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I have a couple of posts recently, and in the past, that talk about the topics of services, and open data.

It is interesting to think about the platform of the internet age, compared to the platform of the Microsoft Windows age (not that it is dead, but it is changing).

Who would think of building a better spreadsheet program for Windows? Excel and office are king there. Now, we have Office 2.0 conferences and there are more Ajax-y office products than I have had hot dinners.

The "small guy" seems to have more of a chance in this word. The advantages are:

• Expectation: When google comes out with a product everyone is ready to pounce on it. If it isn't a Google Maps-like revolution it is 'eh'.
• Scalability: When you talk to Google engineers you hear about the scalable platform that they have built (which they have too). To get code in production it has to go through a lot of tests and code reviews. Python scripts will shout loudly at you unless you do it right.
• Tools: Google isn't using Ruby on Rails to whip out an appr.com quickly and put it out there for people to play with. The little guy can move a lot more quickly to adjust. You can think a lot more short-term

How about open data. The more open we get with data, the free-er the market becomes. If everyone is integrating open data, then you can build one piece of the office picture, and have it work just great with the rest of Google office. Plug'n play. 30 boxes does a very good job at this right now.

Gmail doesn't even play with vCard. Ouch.

We aren't there yet with open data services. I actually wish that Google had that all done. One place to hold that open data that you can import and export and tweak in any and every way. You know, gdata. Then we can all build on top of these services. Google would then be competing with other products on the same services, but they would have the inner advantage.

The winning combination is: open open data + best user experience.

In this new world, competitors will be coming from all directions. It isn't as easy as Windows, where they won and shut up shop for a decade.

Or is it? Is all of this crap, and the reality is that life is the same as always. Win first, kill the competition, get the users in quick, lock them in somehow, and throw away the key.

I hope not.

NOTE: Google is used as the company of choice. There are others in the game, I know :)