The shorter version of why Google is not Microsoft or Facebook is that there is no lock-in, you can export your data and point your browser somewhere else if you want.
Yes. And what I consider even more interesting, IMHO, is that Google really became a company which is not indispensable (like for example 5 years ago when Google Search was de facto indispensable).
Currently, if I must I can survive with Bing for general search and for real-time search (increasingly important), twitter is even better than Google.
I am still a Google user since I like some of their products more than the competing ones (Chrome, Gmail, GReader, Adsense), but I will not hesitate to switch away from any of those if better alternative will emerge.
Comments
The shorter version of why Google is not Microsoft or Facebook is that there is no lock-in, you can export your data and point your browser somewhere else if you want.
Yes. And what I consider even more interesting, IMHO, is that Google really became a company which is not indispensable (like for example 5 years ago when Google Search was de facto indispensable).
Currently, if I must I can survive with Bing for general search and for real-time search (increasingly important), twitter is even better than Google.
I am still a Google user since I like some of their products more than the competing ones (Chrome, Gmail, GReader, Adsense), but I will not hesitate to switch away from any of those if better alternative will emerge.