Google killing competition?

What would be the best online advertisement possibility for anyone out there? First on any Google search result might just do the trick.

A competitive advantage gives one company an upper hand when competing against others. In online advertising nothing beats results that top the list on Google. Sure Microsoft and Yahoo! are now partners but they still control less then a fifth of total search results (some sources sight Google as having less web search share but none, that I've found, believe Google is under 60%).

Now Google is in the market of software production. And people are starting to notice. College kids are writing papers with Google Docs, people are making purchases with Google Checkout, people print directions with Google Maps and millions are uploading video to Youtube every day.

How did these Google programs become so popular? Because Google can simply add them to the top of their search result lists. This is a huge competitive advantage. Google Maps was hardly used when it was first introduced, since Google has included it at the top of results when you search "Maps" it has become the most popular map site on the net.

What is the problem? Well I believe Google can include whatever results it desires on its search engine, so when they choose to include their products ahead of the competition, more power to them.

The problem takes a little more critical thinking. If Google starts making products that compete with other companies, and Google puts it's products at the top of search results, what is the incentive for companies to bid on paid search results? Most of Google's products are free and ad supported. But if Google starts competing with companies that would have otherwise bid on ad space, Google starts creating a little less revenue. I don't believe that this will stop the $22 billion ad giant but the idea of Google offering products that have, at least some, negative impact on revenue is interesting. Especially because Google's products are ad supported.

Here is an interesting article debating how Google is looking more and more like Microsoft from the early 1990s.
New Google is the old Microsoft.