The Internet Horse Race - Google, Facebook, YouTube, Myspace, Yahoo, MSN, Skype..

The internet seems to be heading the same direction that the banking system has already gone. With the big boys buying up the little guys, it seems like a few companies are heading toward the front of the pack with a strong grip on internet traffic. What affect does these emerging trends have on our internet use and, more importantly, our information and privacy?

The biggest dog in the yard, the Alpha Male of the internet community is Google. Google has purchased a lot of on-line property and continues to branch out. They are now entering into the cell phone and communication fields with their google voice (which will be similar to Skype) and the Droid phone (which is pretty awesome, I must admit). Google has purchased YouTube, offers exceptional translation services (not perfect, but awesome nonetheless). Google also has entered into the financial realm with Google checkout, social networking with Orkut, and has a very powerful News search engine. With google adwords and adsense and their blogspot, they have plenty of additional revenue. No wonder they are the gold standard of the internet.

Running a distant second to Google is Facebook. Facebook began as a social networking site, but also appears to be branching out in new directions. The ad revenue on Facebook is certainly a good revenue source, but I would not be surprised to see Facebook launch some form of financial product in the near future. A google checkout type product or product search engine would generate a lot more revenue than the simple banner advertisements on the website. Facebook also seems to be one of the top locations for stupid on-line games like Mafia Wars (which I play regardless of the simplicity of the game). Facebook has risen so rapidly that they have forced MySpace out of the social networking scene and into a focus on publishing music and video content. It will be interesting to watch Facebook chase Google. It is amazing to me that a social networking site could become the second largest internet website, with 300 million users.

Ebay revolutionized the way people buy products. With financial services at the very core of Ebay, they had a strong foundation from the very beginning. It takes money to make the internet move forward and ad revenue is only a small part of the money making machine called internet commerce. Ebay has bought up tons of internet properties and will continue to be a force on the internet. With acquisitions of stellar performers like PayPal (which is the benchmark by which all other internet financial institutions are measured), Ebay has set a solid foundation for revenue. Aside from the sales and financial products available, Ebay owns shopping sources like shopping.com, consumer review websites and Skype. Although Skype may be cut loose eventually.

I have been surprised to see that no one has scooped the rapidly rising Craigslist. However, that website has been plagued with problems and is less than intuitive to navigate. Although it is a great classified ads-like service, the major newsworthy problems that this website has generated has likely scared away any potential suitors. Because it competes somewhat with the more percentage driven Ebay, I don't know that it would be a good fit. However, it might be something that could work into a Facebook platform of some sort. Once Craigslist starts policing itself and hammers out a better user interface, I would not be surprised to see them gobbled up by a larger company.

Another website I am not sure about is Twitter. Twitter is nothing more than an on-line diary that allows people to keep other people up to date on a play-by-play accounting of their daily lives. More than you ever wanted to know about someone is available online. From tracking the movements of your favorite celebrity to news feeds to keeping up with friends. I have heard rumors that one of the big players (maybe Google) will be launching a product that will allow people to track all of the "what am I doing" entries from various websites like Yahoo, Twitter and Facebook in one place. That may be an interesting product to see.

MSN has renewed their grip on the internet. After losing incredible ground to Google and Facebook, it appears that MSN wants to get back in the game. The old MSN Live has been updated with the newer search engine called Bing. MSN had previously acquired the anonymous email provider known as hotmail and combined it with its own email service. There were talks of MSN purchasing Yahoo to adopt their search engine, but those talks have so far fallen through. MSN seems poised to try and wrestle away some of the control that Google has asserted through aggressive marketing campaigns and a new look. MSN has some of the best talent and is probably one of the few companies that could go toe to toe with Google (considering it is part of the bigger Microsoft, which actually MAKES stuff). It will be interesting to see if MSN is able to climb back into the rankings with their new look and attitude.

People use the internet for everything these days. From making purchases, checking the weather, getting movie show times, watching movies and video clips, booking travel reservations, researching song lyrics, playing games, socially networking to simply communicating through the seemingly archaic but still useful email. The internet provides people with all of those things that used to require human interaction. So, where does this leave us? Removing the human element from interaction as well as submitting personal information to people you really don't know...are we leaving ourselves open? What exactly is our exposure?

Whenever I hear that a financial institution has been hacked, I cringe. The news readily reports that X-million cards were compromised during the "latest hacking attempt." Or that a laptop has been stolen that contained an unknown quantity of personal data that constitutes a material breach of a particular company or government entities security. Those stories are too common.

I am already cautious about the amount of information that the big players already have on me. Every time I use one of their products and input personal data about myself, they know that much more about me. Ever wonder why the advertisement on your Yahoo or Google account seems targeted? I recently searched for a particular brand of cologne on the internet. That exact brand showed up in my Yahoo mail as a BANNER advertisement (not an email based on a purchase). That's scary stuff. When the companies gather enough data about you to start selectively targeting advertisement, we should all be concerned. The thing is...they are ALL doing it. The internet "big dogs" know more about us than the government does!

My secondary concern regards the safekeeping of that information. The formulaic data that is preserved concerns me for the reasons stated above, but the personal information is even more of a concern. When I purchase something on line or sign up for email or some other product or service, where is that information maintained and what security measures are in place? I understand the concept behind encrypted transmission of information, but that is not my bigger concern. That data that is stored from that transaction...is it on-line or off-line? Is it hackable? Can it be compromised? When I make a purchase and use my credit card, is that card number broken up and stored in bits, or can it be hacked, stolen and used? Is my data in a place where it could be hacked and used to compromise my credit? These are all issues that I consider when I am on-line. It is also a good reason to use PayPal, which somewhat isolates your primary account.

What freedoms have we ceded to the internet companies and what power does that give them? It is a power we have willingly provided in exchange for free email or search engine use. It is a power we have given to make communication more accessible or to save money on purchases. But every time we give a nugget of information, it is consumed by the machine and used for targeted purposes that should probably scare the heck out of us.

This is an open reflection on the internet, the direction it is going and the information we put out there. I would really like to see feedback on this issue! If you have observations about this topic, please feel free to share.