"quick thought" entries

Your money or your life

Microsoft, Google and pushing business models too far.

by Simon St. Laurent | @simonstl | +Simon St. Laurent | June 10, 2014

Photo by Didier, used under a Creative Commons license.I know it’s hard to run a large company. I know that organizations can get too deep into their own visions to imagine conflicting values.

I realized yesterday, though, that:

  • Microsoft ruined their brand for me by holding too tightly to things that they considered theirs. (Software.)
  • Google is ruining their brand for me by holding too tightly to things that I consider mine. (Identity, everything they can possibly learn about me.)

It’s a weird difference, but the Google version makes me much sadder about the world. As I’d tell a mugger, “You can have my wallet, just don’t take me.”

Photo by Didier, used under a Creative Commons license.