Search Engine Optimization [sic] and the Race to the Bottom

http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/10/search_engine_o.html

As a generation of young Facebook developers will soon find out for themselves, it's very easy for platform owners to compete and win against independents. It's no accident that the most successful software built atop Microsoft Windows is Microsoft's own Office suite.

See also Joel Spolsky's Fire and Motion