The Mercury News has an interesting article that ties up all the recent product launches, acquisitions and rumors into a believable theory about what Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are up to. The article says the big three web companies are in a battle to become the "personal playground" -- the destination where people will go for everything from blogging to music downloads.
Personal playgrounds have every service you'd ever want -- search, e-mail, instant messaging, voice chat, maps, news, photo sharing, music, video, blogging, file storage and, of course, shopping.
You won't be forbidden to leave, but the Internet Big Three each hope to build a virtual paradise so alluring you'd never want to go anywhere else.
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The goal is simple: Grab as much of your time as possible, because personal playgrounds make money through advertising -- and the more time you spend on a site, the more you can be exposed to its ads.
The Big Three are now scrambling to buy or build all the playground equipment, and to make the pieces work together smoothly.
The article didn't mention it but the companies don't always need users to stay inside their playground. They can still reach them through contextual ad systems when they are using media owned by other companies like blogs and news websites.
