Category Archives: Uncategorized

If I were a small farmer, what would I do?

I just read on Doc Searl\’s weblog about Google Lab\’s new search by location engine. Wow!

Last night one of my UVSC students (actually, a successful net entrepreneur already) told me she was reading Jakob Nielsen\’s Designing Web Usability, which I highly recommend. It reminded me that there are a core set of books, related to a core set of skills, that are absolutely essential to a successful internet business. Web design, of course, can make or break a web site. But so can several other things.

I love how many free mind-blowing industry statistics you can find in one night of internet surfing. Here are some of the latest things I found interesting.

According to ComScore, the average searcher in the United States searched 28.4 times in December. Search engine market share was as follows:

I\’m reading \”Net Entrepreneurs Only\” a book that profiles 10 internet entrepreneurs who were Ernst & Young Entrepreneurs of the Year. The chapter on Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay, lists some of the things Meg Whitman (eBay CEO) learned in making the transition from a traditional business (she worked at Hasbro, Proctor & Gamble, Disney, Bain & Company) to an online business. She compares the \”old way\” to the \”web way.\”

It\’s amazing to me that Google could launch in 1998 and become the totally dominant worldwide search engine within just a few years. Onestat.com announced this week that Google handles 56% of all queries worldwide.

The search engine wars will continue and intensify as Microsoft prepares to introduce Longhorn, its next operating system, in 2006.

The big question is \”Will Google get Netscaped?\”

Will Microsoft incorporate search into its operating system in a way that will virtually eliminate the need for Google?