Fred Wilson thinks so, and good lord, could he be more off the mark. He is mystified by all the un-search moves the company is making, and worries about their Web 2.0 behavior. I don’t know – I see it as part of a company trying to grow up, and not just sit still. And about their banner ad network – that means, Google wants to keep making money, to try out new things.
Google has a reputation for delivering simple and amazing services/products. Any missteps will definitely hurt its reputation. Multiple missteps will make them vulnerable to any company that wants to play on its turf.
On occassion, it’s probably a good thing for Google to goof up. After all, we don’t need another tech-monopoly.
ken
i agree. i think it is pretty early to say that they are the new idiots. i hate to be the one who sounds positive, but they are keeping everyone honest – yahoo and microsoft included. and ultimately that works out for the consumer
I just read Fred’s post and was confused by it. Especially this quote:
“But I don’t understand how all of these new web services have anything to do with their core business of targeting advertising via search and contextual advertising.”
———
That is just goofy.
The 1st rule of engineering is to acknowledge and then challenge your own assumptions.
I think what Google is doing is very obvious, and its clear that the only other player with a clue is Yahoo. MSN and AOL are irrelevant.
Frankly a better analogy in my book is,
“Was AOL the internet’s PARC?”