This comes down to the question of whether the disruptive technologies and economies of this new era can truly compete with the centralized megacorp models. We're seeing the big corporations having a big problem adapting to the fast microchanges in the long tail economy -- which is where most industries are heading.

Google may buy some time by offering a Google CMS, but I think ultimately the people who go for that are the people who are not considering Drupal now -- they WANT a hosted, managed, just-tell-me-what-to-do system. Drupal is on the opposite end of the paradigm, and appeals to different people who think differently than those who want the corporate-sponsored service.

Who uses AOL and who puts their internet services together themselves?

Who blogs on Blogger and who downloads Wordpress or MT (or Drupal!) and does it themselves?

What Google does certainly is worth noticing, given how huge they are. But I truly wonder at how a megacorp can compete in a marketplace that's all about personal empowerment, which is where we, in all our Drupal-related niches, live.

Laura

Steve Dondley wrote:

This has been in the back of my mind for a couple of months.  What's
to stop Google from hosting their own Drupal-like community software? 
It's inevetible in my opinion.  Maybe not this year or next, but
certainly within a decade.

On 2/23/06, Moshe Weitzman <weitzman@tejasa.com> wrote:

Adrian Rossouw wrote:

http://pages.google.com

Go play with the site editor, that's how our themes should work damnit.

layouts / skins

by site editor, do you mean the part link for 'change look'?

and isn't our current theme system all about layouts/skins? what do you
mean exactly? layout=chameleon, skin=marvin

this google tool is impressive as far as user experience goes. but
really, anyone who wants a site like this has far simpler tools to
employ than drupal? when google decides to offer a CMS, then we are in
for a fight. according to some rumors, this is forthcoming ...



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