Troogle... 2nd Opinion

Troogle... 2nd Opinion
I want to reiterate that I do not believe that Troogle is real – in the near term. However lets just continue the speculation of “How” they could do it.

For sometime now the battle in conventional space for improving the seller and the buyer experience has been – well frankly definitely a 1.0 product. However recently as saturation and maturation of the market as progressed – we see new capabilities emerge. I am a huge fan of the Google Checkout product/service. Google has now added better integration on the conventional retail side so that Google Base, Comparison shopping tools and overall integration makes the search function more valuable and the experience better for the consumer. Foogle in its current implementation is clearly demonstrating this in certain product categories as it continues to battle head to head with eBay and Amazon for the hearts and minds of the shoppers.

Clearly it is not a leap to move from there to “Troogle” or Froogle for Travel.

So I would not be jumping too quickly to follow the current hysteria around Troogle, but clearly the capabilities are there.

On a related note, as an ex-Microsoftie (yes the electrodes are now almost all out) you have to wonder about Google’s “integration”. If you think about it. Which is more of a monopoly; Microsoft and a bundled browser or Google Base search and an integrated financial fulfillment system. Now is the time to consider this impact. Can anyone say DoJ Investigation???

Cheers

Timothy