You don’t have to use Calendar, or Mail, but when you type “GOOG” or “YHOO” into the simple interface of Google these days, your first choice is now a Google page, not someone else’s. That’s a fundamental change, worth noting. — John Battelle
I’ve been noticing the less-than-subtle change in focus at Google as well. MSN.com was reviled as a jumbled money-making machine for years, and all of us ‘early adopters’ and geeks have shunned it and Yahoo! as well, for Google’s clean, unfettered white surface. Of course, the textual ads on the next page are a little annoying to some (not me) but even the people who think all things should be free (inherently anti-capitalist) don’t seem to mind textual, sidebar ads.
But, and this is a big but, Google’s apps are all ad supported as well. And it often appears they are merely releasing a new app for the sole purpose of slapping ads on it.
In addition, it appears the search results, which should be organic, may not be so organic after all. Now, we might expect this from MSN, which has always been a portal designed to make money, period. Shoot, we’d expect it from AOL…
But Google?
Their ‘do no evil’ motto just may have to be rewritten.
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