Keep Google Free!

[JailBush]

Remember Netscape? It was a trendsetter and a market giant - until it was eviscerated by Bill Gates' leg-breakers. Could the same thing happen to Google?

That's the thesis of an article from the Taipe Times titled "Keep Google Free from Microsoft" at http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2003/11/18/2003076328

I fear very few people realize what a disaster it would be if Google fell into Microsoft's hands. Many of the more intelligent people on this planet fear that Bill Gates may be even more dangerous than George W. Bush. They're both global pricks.

[SahaleArm]

1. Google's gonna IPO.

http://www.google-watch.org/

[punpirate]

4. IPO won't make difference if M$oft really wants it....

They'll buy 51% of the initial offering, and that's all she wrote. M$oft has done this to so many start-ups--let them do the development work and the initial marketing, then use some of that huge store of spare cash they have to buy them out. Gates and crew don't have a really good metasearch engine and web crawler, so why not let Google develop it for them?

[onebigbadwulf]

2. Sorry there's nothing we can do

money makes the world go round.

[sujan]

3. google is not the end and all

If googles does sell out(MSFT or IPO), there is ample opportunity for start-ups with brilliant ideas to fill that void.

[SahaleArm]

5. Netscape was run by James Barksdale.

A huge Republican donor:

http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.asp?NumOfThou=0&txtName=Barksdale&txtState=CA&txtZip=&txtEmploy=Netscape&txtCand=&txt2004=Y&txt2002=Y&txt2000=Y&Order=A

[sujan]

8. so?

[SahaleArm]

11. Reply was for main thread *nm*

[0007]

13. I like netscape a hell of lot better than IE

[JailBush]

9. Are you kidding?

Do you realize what Microsoft could do with Google in terms of propaganda, spying for the government and ambushing websites? If Microsoft acquired Google soon enough, it could conceivably turn it into one big George Bush campaign ad.

[sujan]

10. Bill Gates cheerleading for Bush

Since when?

[JailBush]

12. Everyone knew America's Monopolist was going to walk free if

George W. Bush got elected. So what does Bush get in return? Check out the political contributions being made by Microsoft and top Microsoft officials.

[TheWebHead]

6. when they go public

I think you may begin to see more commercialism on google... after all, they would have a responsiblity to their shareholders to be as profitable as possible.

[SahaleArm]

7. They already do have private investors. *nm*

[nolabels]

14. Google is like a telephone book, the Yellow pages

I use it about 25% of the time now, also use Coppernic which bundles a few together. I am finding a lot of search engines lacking information (catagorized anyway). Got to know something about something to find anything nowadays. Lots of subplots everywhere you look. It should be no suprise what might happen with Google

I keep passing this thread around if anybody hasn't seen it yet

Being Googled
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=17950