Googazon?!
According to recent podcast by Gartner Analyst Hung LeHong we could see a major consolidation in web commerce, with only a few megaplayers a la Google & Amazon surviving. In addition, he believes that in the future consumers will be able to engage in "pretailing". In English pretailing means researching about products consumers will then later buy either online or in store. So how is this different than now? In 5 years when I go to froogle.com and type in "Sony digital camera" (sarcastic note: that is if Sony is still around). I will see a Google map with all the stores in my town that have the item, the prices at each location, and the inventory status. Think about it, no more rushing between stores on Christmas Eve chasing that impossible gift, just froogle it!!

Mr. LeHong did mention a possible downside in that Googazon may become too large for its own good, "The danger, however, is that Googazon could become a dominant market force, not unlike Wal-Mart Stores in conventional retailing today. The marketing muscle that such a company could exert on buyers and sellers could limit consumer and vendor choices." In other words, with such a monopoly, Google could theoretically shut out (i.e. not display their products)vendors who do not advertise with them. Hopefully as Google grows, it will not get a big head. What should Google do? Listen to Spider man of course!-- "with great power comes great responsibility" Google needs to build trust among its users and be transparent. Another analyst in the podcast, Tom Austin, remarked that consumers already don't trust Large Corporations. Google is lucky in that so far it is perceived as a positive company; any negative news and all that accumulated goodwill is gone (along with probably 10% market worth I would guess).

Here is the Podcast