I think Google is pretty awesome. However, I think Google is trying to do too many things. Like Aulleta stated in the article, Google has gotten a little arrogant and thought that they could take over the world.
Kind of like Starbucks when they tried to take over the world by opening up a store on every corner in every city in the world. Then the next logical step for world domination by a coffee shop was obviously a music business. Then if they're releasing music then they might as well make some movies and publish some books. But then times got tough and they realized they tried to be too awesome by doing too many things instead of focusing on what made them popular in the first place, making people feel cool when buying coffee. So they had to close a bunch of stores and try to figure out how to make better coffee instead of figuring out if they should release a Sonic Youth hits compilation.
Google has pretty cool services, but if they really want to make people happy, maybe they should just focus on getting them the best and most useful information instead of figuring out how to make money from You Tube.
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I agree that they are cocky.. but they should be right? Maybe after reading the article we kind of want to hate them... but we love them. We use all of their businesses. I probably use Google Maps every day.. and Gmail multiple times a day. I think its pretty cool that they've reached so many people without capitalizing on profits. I think their venture capitalists are trying to make more money out of them but its not the founder's particular focus. But i WILL hate them if they do start putting ads before youtube videos.. and if the search engine displays people who are paying them the most.
ReplyDeleteJoe: Good post. Nice comparison to Starbucks. They are very similiar in many ways, business-wise, with the rise and fall of business.
ReplyDeleteJackie: I still think we can love them, just be hestitant of future Google ventures, and if they still carry the vision of the founder's, or will they carry a capitalist approach. Will we be duped into looking at ads in order to view content?
I understand disliking how huge Google has become, but I read their expansion in so many directions not as arrogance but as curiosity and passion, characteristics which I praised them for. If Google is expanding because they are genuinely interested in a variety of areas, do you fault them for that? They obviously aren't doing it to make money, since none of these other ventures have made any to date.
ReplyDeleteJeff: I'm a bit confused. Google is very "capitalist" and has been for a long time. Just today it was reported that they had $5.94 billion in revenue in the QUARTER. They raised billions with their IPO a few years ago. They are a moneymaking machine. Nothing wrong with that, except that they've been able to keep this image as this company that puts doing the right thing over profits and that they just want information to be free. I'm not buying that. Didn't they agree to censor their content in China? Why did they do that? Maybe because it was a huge market with potential profits?
ReplyDeleteI also don't think that people are "duped" into looking at ads. It's the price of looking at content. Very few things are truly "free." When you watch 99 percent of TV shows out there, you see commercials. Are TV watchers being duped?
There are costs to everything. This is not to demonize Google, but I'm amazed that they get a pass