Thursday, October 07, 2004

WSJ.com - Google Encroaches on Amazon As Rivalries Grow

WSJ.com - Google Encroaches on Amazon As Rivalries Grow "The Web's biggest companies, seeking new avenues for growth, are invading each other's turf with gusto.
The latest example: Search-engine kingpin Google Inc. is introducing a program called Google Print to a broad audience of book publishers that want to let users search the content of their books on the Internet. Google Print is an expansion of an initiative that the company has been testing for several months on a more-modest scale with some publishers.
The move pits Google, of Mountain View, Calif., against a similar effort by Amazon.com Inc. called Search Inside the Book, which lets shoppers sample from more than 100,000 books as an enticement to make a purchase.

The rivalry between Google and Seattle-based Amazon is just one example of how the barriers between once-discrete markets -- such as Web searching, auctions and retail -- gradually are breaking down. The changes are leading to more spirited competition in a variety of areas, including efforts to transform online outposts from ordinary Web sites into integral pieces of software products created by independent programmers."

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