Balkanization, or Balkanisation, is a geopolitical term originally used to describe the process of fragmentation or division of a region or state into smaller regions or states that are often hostile or non-cooperative with each other..
You need to look no further than a stock chart of Google or this unbelievably depressing Chart of the Day from the SAI Business Insider. Facebook’s Unbelievable Effect On The Rest Of The Web.
Or for that matter the meteoric rise in price of LinkedIn’s IPO. When I first started an Internet company in 1994, the web held the promise of making the world accessible to everyone from their living room. Now it is turning it into silos of data and experience fenced off by proprietary applications with their cumbersome API’s. Facebook is designed more like a shopping mall with labyrinthine pathways constructed to confuse and capture rather than show you the way to your intended destination.
Try communicating with someone in LinkedIn outside LinkedIn? LinkedIn is more like LinkedOut. You have to ask them to send you their email as LinkedIn does everything they can to keep you locked into their shopping mall.
I’m almost a little sorry for the Google believers. The promise of the entire world’s knowledge and experience is actually not quite as important as we thought. And add to the woes of investors- the FTC has been worked up into a frenzy by Google’s rivals and is now investigating the Company whose corporate creed is “Do no evil.” There will be a time to buy Google’s stock again but I don’t think it is here just yet. 15 times this year’s earning estimate of $29.60 would be a fair price in a world of zero interest I guess. That pegs the price at around $444. If Google were to drop to $400 it would be a bargain.