1) Google is not aiming to be a portal like Yahoo is…they are on different trajectories. Two very different business models have emerged.

2) You may not agree that Google is yet a monopoly but it is on that path. They key concept of concern is that power and money do tend to concentrate in fewer and fewer hands over time and that is bad for the macro-economy in the long run. In an extreme scneario – if one conglomerate owned and controlled all businesses, there would be inflated prices and minimal innovation. It would stifle the entire economy. Thus why we regulate companies that become too powerful. if Google is able to wipe out entire industries as I fear they now can – one has to ask if they are on this dangerous path? And if Google was to take on online dating, it wouldn’t be a subscription service like Yahoo – it would be free. And with this and their huge visibility, they would destroy probably 50% of the sites in this industry in a matter of months. We would not be talking simply about another competitor. We would be talking about Google taking over the industry.

3) Now would they actually do this? I doubt it. Online dating industry pays a lot of money to Google for their adwords. Its probably one of their biggest money makers. How could they possibly make up for this lost revenue? With more romance related ads? And who will pay for those ads if they’re wiped out their AdWords customer base? It doesn’t make any sense.

4) If they did a subscription based service, they would have to introduce for the first time a highly-inesntive customer service/support team for managing abuse, profile reviews, etc, etc. This is contrary again tothe Google business model that seeks to automate everything and minimize human intervention.

So whether Google actually does it or not may be a different story … but I just don’t see how it makes a whole lot of sense. It doesn’t seem like a good strategy for them, in my mind, nor does it seem consistant with their own business methodologies to date.

I disagree with you. Google has the power to do what they want and this should be considered ok, not necessarily a negative thing. It’s the nature of business, who dominates, survival of the fittest. The April Fools Romance joke is very interesting and I speculate it could be a hint at what they are looking to do. Yahoo has Personals, why wouldn’t Google want to come in and leverage their leadership position in the industry and create a dating site loaded with more rich content and hip features to keep customers at their site 100%- if it be romance, search, or maps as an e.g..

I think it is exciting and although online dating saturated by some 3,400 sites domestically, still in its infancy stage, as we are going to see online dating morphing into a whole new level of matching and linking up. More to follow!!

Regards,

Amy Andersen

Founder & President

Linx Dating LLC

http://www.linxdating.com

Are you linked?

Silicon Valley – San Francisco

I have to say though that I don’t see how this would be in Google’s best interest. Wouldn’t they be undermining their own very lucrative AdWords revenue stream from the dating industry if they did this? And how would they monetize it? More AdWords ads? I just don’t see how it would generate any additional revenue for them. It would also spread them even further away from their core business.

Most importantly however – if they were to make this move, it would validate what I’ve been saying for over a year now – Google has too much power and can take out entire industries with the flip of a switch. Even the mere idea of joking about this is not funny in my mind, and only reminds me of the excessive power Google now has. Let’s just hope they’re not stupid enough to actually go through with it. :(

googledating
googlelove
googlesingles
googleharmony
googlematch

Kindest Regards,
Fernando Ardenghi.
Buenos Aires.
Argentina.
ardenghifer@gmail.com

As for it being a joke….

http://www.whois.sc/googleromance.com