Google's future

Tech Review's article on Google's business future is fascinating. It's long, but worth it (to me). The author obviously doesn't buy into the business argument for more open source approaches. He insists on the necessity of proprietary standards. I'd like to see someone review this article from another side.

A few quotes and comments:

Show me everything about the Chinese economy that has appeared in the last month in my e-mail attachments, Word documents, bookmarked websites, corporate portal, voice mail, or Bloomberg subscription.

This is the Holy Grail of search. May it come soon.

Nor does it control the architectures of the newer computing platforms, whose markets are growing much faster than the PC’s.

Right.

In all of Microsoft’s successful battles, it has used the same strategies. It undercuts its competitors in pricing, unifies previously separate markets, provides open but proprietary APIs, and bundles new functions into platforms it already dominates. Once it has acquired control over an industry standard, it invades neighboring markets.

And don't forget 'Lets its product stagnate into crap.