Playing the advertising revenue game writely!
My students have been raving about these services for sometime now and its good to see Google finally re-brand and re-release this innovative software package. Wiki's are one thing when it comes to sharing information, but Writely is an entirely different kettle of fish. What I like about Writely is its ability for groups to simultaneously edit and comment on office documents. Another one in the eye for Microsoft it seems who – again – too little too late is about to launch its own version. My money is obviously on Google. Everyone loves Google, even the old couple next door. Competition is great in this industry and we as users are set to win. But wont it 'be easier using a Microsoft version that everyone is used to when it comes to look and feel' I hear you ask? Sure, probably, until Microsoft chickens out of it's advertising revenue model and adopts a pay per use model instead. No, my money stays with Google. Google will make the advertising revenue model work. Something Microsoft was too late getting into. Off to watch a bunch of YouTube video's and earn Google some cash…
Dr Hair is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the E Philip Saunders College of Business at RIT.
© 2006, Dr Neil Hair. All rights reserved.
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Hell and Back
Writely seems to be a product of the past, as Writely transformed into Google Docs & Spreadsheets as of two days ago (October 10). Visiting writely.com will automatically redirect you to docs.google.com.
One thing is for sure, Google listened to all their users’ comments when writely was around and incorporated them into Google Docs. No advertising as of yet on the Google Docs & Spreadsheets website, and no advertising on the uniquely assigned URL when you publish a document. I’m sure they’ll get something in place soon.
I believe what Google has actually achieved – under the noses of the worlds major media moguls – is the purchase of the worlds largest television channel. Wait and see…
then we’ll talk about making money from it 
Actually, Google is in a position very similar to Microsoft’s in its early, pre-lawsuit days. And I won’t be at all surprised if in the next few years we don’t see either a monopoly or a privacy lawsuit on a large scale that ends up significantly changing public perception of the company.
Last year at Internet Librarian I was genuinely startled to see a respected colleague start a debate presentation with a slide that said “Google: The Devil, or Just Evil?” After that, I started collecting some of the more skeptical references I saw. Here are a few of them:
http://del.icio.us/mamamusings/google
When you actually talk to people inside of Google and Microsoft and Yahoo, what comes across most strongly from Google is something that has typically been associated with Microsoft–a sense of hubris that’s quite astonishing, and a (to me) almost religious belief in the “rightness” of all they do…bordering on paternalism.
(One of the most thoughtful critics of Google these days is Nicholas Carr, whose Rough Type blog is quite wonderfully written, if a bit curmudgeonly.)