David says that Google's angle on snapping up library content is to prevent banner farmers from scanning it all in and wrapping AdSense around it.
That may be, but I can't help but think this is also a defensive move, based on leveraging one of the assets they have against Microsoft in the search war: Trust. Google still has a good enough reputation that some of the finest institutions in the world will trust their knowledge and assets to a publicly held company. That's astonishing, especially given the anti-corporate slant that a lot of universities have.
Google's canny to take advantage of that now, but I'm wondering if they'd be able to do the same thing a year from now. Interestingly, Microsoft's never been able to really have the trust of universities, because they went from being in a tech industry that was then still not respected to being a huge economic and cultural force that schools didn't trust. This, despite the fact that Microsoft still spends a lot more on research and shares more of its work with schools than Google does.
Excuse me? “… the anti-corporate slant that a lof of universities have …” I’ve never set foot on the Harvard Campus thank G-d, but at Stanford (one of the other participating schools) you can’t sneeze without seeing 8 different corporate names or logos . In fact, many people are of the mind that Hennessey was taken on as Pres entirely because of his corporate connections.
Can the ‘acceptance’ side of this be devolved to a branding argument?
Google is your friend.
Microsoft is greedy.
(Yes I know that’s not how MS brand themselves, I’m talking about perception of brand).
Is it that simple?
I wonder how this would be if Apple were in MS’s position (presuming they could retain their current brand image).
Just a thought.
Can the ‘acceptance’ side of this be devolved to a branding argument?
Google is your friend.
Microsoft is greedy.
Every day, a new star is born. I turned my head, blushed, fluttered my hand up to my collarbone prettily, and gulped the last of my champagne. I know when I’ve been beaten.