Google's Special Relativity

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. And while the backlash that has greeted Google's(GOOG Quote) sentimental approach to business overshoots Newtonian rationality, it might have been avoided altogether had the company better grasped its own expanding universe.

Google has begun to emerge in the technology press recently as a successor to IBM and Microsoft, an industry-dominating bully that's shaping -- and maybe squashing -- the next decade or so, at least, of innovation.

This is misleading. Google isn't exactly squashing innovation, as nearly everyone will admit Microsoft did during its glory years (everyone but Microsoft, that is). So far, Google has spurred innovation, forcing its competitors to stay nimble to match or beat its every new feature -- witness Yahoo!(YHOO Quote) and Microsoft's work on video and book searches -- and helping the more ingenious content creators push their own creativity to the fore of the Web. ...