Podtech vlogger and hearty laugher Robert Scoble returned from the Forbes Online Brand Leadership forum in Cancun not with a tan but with a new meme—FOG: Fear of Google. The term was used by conference speaker Geoff Ramsey, CEO of eMarketer, during a speech.
Not only is this new acronym genius, it’s pretty accurate. According to Scoble, many professionals at the tech gathering were secretly hoping the rumored Microsoft/Yahoo deal would go through so Google’s advertising dominance might be halted. (Full Disclosure: Scoble used to evangelize for Microsoft.)
You’ve got to give it to Google, when Microsoft struck fear in the hearts of geeks, we didn’t have a cool short hand way of saying, “Egad, Microsoft sucks but I’m scared of them so I hope they buy: Me, My Company, My terrified family.” Leave it to Google to give us the incredibly catchy FOG.
