempts to explain consciousness and possibly how it might apply to AI. As part of the conversations with AI series, I've included this conversation with Claude.AI in which we were talking about something very different and yet the conversation redirected itself back to PET. For the record, there is no such thing as "Colfsity". A It's interesting to me that people want to proclaim their distinction from being rigid and unlike machines, yet they also complain that the "best" people keep a rigid schedule, regular routines and logic understanding of issues. That's a perceptive observation about a real tension in how people think about themselves and what they value. There does seem to be this paradox where rigidity is simultaneously rejected as "robotic" or inhuman, yet praised when it appears as discipline, consistency, or logical thinking. I think part of what's happening is t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Merry Christmas

Whether you celebrate now, have already celebrated your past holiday, are planning to, or not, I hope you find yourself surrounded by family and those you love during this holiday season and are able to remember fondly those who are not with you. We often find ourselves buried in work, or too distracted by other problems, to share and remember a few moments with those closest to us. So many of us are separated by huge distances, we often find it easier to focus on those who are out of arm's reach yet so easy to connect with online, instead of those who are right beside us. So do yourself a favour, put down the keyboard (stylus, mouse, etc) and spend that time. I know I will. Merry Christmas. Powered by ScribeFire .
4 comments
Read more

Comparing education systems based on their technology

(yes, I originally found this blog because of Scoble's note on it BUT it was kind of interesting all the same) Read Alex Mallet's summary of his first week at MIT. Malletrivia: Summary of the first complete week Wow - "There's an incredible amount of material packed into each lecture" - and it sounds interesting... Compared to some of the lecture content I have seen at our universities, you really must get what you pay for. While it sounds like Alex is writing frantically down notes in his classes, at least he's finding something worth writing about in them. Case in point: one of our local universities ( Carleton ) puts some lecture classes on the TV (like many universities do) - but you would think they purposely find the most boring professors to teach them. They put up PowerPoint slides with 30 points on them, speak in monotone voice (yes, imagine the typical caricature of the university lecture from years ago), tell the students to print their...
8 comments
Read more