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https://youtu.be/JBJh6U3Kv90?t=5 https://youtu.be/JBJh6U3Kv90?t=5 Seems like Google is all grown up now. How long until they are perceived by the public as bei

https://youtu.be/JBJh6U3Kv90?t=5 https://youtu.be/JBJh6U3Kv90?t=5 Seems like Google is all grown up now. How long until they are perceived by the public as being as stodgy and gross as IBM and Microsoft? The big downside here is that despite all of Google's amazing stock of talent they've been a remarkably dysfunctional company for most of their existence. They are almost genetically incapable of having real products (defined as things consumers pay for) or real customer relationships. They are absolutely horrible when it comes to investing in their businesses enough to see them to full maturity. Youtube and google docs (or drive or whatever they're calling it) could easily be multi-billion dollar businesses on their own, but their featureset, market stance, customer relations, etc. have been so poorly improved year over year that instead they merely stumble forward. A lot of this comes about because of google's corporate culture and business. Google revenue is basically all ads from google search plus some backbone networking (ISP/peering) business and then a tiny sliver of "other" (all of their "products"). Not only is there no priority for ramping up their other product lines into real businesses they are making so much money so easily from their main business there are no consequences for failure. So at google there's basically the main stuff that makes a ton of money and then everything else is a romper room of unseriousness and inconsequentiality. Add on to that google's quote flat unquote management structure and their median 1-year tenure and you have to really wonder how the business even functions at a basic level. In some ways they look like a towering monument of unassailable talent and market advantage, but in other ways they look like a teetering house of cards ready to fall over with the next stout breeze. And it seems like so much of the tech industry is in similar shape. No, I don't mean that it's all going to collapse tomorrow or anything like that, I just mean that it's shot through with strong veins of dysfunction at every level and through every aspect.

douche 11y ago
It is kind of amazing how Google let their lead in online office collaboration fizzle out. Now, Microsoft obviously is no slouch, but Google Docs was out with essentially the same feature set as it has now for nearly a decade before the online versions of Office in Office365 came out and became really useful. Now Office 365 is cleaning up in the old corporate settings where Office has always been dominant, plus racking up a lot of the education niche that Google Docs had gained a big share of.
- InclinedPlane 11y ago
  Precisely. Both google drive and youtube have the potential to be businesses that are each on their own as influential, as important, and as profitable as google is in its entirety currently. But google doesn't have the drive, or the need, to put in the work to make them such. Instead they just sort of piddle along with half-assed improvements as time goes by. And really at some point some other competitor is going to put enough of its own pieces together to eat google's lunch and then they'll be on the sidelines. Google is only unassailable because the rest of the industry is even more dysfunctional, not because it's so strong. That's also true of Apple and facebook and Microsoft and so many other tech giants.
  - dilemma 11y ago
    Interesting thought: What if the reason that Google is unable to find a second source of revenue outside of advertising, is the size and importance of the ad revenue itself and the effect it has on the organization?
    - alextgordon 11y ago
      The curse of oil.
    - InclinedPlane 11y ago
      Yes, that's precisely my point. There's no incentive (no hunger) to build up a product into something mature and heavily profitable because of the ad revenue trough. And there's no consequences for failure or missteps for the same reason. This leads to a fundamental lack of seriousness in developing products and customer relationships, which stunts google's development compared to what it could be.
      - disgruntledphd2 11y ago
        Otherwise known as the falling into a moneypit and suffocating problem.
  - 11y ago
jboggan 11y ago
Citation on the median 1-year tenure?
- InclinedPlane 11y ago
  http://www.payscale.com/data-packages/employee-loyalty/full-list http://www.payscale.com/data-packages/employee-loyalty/full-...
  - jboggan 11y ago
    That figure has to be heavily skewed by the sizable HR department which tends to use a lot of contractors as well as the rapid expansion over the last few years. Engineering doesn't have anywhere near that kind of turnover.

douche 11y ago

It is kind of amazing how Google let their lead in online office collaboration fizzle out. Now, Microsoft obviously is no slouch, but Google Docs was out with essentially the same feature set as it has now for nearly a decade before the online versions of Office in Office365 came out and became really useful. Now Office 365 is cleaning up in the old corporate settings where Office has always been dominant, plus racking up a lot of the education niche that Google Docs had gained a big share of.

InclinedPlane 11y ago
Precisely. Both google drive and youtube have the potential to be businesses that are each on their own as influential, as important, and as profitable as google is in its entirety currently. But google doesn't have the drive, or the need, to put in the work to make them such. Instead they just sort of piddle along with half-assed improvements as time goes by. And really at some point some other competitor is going to put enough of its own pieces together to eat google's lunch and then they'll be on the sidelines. Google is only unassailable because the rest of the industry is even more dysfunctional, not because it's so strong. That's also true of Apple and facebook and Microsoft and so many other tech giants.
- dilemma 11y ago
  Interesting thought: What if the reason that Google is unable to find a second source of revenue outside of advertising, is the size and importance of the ad revenue itself and the effect it has on the organization?
  - alextgordon 11y ago
    The curse of oil.
  - InclinedPlane 11y ago
    Yes, that's precisely my point. There's no incentive (no hunger) to build up a product into something mature and heavily profitable because of the ad revenue trough. And there's no consequences for failure or missteps for the same reason. This leads to a fundamental lack of seriousness in developing products and customer relationships, which stunts google's development compared to what it could be.
    - disgruntledphd2 11y ago
      Otherwise known as the falling into a moneypit and suffocating problem.
- 11y ago

jboggan 11y ago

Citation on the median 1-year tenure?

InclinedPlane 11y ago
http://www.payscale.com/data-packages/employee-loyalty/full-list http://www.payscale.com/data-packages/employee-loyalty/full-...
- jboggan 11y ago
  That figure has to be heavily skewed by the sizable HR department which tends to use a lot of contractors as well as the rapid expansion over the last few years. Engineering doesn't have anywhere near that kind of turnover.