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"It's as if Google, not knowing who is winning the war, is fighting it everywhere, just in case it turns out that's where the true enemy is hiding." That's a g

"It's as if Google, not knowing who is winning the war, is fighting it everywhere, just in case it turns out that's where the true enemy is hiding." That's a great quote. It seems that once a company becomes undisputed champion of a particular area they redeploy their resources trying to find something else to dominate. Eg Microsoft nailed the desktop, then went chasing the Internet and mobile. FAIL Aol had a good grip on Internet access, then went to become a destination site, or content generator. FAIL Google dominate search and advertising, now going for mobile, desktop (chrome), social. ONGOING Facebook own social networking - where is their folly going to be? Fb credits? Any other examples?

ergo98 16y ago
>That's a great quote. It seems that once a company becomes undisputed champion of a particular area they redeploy their resources trying to find something else to dominate. Or they realize that their domination is fragile. Google worried about the mobile space because it was an area where they could be cut entirely out if one commercial interest dominated, even if their product was what users wanted, had the best features, whatever. With Android it's notable that it's intentionally a very "fragmented" ecosystem, and the reality is that any of the vendors have the full right to pull Google hooks right out of the product if they so desired. One company dominating mobile is a threat to their search business in a way that could completely undermine their entire business model, especially as the mobile space continues to gain relevance. Note that Android did originally target the RIM ecosystem as the original indications were that RIM would dominate. Google worries about social media in the same way: To a lot of people Facebook is, sadly, becoming "the net". Businesses, from big to small, advertise their Facebook page more than even their own websites. People email and message on Facebook, game, read and post reviews, and so on. It is a serious threat to search, which of course means it's a threat to advertising: Google's model is built around a long-tail, very distributed web, and Facebook is completely turning that upside down. I think Google has far less interest in dominating these areas than they want to simply shake things up to avoid anyone else dominating.
- AlexMuir 16y ago
  I don't think mobile search/advertising threatens web search - it's a new industry. People aren't going to search less on their PC because they have a phone that allows them to search. Google moved into mobile because they wanted that additional opportunity, not because their old one was shrinking. Likewise with Facebook - though the threat there is that more people sitting on Facebook = less people looking at Google ads. I think there's a difference between a threat to existing dominance and a threat to future opportunity.
  - ergo98 16y ago
    >I don't think mobile search/advertising threatens web search - it's a new industry I imagine someone in the buggy whip industry said that when cars started to hit the road. A more adept business mind would have probably try to adapt their business for the obvious future. Mobile devices are getting more powerful and more usable. Google is a hundred-plus-billion dollar company built around search. The landscape of how people search is changing. Of course they need to pay very close attention to it, not for today but for tomorrow. Voice search on mobile devices is brilliant, as an aside. >I think there's a difference between a threat to existing dominance and a threat to future opportunity. Indeed, when you're a small company that's the general thought process. Google is a very large, very successful company. They don't want to be AOL or MySpace or Excite@Home. They want to continue to be successful by adapting to the world, and ensuring that the world adapts with them. Their Android initiative has no hope of ever making them any more than rounding figures on their balance sheet, but it does ensure that they remain engaged in search and mobile advertising. It's interesting that you mentioned Microsoft because almost everything Microsoft does can be tracked back to concern about Windows and/or Office. Microsoft got into gaming not because they saw it as a lucrative opportunity (they've been pissing away billions on it), but because gaming and convergence represented a beachhead that could upset their domination of the home. It goes on and on and on.

ergo98 16y ago

>That's a great quote. It seems that once a company becomes undisputed champion of a particular area they redeploy their resources trying to find something else to dominate. Or they realize that their domination is fragile. Google worried about the mobile space because it was an area where they could be cut entirely out if one commercial interest dominated, even if their product was what users wanted, had the best features, whatever. With Android it's notable that it's intentionally a very "fragmented" ecosystem, and the reality is that any of the vendors have the full right to pull Google hooks right out of the product if they so desired. One company dominating mobile is a threat to their search business in a way that could completely undermine their entire business model, especially as the mobile space continues to gain relevance. Note that Android did originally target the RIM ecosystem as the original indications were that RIM would dominate. Google worries about social media in the same way: To a lot of people Facebook is, sadly, becoming "the net". Businesses, from big to small, advertise their Facebook page more than even their own websites. People email and message on Facebook, game, read and post reviews, and so on. It is a serious threat to search, which of course means it's a threat to advertising: Google's model is built around a long-tail, very distributed web, and Facebook is completely turning that upside down. I think Google has far less interest in dominating these areas than they want to simply shake things up to avoid anyone else dominating.

AlexMuir 16y ago
I don't think mobile search/advertising threatens web search - it's a new industry. People aren't going to search less on their PC because they have a phone that allows them to search. Google moved into mobile because they wanted that additional opportunity, not because their old one was shrinking. Likewise with Facebook - though the threat there is that more people sitting on Facebook = less people looking at Google ads. I think there's a difference between a threat to existing dominance and a threat to future opportunity.
- ergo98 16y ago
  >I don't think mobile search/advertising threatens web search - it's a new industry I imagine someone in the buggy whip industry said that when cars started to hit the road. A more adept business mind would have probably try to adapt their business for the obvious future. Mobile devices are getting more powerful and more usable. Google is a hundred-plus-billion dollar company built around search. The landscape of how people search is changing. Of course they need to pay very close attention to it, not for today but for tomorrow. Voice search on mobile devices is brilliant, as an aside. >I think there's a difference between a threat to existing dominance and a threat to future opportunity. Indeed, when you're a small company that's the general thought process. Google is a very large, very successful company. They don't want to be AOL or MySpace or Excite@Home. They want to continue to be successful by adapting to the world, and ensuring that the world adapts with them. Their Android initiative has no hope of ever making them any more than rounding figures on their balance sheet, but it does ensure that they remain engaged in search and mobile advertising. It's interesting that you mentioned Microsoft because almost everything Microsoft does can be tracked back to concern about Windows and/or Office. Microsoft got into gaming not because they saw it as a lucrative opportunity (they've been pissing away billions on it), but because gaming and convergence represented a beachhead that could upset their domination of the home. It goes on and on and on.