Amazon, Google Increasingly Encroaching Each Other's Turf

Online retailer Amazon and search engine giant Google (News - Alert) have been looking beyond their shores for expansion for some time now. While each is finding the grass greener on the other side, they have been separately targeting other markets as well. Some of these include online advertising, mobile gadgets and cloud computing. As these companies plan to grow, they are increasingly encroaching on one another’s turf, say the analysts.

In fact, in a CIO Journal blog post, news editor David Hall traces the rivalry between the two giants back to the days when Google had ambitious plans to scan and digitize the product catalogs a decade ago. It sounded an alarm to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who saw it as a warning that Google could encroach upon its online retail empire. The blog post indicates that this rivalry is now bound to spill into 2013.

According to the blog post, online retailer Amazon entered the cloud business over six years ago, providing data storage, computing power and other technology services from remote locations, while Google launched its cloud computing business in 2012. This market is growing so quickly that there is still room to grab share, states Oren Etzioni, a University of Washington computer science professor. He adds, “I would not write Google off. Amazon has the early lead but it’s very early.”

Meanwhile, Amazon is not complacent with its achievements. In last month’s CIO Journal blog post, reporter Rachael King indicated that the company has been trying to convince CIOs that they can rely on its cloud services for mission-critical applications.

Likewise, on the PC front, the newest version of Windows operating system (Windows 8) has not created the excitement that holiday shoppers are used to, thus keeping PC sales sluggish, according to a report in the business section of New York Times. Similarly, as per the NYT report, tablets running Windows 8 have also remained sluggish due to fierce competition from Apple (News - Alert) and Amazon and other devices.

PC maker Acer’s president of the Americas division, Emmanuel Fromontont, told NYT that sales of the company’s Windows 8 PCs had been lower than expected. He further added, “The new operating system’s unfamiliar design appeared to be making consumers cautious. There was not a huge spark in the market. It’s a slow start, there’s no question.”