6 ms·

Great news for internet startups. The more unfocused they are more companies they have to buy to catch up. Also, more time for startups to outmaneuver Google.

by rebelvc 17y ago

mtkd 17y ago
At some point one of these new, non-core, ventures will be identified by historians as the point at which Google made the same mistake as Microsoft and started out on the slow path to insignificance.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- apu 17y ago
  Do you really think that MS is in trouble because they focused on non-core ventures? If anything, I'd say the complete opposite: they're in trouble because they're not good at focusing on the web, which is a major non-core venture for them (I think MS Windows & Office are their bread & butter). Fundamentally, MS never "got" the internet, and they have too much weight to maneuver effectively now.
  - ams6110 17y ago
    They are in trouble because they are in so many things that doing something good in one niche will cannibalize sales in another niche. Make a killer web office suite? Kills off sales of Office and Windows. Make a great webmail site? Kills off Exchange and Windows Server sales.
tentonova2 17y ago
Do you genuinely believe that a company with such a huge investment in data centers is demonstrating a lack of focus by concerning themselves with energy?
- ElliotH 17y ago
  It is advantageous to them to have power, sure - but it doens't really directly contribute to their goal of organising the worlds information does it? IMO they would do better to offer hard-to-turn down deals to energy companies in return for guaranteed clean power. (it would be a hell of a thing to have on your power companies adverts)
  - tentonova2 17y ago
    It is advantageous to them to have power, sure - but it doens't really directly contribute to their goal of organising the worlds information does it? Is it any stranger than designing and commissioning the manufacture of their own server hardware as to achieve a more efficient ratio of price/reliability for their specific use-case? There's a lot of information to organize, and doing it efficiently at scale requires moving quite a bit farther down the stack.
    - mkelly 17y ago
      I agree. A large-scale web company should care very much about power. Designing your own hardware also, incidentally, lets you control power consumption.
    - waterlesscloud 17y ago
      Andrew Carnegie would have agreed.
btilly 17y ago
There is something key that you are missing here. Being unfocused is a core corporate value for Google. That's why they deliberately give every engineer 20% of their time to do pretty much whatever they want to do. Many popular products, such as gmail, started this way. Crazy as it sounds, so far this has been working out quite well for them. The side effect is that you see apparently crazy things like some engineer deciding that he wants to install solar panels in the parking lot, which after one thing lead to another lead the company as a whole deciding to be carbon neutral. However the culture sees this as a benefit. After all that was good for morale, good for the corporate image, and the resulting focus on efficiency has been saving money. What's not to like?

Great news for internet startups. The more unfocused they are more companies they have to buy to catch up. Also, more time for startups to outmaneuver Google.

by rebelvc 17y ago

Great news for internet startups. The more unfocused they are more companies they have to buy to catch up. Also, more time for startups to outmaneuver Google.

mtkd 17y ago

At some point one of these new, non-core, ventures will be identified by historians as the point at which Google made the same mistake as Microsoft and started out on the slow path to insignificance.

deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
apu 17y ago
Do you really think that MS is in trouble because they focused on non-core ventures? If anything, I'd say the complete opposite: they're in trouble because they're not good at focusing on the web, which is a major non-core venture for them (I think MS Windows & Office are their bread & butter). Fundamentally, MS never "got" the internet, and they have too much weight to maneuver effectively now.
- ams6110 17y ago
  They are in trouble because they are in so many things that doing something good in one niche will cannibalize sales in another niche. Make a killer web office suite? Kills off sales of Office and Windows. Make a great webmail site? Kills off Exchange and Windows Server sales.

tentonova2 17y ago

Do you genuinely believe that a company with such a huge investment in data centers is demonstrating a lack of focus by concerning themselves with energy?

ElliotH 17y ago
It is advantageous to them to have power, sure - but it doens't really directly contribute to their goal of organising the worlds information does it? IMO they would do better to offer hard-to-turn down deals to energy companies in return for guaranteed clean power. (it would be a hell of a thing to have on your power companies adverts)
- tentonova2 17y ago
  It is advantageous to them to have power, sure - but it doens't really directly contribute to their goal of organising the worlds information does it? Is it any stranger than designing and commissioning the manufacture of their own server hardware as to achieve a more efficient ratio of price/reliability for their specific use-case? There's a lot of information to organize, and doing it efficiently at scale requires moving quite a bit farther down the stack.
  - mkelly 17y ago
    I agree. A large-scale web company should care very much about power. Designing your own hardware also, incidentally, lets you control power consumption.
  - waterlesscloud 17y ago
    Andrew Carnegie would have agreed.

btilly 17y ago

There is something key that you are missing here. Being unfocused is a core corporate value for Google. That's why they deliberately give every engineer 20% of their time to do pretty much whatever they want to do. Many popular products, such as gmail, started this way. Crazy as it sounds, so far this has been working out quite well for them. The side effect is that you see apparently crazy things like some engineer deciding that he wants to install solar panels in the parking lot, which after one thing lead to another lead the company as a whole deciding to be carbon neutral. However the culture sees this as a benefit. After all that was good for morale, good for the corporate image, and the resulting focus on efficiency has been saving money. What's not to like?