A discussion about the software industry and their coders

Hitwise has published rankings on May 19th that show Yahoo! (YHOO) leading Google (GOOG) and MSN on all of the following Web Properties except Search in the US:

• Email
• News & Media
• Business & Finance
• Travel & Maps

Here is the Hitwise Rankings Table

The misleading talk about Everything Innovative is Google

In the Mail category, Google gets a low 2.54% of the traffic. The reason could be the limited nature of GMail. In the Finance category Google Finance is a paltry 0.29% even though the service is free and open to all. What does this mean?

Some wise man said Innovation is not what innovators create but what customers use. According to this yardstick only Google Search can be called an innovation. GMail to Google Finance cannot be -- atleast yet.

I am surpised to see PR folks and media talking endlessly about all the little new services Google is spuming out. It is not too difficult for either MSN, AOL or Yahoo! to do Google's "All Your Innovations are belong to our Beta Site". Just buy start ups and put their technology on Beta (or for Sale)! From spreadsheets (Google Spreadsheet) to Writely to 3D illustration (Google SketchUp) tools -- *everything* is Innovative because its from Google Labs? Microsoft btw also bought most of the products that made it famous -- from DOS to Word.

Google's Multiple Bets

It is quite possible that Google is betting on several different things to find the next best thing after Search -- yet calling every little Beta as the next thing that will kill Microsoft or cause the rest of us to drop jaws and say "innovation" is a bit inane; if not irritating.

Continued Can Google Give Free Disk Space to the Entire Planet?