Should you patronize your competitors?

[Holicent]

Competitors are a company's worst enemy, right? They're trying to take away your customers. They're trying to do everything they can to destroy you. But in some cases, the opposite is true. For example, Google is an extremely powerful competitor because it has access to a massive amount of information that other companies don't have. The downside of this is that Google can see what people are searching for and then recommend other things they might also find interesting—so it's kind of like being a spy for advertisers. But the upside is that if people trust Google enough to use it as their primary search engine, then they'll probably trust them with their email too and give them permission to track their behavior online without their knowledge (and without warning).

So how should you handle these two competing interests? Should you try to convince people not to use competitors' products (which would be bad), or should you make sure they don't lose business when they do switch (which would be good)?