Dave Winer has set up Clone the Google API and writes there:
An open message to Microsoft and Yahoo, and major implementors of search engines: Please clone the Google API, without the limits. …
Google needs competition. We need Google to have competition. You need to be competitive. We're close to the answer -- an open unlimited API that's easy to work with and compatible. That's the next step in the Internet as a platform for applications.
I picked this up via Robert posting about the 'two diseases at Microsoft':
- We look at the world only through a businessperson’s eyes.
- We have no clue about the power of influentials.
The first one makes us look like greedy, rapacious, businesspeople. And, generally, we are.
… I don’t know why we try to run away from that, but the more we try to run away from the fact that we’re trying to make a profit here the less credible we’ll be.
The thing is, if we want to be in the advertising world, we need to be in the audience thrilling business. That’s not going to be easy for us. Why? Cause thrilling an audience is a different skill than identifying, strategizing, and executing a business plan (er, making a boatload of money). … We must do things that thrill audiences. We CAN NOT chase Google’s tailpipes. … We need to go in new directions that Google isn’t going in. And, in fact, that’s what Google is doing to us. Larry Page told me last week that teams inside Google often try to create projects to copy Microsoft. And he kills them. Why? Cause he knows that he will never get a big audience by copying something we do.
We also need to get out of the greedy mode. We need to share. Why will someone put Virtual Earth on their Web site? Well, let’s look at why Chris Pirillo puts a Google AdSense component on his site. THEY PAY HIM. … while Google might be a greedy group of businesspeople too who are trying to make a boatload of money, they SHARE WITH HIM some of that money!!! We’ve gotta get that. That’s the whole key to having a successfull Internet advertising business.
This leads me to the second point.
2) We don’t know how to thrill influentials. Google does. … by understanding the leading edge of users and serving them well. … Google groks people like me. They serve people like me. And they romance people like me in a way that no other company does. … So, when you see Microsoft not supporting Firefox out of the gate, you are seeing that we don’t get the role of influentials in gathering audiences.
… if we play a different game than Google we have a shot. It’ll take doing things that Google can’t do. 1) Being transparent. 2) Supporting an open attention system. 3) Changing the search game by opening up its APIs. 4) Investing in gadgets and services that don’t have any monetization strategy other than to thrill audiences (er, influentials first).
Update (4.11.2005): Dare Obasanjo on why 'This doesn't seem like a great idea to me'; Dave Luebbert on the reasons to clone; and Michael Arrington at Crunchnotes —
Companies, even big companies, especially big companies, need to open up their data without usage limits, or else they will make their services and themselves irrelevant. … I understand the fear of losing your audience, but the only way to become and stay relevant is to give as much, or more, as you take from the web.
