The Silent Monopoly

     It's seems that the world of technology can't resist the creation of megalithic giants.  With Microsoft starting to fade into the background, though, many companies are eager to step up and take their place.  The most likely candidate:  Google.
     Google seems to be purchasing up everything they can get their hands on that relates to computing services.  They also seem intent on providing their customers with the most comprehensive collection of software solutions they can give away for free.
    But it also seems they are stooping to the old low of killing off their competition by buy-out, not out-sell.  That's the problem with providing everything you create for free.  If you aren't in it for the benefit of mankind, you have a hard time competing with your opponent.  So Google has just bought out the company that licenses the software void engine that their competitors use for IM clients.  Now Yahoo!, AOL, and many others will be paying directly into Google's pockets.
     Now whether this is good or bad, I can't say yet.  It may clean out what has become an over-crowded list of available IM clients, void services, and corporate digital telephony options, but it just might force an interdependency between technology companies.  If Google plays it smart, it will keep the existing client list that Global IP Solutions(the void company they purchased) comes with, and use it to keep their competitors paying into Google's pocket and not those of somebody else.  Google doesn't the traction in the IM department that AOL and Yahoo! do, so try and compete with them just by taking out the already underlying architecture won't actually do much.  Those two will just find someone else to licenses the technology from, and their existing customer base probably won't even notice.  But if Google continues on with the contracts that GIPS came with, they will continue to hold power over some of their biggest competitors in the market.  That's something I wouldn't toss aside lightly.