Re: If all google sites were gone today, where would you go?

[mattvot]

I suppose it’s how you use the services that determine what you’ll miss.

I do agree, YouTube has lower quality, but they do have a HQ option now that seeps to be on par with vimeo, sometimes. But I don’t think the USP of YouTube is the quality. For me it’s the community. It takes a while to build up a list of subscriptions you like, but I get about 30-60mins of new content a day, personalised for what I want, and because the participants are global, you start to get a much better view into what the world thinks, unaltered by mass media. If google were to go, I’d miss that. User’s would switch to another service but the experience will not be the same.

The reason I think I trust google is probably silly, but they say ‘Don’t be evil’, and I believe they’re not evil. If you want to look at how socialy ethical a company is, look at how they treat their employees, and their treated well. 20% of your paid time if for doing what you want, I so want to be able to pull that off. Google being a big internet company they are well aware that any negitive decision they take will be pretty accurately reported on blogs, twitter etc. And all the stories I’ve seen so far about google being evil are acceptable in my mind.

For me the Search and Maps are, as you say, not unique, but because google has a huge range of websites it can link them all together. You can get your maps, youtube subscriptions and more all on your igoogle home page where you can search.

Another example is adsence, which can be used ith conjunction with your youtube account and analycts.

To finish off, I think the reason I’d miss google is not because of the great services they provide (there are alternatives), but they way they are all interlinked. If microsoft were to invest money into providing a more closely connected webfolio then Google could have some worrying competition.