Know who holds the cards
James Governor explains the nature of reality to Viacom:
What would happen if Google just said
“OK, Viacom: henceforth your media will disappear on Google. Searches on Viacom or any of its media properties will turn up nothing.”
Would that be illegal or something? I wouldnt have thought so. Could someone sue Google for not being included in its search engine? I can’t see what grounds they would have. And would Viacom fold if Google did take this approach? In a heartbeat I should imagine. That’s the problem for Viacom - it needs Google more than Google needs Viacom.
Boy, I wish I'd thought of that - it does show that Google actually has the deck clearing cards on hand if they want to play them. I'd bet good money that this hasn't really occurred to Viacom - after all, they are the "big, important media company". The world has shifted beneath their feet, and they aren't bright enough to realize it.
Comments
The google end user is in the loop here...
[Karl Boutin] March 14, 2007 11:01:41.626
After I read your post I did try googleing Viacom and the search engine did (I believe) behave as expected.
I realised, as I was performing this gesture that I, the user, would be very pissed off at Google if it filtered so blatantly the result of one of my search because they are at war with another company.
If I ever realize or perceive that google is gaming the search game, I would move to the next "good enough" search engine in a heart beat. I believe that people at Google know that. The "Do no evil" ethos has been in this organization for a long time. I sure hope they do not change. but it is a good idea to keep an eye on them.
I agree with Karl
[Brian F] March 16, 2007 12:59:46.282
Google would a lot of street cred in such a move.
While not a MS hater here if MS did this people would not be too surprised after all they are the evil empire but for google the darling of the tech industry. I think it would hurt Google a lot more then it would hurt Viacom.