3 ms·

Google's Moonshot Projects Are Crashing to Earth

12 points by zonotope 10y ago

WheelsAtLarge 10y ago
This is sad. For years many have asked why innovation has slowed compared to previous generations. Here's a prime example. Companies/CFOs need to see all research as a profit making venture where all money spent must have a short term return and there is very little room for basic research or high risk research that has a long term outlook and benefit. All the moonshot ventures were long term shots at innovation. Now the CFO has looked at them with an eye towards short term profits and most did not pass the test. Too bad, wall street is happy with Google and the stock price will certainly improve but at the cost of long term benefits for all. Let's face facts as great as Google seems it has come at a cost of countless jobs. Advertising campaigns have certainly shrunk when compared to pre-Google days. It's not Google's fault but they have certainly benefited by grabbing a major chunk of the cash. As such they should work towards improving the future. Generating cash for the sake of profits will not make things better. Larry and Sergey did see that Google's money had the power to change things but they seemed to have bent towards the Wall Street way of running a company.
- eli_gottlieb 10y ago
  >All the moonshot ventures were long term shots at innovation. Now the CFO has looked at them with an eye towards short term profits and most did not pass the test. Too bad, wall street is happy with Google and the stock price will certainly improve but at the cost of long term benefits for all. Not just that: at the cost of betraying the people who joined Google when their "moonshot" companies were acquired. Once upon a time, one grim CFO didn't have the power to reap so many projects. Founders should exercise more caution before selling good projects to Alphabet to die.
RikNieu 10y ago
Google,(or Alphabet) from my perspective,has lost the plot. I used to view the company as a place where world-changing technologies got developed, where smart engineers could get to work on the future without beancounters looking over their shoulders fretting over beans, and where the acquisition of a company meant it would finally get to grow and develop, instead of being expected to be a money-maker from day one. Now Google is the company where technology goes to die. It's a place where once promising projects get scrapped without warning. Or get neglected to the point of irrelevance. And why? To focus on ads!? Isn't that a dying industry? Is Google in financial trouble? Why not just stop pretending to be a center of technological progress(and stop acquiring promising startups to kill off)? Is Deepmind next? How much beans do they generate? Why not simply get a business development team to go and market some of those incredibly promising projects instead? I guess that's why Elon doesn't want the Wall Street gangs making decisions on SpaceX. Mini-rant over. As you were.

12 points by zonotope 10y ago

This is sad. For years many have asked why innovation has slowed compared to previous generations. Here's a prime example. Companies/CFOs need to see all research as a profit making venture where all money spent must have a short term return and there is very little room for basic research or high risk research that has a long term outlook and benefit. All the moonshot ventures were long term shots at innovation. Now the CFO has looked at them with an eye towards short term profits and most did not pass the test. Too bad, wall street is happy with Google and the stock price will certainly improve but at the cost of long term benefits for all. Let's face facts as great as Google seems it has come at a cost of countless jobs. Advertising campaigns have certainly shrunk when compared to pre-Google days. It's not Google's fault but they have certainly benefited by grabbing a major chunk of the cash. As such they should work towards improving the future. Generating cash for the sake of profits will not make things better. Larry and Sergey did see that Google's money had the power to change things but they seemed to have bent towards the Wall Street way of running a company.

eli_gottlieb 10y ago
>All the moonshot ventures were long term shots at innovation. Now the CFO has looked at them with an eye towards short term profits and most did not pass the test. Too bad, wall street is happy with Google and the stock price will certainly improve but at the cost of long term benefits for all. Not just that: at the cost of betraying the people who joined Google when their "moonshot" companies were acquired. Once upon a time, one grim CFO didn't have the power to reap so many projects. Founders should exercise more caution before selling good projects to Alphabet to die.

RikNieu 10y ago

Google,(or Alphabet) from my perspective,has lost the plot. I used to view the company as a place where world-changing technologies got developed, where smart engineers could get to work on the future without beancounters looking over their shoulders fretting over beans, and where the acquisition of a company meant it would finally get to grow and develop, instead of being expected to be a money-maker from day one. Now Google is the company where technology goes to die. It's a place where once promising projects get scrapped without warning. Or get neglected to the point of irrelevance. And why? To focus on ads!? Isn't that a dying industry? Is Google in financial trouble? Why not just stop pretending to be a center of technological progress(and stop acquiring promising startups to kill off)? Is Deepmind next? How much beans do they generate? Why not simply get a business development team to go and market some of those incredibly promising projects instead? I guess that's why Elon doesn't want the Wall Street gangs making decisions on SpaceX. Mini-rant over. As you were.