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Google On A Cloud

Page history last edited by Bob-RJ Burkhart 13 years, 7 months ago

Google on a cloud

Financial Times Editorial

Published: July 8 2009

 

The happy drones at the Googleplex never tire of expanding their employer’s imprint on the internet. Work on a new operating system brings the reality of “cloud computing” and Google’s dominance of it a lot closer.

 

Consumers should be excited – and a bit nervous.

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Google’s decision to develop its Chrome browser into a Linux-based operating system is no surprise: the company has long coveted Microsoft’s influence on how computing is done. More fundamentally, it is a logical consequence of increasingly feasible cloud computing, where software applications and data reside on web servers rather than users’ computers.

This could be the beginning of the end of the Windows monopoly. If so, market innovation will have achieved what has eluded regulators. That would be a good thing: Microsoft has long benefited from limited choice of operating systems to keep rival browsers and media players out of the market; it is still enjoying monopoly rents.

 

More competition is welcome but not certain. Earlier systems built on the Linux kernel failed to dislodge Windows, which is required by software on which many users still depend. Google is gambling that this time is different, and that users are ready to shift to cloud computing – the true prize it seeks, given its suite of web-based software. It may be right: the revolution in internet use means that for the first time there is a real chance users will leave Windows behind.

 

It will not serve consumers, however, if Google deposes Microsoft only to enjoy the same dominance. So it is good that the company says it will make the code open source, which will facilitate competition both for web-based software and for the operating system itself. Google must license its system with no restrictions on how independent developers can improve it.

 

This sharp contrast with Microsoft’s paranoid grip on the Windows source code is a virtue of necessity. Users of web applications do not care what operating systems others use, so the market cannot be cornered as easily as in desktop computing, which is more of a natural monopoly. Cloud computing supports more competition.

 

It also brings new risks. Google’s business model draws advertising revenue from data on internet use. As people process more personal data online, its model will increasingly clash with privacy concerns to which Google has been, if not tone-deaf, then decidedly hard of hearing. Users’ trust cannot be taken for granted; the people at the Googleplex must work as hard to earn it as they do on software.

 

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