Three Approaches to the Internet

Microsoft, Google and Facebook are on a collision course. At stake - the control of the juiciest slices of the internet pie. Increasingly, they address a common set of user needs, but approach the world with radically different assets, strengths and philosophies.

Very roughly, Microsoft offers tools; Google, information and Facebook, community. Most common internet actvities (messaging, news retrieval, photo sharing, document writing, content purchasing, shopping) can be, and indeed already are, delivered in each of these paradigms. Game on.

Microsoft

Microsoft sells tools - designed to harness technology and handle and interact with information. Through culture, product and company history it is still deeply wedded to this approach. Products constantly gain features (like more blades for a pocket knife) because the more ways to handle information, the better. Controls are a major focus. Progress comes from refining these tools via Standardized Menus, Toolbars, Ribbons. Tool compatibility and inter-dependence is a major focus. For instance, eMail, Contact information, and Scheduling involve interrelated tasks, so one tool - Outlook/Exchange - should do them all. Any user need can be answered by a different tool or feature. But in this way the forest can often get lost in the trees. That is, the actual information and its use become subsumed by the tool rather than liberated by it.

Google

Google locates and organizes information. At its best, it provides inconspicuous tools that put the focus on the information content. Good examples include core search, reader, calendar. It turns out that what we were trying to do with all those Microsoft tools was produce and consume information. But if one sets off with that as the goal, then the solution can be much more focused, resulting in simpler and more intuitive tools. Google aims to provide more relevant information, faster to its users than anyone - and it generally succeeds. Its tools may or may not inter-operate. What's important is that the information does. Google's tools are elegant, functional or woefully incomplete - take your pick. But they are not the point - the point is the information.

Facebook

With its developer Platform, Facebook has delivered the first major open community/network addressable, as a community by tool, service and information/content providers. Fundamental tasks that are awkward to realize in the tool- or information-centric models are already visible, even trivial with Platform primitives. In particular, 'sharing', is not an add-on,it is fundamental. It turns out that all that information that Google organizes for us, is of limited use when consumed individually. Information has to be communicated, and more generally, shared, to be useful. Sharing is not the last step after document production or information retrieval. It is the fundamental social activity in both consumer and business settings.