Rich Skrenta: Blekko ‘Absurd’ Search Startup Disses King Google
Why search? Rich Skrenta asks today to tease his newly seed funded search startup with Google as his bullseye:
“Simple - the idea that the current state-of-the-art in search is what we’ll all be using, essentially unchanged, in 5 or 10 years, is absurd to me.”
NOT so simple in the Skrenta search world, actually, but decidely absurd! How so? Because exactly one year ago, Skrenta advised, loudly, against doing just what he now says he wants to do!
Skrenta began 2007 by delaring Google the unbeatable “winner take all” and asking all to join him in “hailing the new King Google”:
Google has won both the online search and advertising markets. They hold a considerable technological lead, both with algorithms as well as their astonishing Web-scale computing platform. Beyond this, however, network effects around their industry position and brand will prevent any competitor from capturing market share from them — even if it were possible to match their technology platform.
Skrenta’s conclusion? “Competitors such as Yahoo should quickly move to align themselves with this inevitability” by capitulating to Google, happily. Skrenta hoped ALL would honor “our new insect overlords”,” as he rushed to do:
The net isn’t a directed graph. It’s not a tree. It’s a single point labeled G connected to 10 billion destination pages…
It’s actually not inconceivable that they could eventually own all of the destination page views too. Crazy as it sounds, it’s conceivable that they could actually end up owning the entire net, or most of what counts.
DON’T COMPETE WITH GOOGLE, was Skrenta’s 2007 New Year’s resolution:
Google is not your competition, Google is the environment. Online businesses which struggle against this new reality will pay opportunity costs both in online advertising revenue as well as product success…
Google is the new king of forward market growth in computing and software technology. Major companies will succeed by working within the framework of Google’s industry dominance, and smaller players will operate in niches or in service to the giant.
REALLY? Is the January 1, 2007, Rich Skrenta the same Rich Skrenta that on January 2, 2008, laments:
There is such a fabulous business in search. It’s the highest monetization service on the web, by far. Why does this Coke have no Pepsi?
WHY INDEED? Perhaps because people believed Rich Skrenta one year ago!
How is it that Rich Skrenta did such a Kingly about Google face?
Skrenta’s 2007 Google worship actually faded soon after his absurd New Year’s Google white flag waving, coincinding with his company’s business decision to change its URL. When Skrenta feared “winner take all” Google wouldn’t let Topix win as much any more, Skrenta “scooped” the Wall Street Journal on how poor Topix might lose the free Google traffic it had become accustomed to:
Some companies say their sites have disappeared from top search results for weeks or months after making address switches, due to quirky rules Google and other search engines have adopted.
“Because of this little mechanical issue, it could be a catastrophe for us…This can’t be the process. You’re cast into this amusing, Kafkaesque world to run your business.”
Skrenta then absurdly declared “how to beat Google,” just weeks after having advised Yahoo to stop trying!:
Our entire industry is scared witless by Google’s dominance in search and advertising. Microsoft and Yahoo have been unsuccessful at staunching the bleeding of their search market share. VCs parrot the Google PR FUD machine that you need giant datacenters next to hydroelectric dams to compete. They spout nonsense about how startups should just use Alexa’s crawl and put some ajax on top of it. Ye gods.
Grow a spine people! You have a giant growing market with just one dominant competitor, not even any real #2. You’re going to do clean-tech energy saving software to shut off lightbulbs in high-rises instead? Pfft. Get a stick and try to knock G’s crown off.
Do not fear Google’s vast CapEx. You should wish maintenance of that monster on your worst enemies. Resource constraints are healthy for innovation. You’re building something new and different anyway.
Rich Skrenta has apparently finally “grown a spine.” Perhaps he read my Why Google Worship is a BAD Call in 2008 or Google Knol: The End of Google.com, NOT Wikipedia or Browser Flack: Will Google Ever Escape Microsoft Rule?
Nevertheless, Skrenta on his own absurd Blekko chances (circa 2007):
Competitors who want to dethrone Google need to fight a two-front war. They have to build a killer consumer search service as well as a successful advertising network. Building one of these is difficult, but doing both simultaneously is nearly impossible. Google’s dominance in both of these areas gives them an unfair advantage, and allows them to easily parry any attacks.
You said it, Rich.
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