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I was reading an entry at PaidContent about a few startups calling Google a copycat. The reason? Well they think that Google is always watching innovative ideas being put to test and using its position hastens the release of those same features before they can. And given Google’s credibility in the market, users continue to stick with it. For example, the report mentions Cuil’s use of longer snippets in its results and almost immediately Google was up and running the same. There also other notable mentions of similar claims but the question is if Google has introduced new features to further improve its functions, taking advantage of the ideas that everyone claims to have been copied; is it all bad? I don’t think so, not even by a fraction. I think it’s a bit unfair to slash another by labeling them as copycats.

The real reason can more or less be a coincidence and maybe Google too had been working upon certain features itself and given it being financial way stronger than all of its rivals or rivals to be, it is able to put them to practice much sooner. I think it’s all about time and if the similarity of features is an issue and can make people call others a copycat, I can bet half the web is a copycat itself and each company/startup here and point fingers at each other for stealing their idea in one way or the other. The startups should try and focus at improving their services instead of pointing fingers at Google for gobbling up their share of success (if it were any). I can still bet that if one of these startups comes out with an idea that gives users exactly what they want, they can rise above and do better. It will take time, but when that time arrives they will be more than glad for concentrating at the right thing instead of trying to hurl stones at Google, knowing it’s all going to come back at them, at least for quite some time from now.