Its like watching a real life version of the Risk board game.
Google is telling the other players, ‘I won’t attack you for the next ten moves’ as it prepares to roll the dice and line up all its armies next to Microsoft who will also do the same.
Because a Microsoft/Google battle royal is kind of innevitable, Google wants to avoid any other trouble.
Its caving on personal media with an Apple board seat for Google’s CEO and holding off a PayPal and listings assault on Ebay, with a ‘partnership’.
Both companies will lose in the medium term, in the long run one will survive.
Remember what happened to Novell, IBM, Commadore?
I think Google will win in ‘three rounds’, but nothing is certain. Its a game of dice , after all.