Not a big deal, IMHO. It's mostly a boo-hoo fest that SV companies can no longer find good talent for cheap. It's pushing up the market value for folks such as myself (and I'm not even in the SV area anymore). Another unrelated factor is the fact that the tech sector is now experiencing the departure of baby boomers. I'd read another article some 2-3 years ago which predicted the growing demand (and pricetag) for experienced IT folks. Add into that the fact that fewer [censored] are enrolling in maths or comp sci in university, and you have quite the strong formula. The article was based on a demographic study, so it wasn't just rabble rousing. Get set folks, the dot com boom will seem like a walk in the park in comparison. Yes, even with the outsourcing to India.
And the fact that Google is non-traditional, and anyone seen to do things non-traditionally are written off at first as being doomed to failure, and when they prove that it works, others are forced to scramble to redesign themselves or fade into non-existence. In Google's marketplace, there are very few to compete. And they're innovators. (Check out Google Maps or Google Suggest, which use AJAX, something which wasn't being used all that much.)
Bottom line?
I for one welcome our new web search overlords.
