Author: Geoff Perlman

Last October, I wrote a blog post about how vulnerable Google is in its search business (the overwhelming source of its revenue). I realized this vulnerability after discovering that another search engine, DuckDuckGo, was started for less than $10 million, has equivalent search results, a clean looking interface and a low cost of switching. I’ve been using DuckDuckGo for over 8 months now, I didn’t make the switch from Google for privacy reasons, I simply liked the cleaner interface, but I’ll be honest and say that the privacy it offers is something I appreciate. Apparently, I’m among a growing group of savvy searchers.

In 1905, Albert Einstein published a paper revealing his theory of Special Relativity to the world. The theory says that not only do mass and energy have an equivalence (an idea that was not new) but that they have a specific equivalence expressed in the equation E=mc². That equation basically says that the faster you go, the more energy you need to continue to accelerate. The unfortunate consequence of this is that you can’t reach the speed of light because at that point, your mass would be infinite which is of course, impossible.

It occurred to me recently that this concept applies to more than just the cost of going acceleration. For example, the larger a company gets in terms of just about any way a company is measured (revenue, profit, employees, customers, etc.), the harder it is to continue growing at that same rate. It isn’t that big companies don’t grow, they of course do, but they don’t grow a lot compared to smaller companies. It’s not difficult to grow from $100,000 to $1 million in sales compared to growing from $1 million to $100 million.

Google is by far the most popular search engine in the world with 71% of the market. While Google does many things, they make over 90% of their revenue from ads. In terms of revenue, that means that Google is a one-trick pony. If users switched en mass to another search engine, could Google’s ad revenue quickly dry up?

Unless you have been living under a rock, you’ve heard that some celebrities had their iCloud accounts hacked and naked pictures of themselves made available on the Internet. I’m sure that many of you who use iCloud for backing up your iPhone, iPad and/or Mac are wondering if your data is safe and whether or not you should continue to trust iCloud.

Not long ago I had to visit my bank. Yes, I actually had to go down to the branch, walk in and talk to someone. I needed to make a deposit and this one was too big to be done via my smartphone. That’s a nice problem to have of course, but it’s inconvenient because the closest branch is not really close at all. I handed the friendly teller my check and deposit slip. She then asked for my ID. Apparently, they don’t want just anyone depositing money into my account. I handed over my new driver’s license so there was little doubt I was who I claimed to be. I took my receipt and walked out.

Comparing a person to the ID they present is not a foolproof way to ensure they are who they say they are, fake IDs are not THAT difficult to obtain after all, but it’s better than nothing. It’s certainly better than the way so many companies verify your identity: with your Social Security Number (or government ID outside the US).