Google Declares Platform Wars Over

Code monkey think someday he have everything
Even pretty girl like you
– Jonathan Coulton, Code Monkey.

Another slap in the face of Yahoo’s new stratplan: while Yahoo speaks of open platforms, Google declares the Web the only Platform. Says Google VP for Engineering Jeff Huber:

What we see is applications fundamentally changing. Just like the model for content changed from monolithic sites, now applications are going to be feeds and containers.

A lot that you have heard here is about platforms and who is going to win. That is Paleolithic thinking. The Web has already won. The web is the Platform. So let’s go build the programmable Web.

Google’s bet on the Web as the One True Platform is paying off: their quarterly profit’s up 46%.

The idea of open platforms was the one sexy thing on Yahoo’s stratplan. Looks like that idea’s getting shot down too. Don’t even get me started on the Facebook platform. While Google currently does not map applications onto social networks, that could easily change with a solid people search acquisition (Spock, perhaps?).

Google’s plan for world domination is clear: one world under the Web, one Web under search, one search under Google.