Competition.

I haven't changed my landing page in years, Yahoo is so last century, I haven't deviated from my news searches or thought of changing my book supplier, why is that? Most of my friends have not changed their favourite shopping sites in ages and wont look at others until they are of comparative size and breadth to the ones they are used to using, if that is even possible. Competition for your attention, your time and your money depends on many variables, the main one being, having an alternative choice that brings with it, extra value, a good price point, convenience, knowledge and the capacity to be 100 times better than what you are using now. Not an easy accomplishment, so will the likes of Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, eBay, Amazon, YouTube et al, ever face strong opposition again? Even a giant like Microsoft can't gain ground with their search engine Bing. Will there ever be competitors that do what they do better? Why aren't people looking for alternatives?

The answer to a lot of those questions lies in human behaviour that abhors change once a plateau of satisfaction has been reached and no amount of cajoling or attention grabbing behaviour from competitors will entice them from that plateau. The net is Darwinian in its make up, ceding the high ground to those that have become the top of the food chain. I am still fascinated by the disappearance in the 70s of the orbital engine, designed by Ralph Sarich for greater efficiency, it would have revolutionised the car industry but quickly disappeared under a mountain of money, when Detroit came calling to take care of the competition. Times haven't changed much when we look at the web, with larger fish eating their way through the schools of competition. Whenever we hear of an innovative APP, a new way of navigation or a creative aggregator, a bank roll of cash from the big fish, isn't far behind.

From billion dollar investments like Instagram for Facebook, to eBay's purchase of Skype through to Google buying ITA, there are more smaller companies that no longer exist because the big 10 have more money than the rest of the world combined. There is no shortage of new and ascendant companies with evolving ideas to prick our imagination but the lifespan of most will depend on their relevancy to the dominate sites. If the big sites see you as competition or worse a synergy to their business plan, your days are numbered, The dominant sites are all looking to build closed eco systems, to control your attention, your buying behaviour and your capacity to change. Where else can you search for Facebook information, other than Facebook?

The Times recently released a list of the most interesting new sites on the web, from newsworthy like Quartz and Narratively, to audio and video sites such as SoundCloud and 5-Second Films, through to social sites RebelMouse and NextDoor, not forgetting shopping via Outgrow.me and Outgoing. It's not an exhaustive list but it does cover everything we like to do on the web but as you read this, think small fish surrounded by big fish and know the list is decreasing. I was going to look at some of the new entries but I couldn't find them on Google.