Many observers like to philosophize deeply about issues that generally can be answered with the simplest explanation. I rarely agree with Steve Ballmer, but his succinct (and I would have thought, salient) explanation for Google’s whirlwind rise to power is because of its efficient search engine: “The number one thing that Google benefits from in search is that they did it right, first.”

Sure, Google does do some things differently –for example, having three leading executives and offering open source operating systems, while its competitors are closed; what got the company started in first place was its superior implementation of its search engine, which Microsoft has been struggling to mimic. Of course, Ballmer feels that Bing will eventually catch up (a sentiment that I do not share).

There is a tendency to romanticize people and even corporations. Google has been the darling of technology for years now. Steve Jobs supposedly called Google’s “Don’t be evil” mantra a load of crock. While I applaud Google for disputing with the Chinese government, I also wonder that if Baidu were not so dominant in that country, would Google just pretend to see no evil, along with the hundreds of other mega corporations that are currently operating out of China? What is Google or any other company to do though –enter in politics and moral discourse? Of course not.

Let us face it: Google is a business. It is a thriving and promising multinational corporation, but it is hardly unique. Aside from pioneering Google search, it has done virtually nothing but build on what others have already set in place. Open source operating systems are commendable, but Linux has been around for decades; Android is a Linux kernel. Chromium OS, Chrome, Google Voice, Google Wave, and Google Buzz have all arisen from pre-existing technologies and ideas. Google, like Apple and Microsoft, have been acquiring competing, smaller firms for years.

If you think that Google is just a philanthropic group of innovative geniuses who are specially distinguishable from Apple and Microsoft, you are wrong. I love and also hate some of what each of these companies is doing. Do not consider for a second Google is exempt from imitation, questionable legal activities, and monopolistic practices.

Ballmer quote from Guardian UK.