Acquiring social skills
Nine months ago Google announced its intention to acquire online travel data company ITA Software. The plan was to offer a lot more information and services whenever you Google a location or itinerary but, understandably, all the major incumbents in online travel were alarmed by this prospect and complained.
The US Department of Justice got involved from an antitrust perspective, and the previously competitive incumbents were brought together by this common threat, and formed fairsearch.org, where they made it clear that all they care about is the poor, beleaguered consumer, and how this acquisition may reduce their choice.
Of course they're actually protecting their own interests, it's just the way of things these days to have to dress self-interest up as altruism. But that doesn't mean fairsearch.org doesn't have a point. Google is getting a lot of antitrust heat these days and there's a distinct danger that it will dominate any new market it moves into, to the detriment of choice.
Despite this, the DOJ has announced it's approving the acquisition, but subject to a bunch of caveats and conditions. The main thrust of the ruling is that Google must continue to make ITA's software available to other travel sites and continue to invest in developing it. Furthermore, Google must demonstrate measures have been put in place to prevent it ripping-off information from those ITA software-users, and there will be a formal reporting mechanism for complaints, should Google behave in an ‘unfair' manner.
Fairsearch.org is applauding these measures, but this still feels like defeat for the incumbents. However, with the ruling addressing many of its publicly stated concerns, it has to be seen to be happy or the veneer of altruism will come crashing down.
You have to wonder, however, whether this will be the last large acquisition Google is allowed to make. Regulatory authorities are getting involved, as a matter of course now, whenever Google gets its chequebook out, and any search acquisition has to be suspected of drastically reducing choice.
One exception, however, may be social. Google's failure to establish a social network of its own is of increasing concern to its management, as people increasingly find what they want online via Facebook and Twitter, rather than doing a Google search. As prominent blogger Robert Scoble argues, Social just isn't in Google's DNA the way it is for Facebook, which makes it increasingly likely it will have to acquire its way in.
Facebook is probably too big to acquire, both in terms of cost and anti-trust implications, but Twitter looks like Google's best hope of acquiring some social skills. Yes, it would cost a lot of money and yes, it would attract a lot of regulatory scrutiny, but Google is currently not a significant player in the social space, while Facebook is a near monopolist itself.
But even if Google were to acquire Twitter, that wouldn't necessarily be a panacea. Just ask Rupert Murdoch.
