It’s totally shocking to me that Google and Microsoft are just letting Amazon take developers over this way.

So writes Robert Scoble. And he’s correct, but their behaviour isn’t surprising because Google and Microsoft are not in the same game. Unfortunately, this could be their undoing.

Google and Microsoft are driven by technology, by things that they think are ‘cool’. This is evident in their scattershot approach to product development, either by releasing products that contradict and supersede their own, or by random purchases of other companies, or by ‘innovating’ through ‘emulation’. Their suite of internet offerings are for people who use the internet.

Amazon however have had several years’ head start when it comes to their web services. They’ve had to solve problems whilst building up the company and their increasing customer base. The result is a set of architectures that support their massive e-commerce system and they have realised that these architectures can be packaged and used by others. Their suite of internet offerings are for people who build the internet – developers and innovators. It’s these people who can disrupt Google and Microsoft’s agenda.

What do Google and Microsoft need to do to prevent this from happening, or at least ensure it doesn’t affect their long-term revenue? Buy Amazon. It’s interesting to note that in Wikipedia’s definition of Googlezon Google has the storage infrastructure and Amazon the social networking. In reality, the opposite is becoming true.