How long before a new platform weakens Google’s virtual monopoly? O’Reilly frequently sites the Internet as the dark horse that blind-sided Microsoft. What, if any, will do it for Google? True, nothing lasts forever, but even a few years is a long time, and damage may have already be done by the lack of real competition. The phrase “absolute power corrupts absolutely” has been thrown around a lot, but it’s true. I do love using a lot of Google’s services, but it needs something to keep it honest and on its toes.

What’s gonna stop Google from gobbling (buying out) the “next big thing”? They bought YouTube relatively early and gained dominance in online video distribution. Blog syndication became popular and they acquired the most widely used RSS publishing service, FeedBurner. They understand how important the mobile market, and now they’re launching Android. Google always seem to be one step ahead of the pack. I’m wondering if perhaps it’s not a new product or platform that will take the thunder away from Google. Maybe it will just become too big that it will collapse under its own weight.

How much more brain drain can Yahoo! take? While technology is important, it’s people that run a company, and employees are still its best asset. The alarming number of executives leaving just shows the continued loss of confidence of its own people. Unless drastic measures are taken by the top management to address this, I’m not sure how they can recover. For their sake, I hope Jerry Yang can come out of his shell and address the employees’ concern and give them a clear direction. In short, be a leader.

Yahoo! has let Google win this battle, hoping to regroup and win the war. That’s a tall order, and we can only speculate on their next move.

Well, if I want to write a sort introduction to OpenID, then I must tell you one thing. People are getting tired of creating a new account on every website they use. They are getting tired of keeping track of the password they are using in different sites. Well, OpenID is an open technology standard that solves problems like these. The OpenID technology will allow users to use one account to sign in to hundreds of websites! And this list is growing every day!

Once you get and OpenID, you can simply tell any OpenID enabled website that you are a OpenID user. You will be sent to OpenID provider to verify your ID and password and then signed in to the website.

Yahoo joined the OpenID project long ago and Yahoo users can use Yahoo IDs as their OpenID. Now Google starts offering an (automatic) OpenID URL for each existing google account, thus allowing the google accounts to be used on any OpenId-enabled web site.

After launching it, some users are saying that Google realized that allowing the google users to use their same (google) ID on other (non google-affiliated, independent or rival) sites, (while maintaining the single google logon) is something that the users want.

Visit OpenID homepage.