Oh, No, We're Not a Portal

Google adds music search and purchase features

Thu Dec 15, 2005 03:12 AM ET

By Eric Auchard

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Google Inc. (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) is introducing a music search feature that details the work of certain featured artists, the company said late on Wednesday...  [More]

UPDATE: More in Comments

Comments

[walker]

and you're supposed to be a blog? I thought I'd get your opinion on this one - instead I get a link to a yahoo! news story.

[Henry Blodget]

Sorry...thought the obnoxious headline made the opinion clear.

To wit:

Google can pretend as long as it wants that it's in a different business than Yahoo!, AOL, MSN, and other "portals," but the only appropriate response to this (and other Google claims, such as "we're a technology company") is an eye-roll. All these companies are in the same business, albeit with different strengths, weaknesses, emphases, and strategies.

[Chris Rodger]

Aren't both Google and Yahoo (and the rest) failing to face up to a fundamental dichotomy: either they are a destination per se (like a holiday resort) offering content consumers want, or they are the means that consumers use to get to content (like an airline, flying people to resorts).
It is very difficult to be both - because users don't trust you, your proposition gets confused and you end up trying to do two very different things. So, Google should stick to search (like a low cost airline - it gets you there cheaply with low hassle), and Yahoo should get out of search and offer content that consumers really want (like a must-visit resort).
Of course, it would be take a very brave person at either Google or Yahoo to propose either of these strategies ...

[theloniousspheremonk]

you are prceisley wrong chris rodger. these companies need to be both as best they can. this is not a fundamental dichotomy as you claim but a potential dialectic...

[Jack Miller]

Google is a portal but it does not want to even attempt to host all the content. Google, Yahoo and all will continue to make deals to share ad revenue in one way or another. Companies with content need tie-ins similar to the one AOL just made. For example, CBS does not want to open its content to all without getting some of the same preferential treatment negotiated by AOL.