Dave Winer is trying to kick his Google habit. I understand why he feels that way - one day he was working in a collegial environment and the next day an 800 pound gorilla sat down at his table. But I think that he hasn’t thought it through.

The weblog market is validated the instant Google becomes an active competitor. Dave may not think the market needs validation, but people like Marc Andreessen would disagree. If Google moves in, then people like Kleiner-Perkins and Sequoia are implicitly moving in as well. And UserLand Software could suddenly transform from a nice house in a run-down neighborhood to a fixer-upper in the nice part of town.