More evidence this week that there really are no sure things, and that absolutely nothing lasts forever. For those of us who spend too much time on computer screens and wireless devices, it’s difficult to imagine what our life might be like without Google.
A few years ago I met a woman who has a son working at world headquarters in Silicon Valley. She said it was as though he had died and gone to heaven with every wonderful perk that a young ‘digital geek’ could possibly imagine. There are predictions that 2015 will be a horrible, possibly ‘fatal’ year for the all powerful search engine.
Shares of Google hit a 12 month low this week, and the rollercoaster ride may continue downward for a while. Nicholas Carlson has written an interesting piece for Business Insider. He says while Google remains a vital umbilical cord for aging Boomers like me who live in a home office, the younger hotshots who do everything with a wireless handheld, are turning more and more to Amazon for search capability. Gen X and Gen Y are firing up Amazon in the palm of their hand and finding what they want in a matter of seconds.
The shift is robbing Google of millions in advertising revenue, and nervous management is cutting back on some of those wonderful goodies. A major gathering of Google employees that had been planned quite a while ago for Las Vegas has now been cancelled, and replaced with smaller regional meetings. Pretty soon it will probably happen on skype or some other virtual meeting place.
The world of digital business is becoming more ‘global’ by the minute, and there is no shortage of new barricades facing major players like Google. They’ve just pulled all of their engineers out of Russia where the Ruble is now worth about 27 cents at last report.
It reminds me of the ancient Chinese curse .. “May you live in interesting times”. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
I’m Roger Currie
