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It seems to me that with this launch, Google has become more like Microsoft when Google was gaining some sort of ascendancy - a juggernaut that is so afraid of
by iantimothy 16y ago
It seems to me that with this launch, Google has become more like Microsoft when Google was gaining some sort of ascendancy - a juggernaut that is so afraid of the upstarts that they chase the shadows of the next big thing, in this case Groupon.
The local search & commerce space cannot possibly only look like Groupon. On Hacker News, we have seen people try different models & different variations. There are some ways that doesn't even rely on deals. Just yesterday we saw http://getpunchd.com/ http://getpunchd.com/ a mobile play on loyalty schemes.
And Google has Android, a mobile OS coupled with what was once and possibly still the best mapping site on the web. It would seem figuring out how those two combined can be the wedge into the local space should be their priority instead of being scared into creating a clone.
- robryan 16y agoThey tried to buy groupon, having that fall through doesn't it make a lot of sense to create a business doing the same thing you were going to do with groupon? These deals are embraced by a large number of people, why try and innovate into a new model that regular people don't get or like when there is already a perfectly good one out there with heaps of traction.
- ScottBurson 16y agoExcept that Groupon is a "people business", with lots of sales and support staff. This is antithetical to Google's culture. I'm not at all sure Google is going to win this battle. Will be interesting to watch.
- cristinacordova 16y agoGoogle has plenty of salespeople as is and has bought plenty of companies with a large number of salespeople (Doubleclick/Admob). They were also willing to take on Groupon's thousands of salespeople with the $6B offer.
- notahacker 16y agoProbably Googles competitive advantage over Groupon is that they ought to be less reliant on direct salespeople than Groupon were because of their existing visibility and customer base and the vast number of external marketing/SEO/design businesses that will happily recommend their customers try Google promotions for a small commission.
- blackysky 16y agojust like they try to beat youtube with google video .... or Facebook with okkut..(not sure how they write it ...) ... if they cannot buy it they create a clone...so far they fail...
- gregable 16y agoI don't know that the last part of that is accurate. Pretty much all successful products that Google has built have in some fashion (as loose as you are suggesting at least) been clones. Search, Adsense, Gmail, Reader, Maps, Chrome, ...
- iantimothy 16y agoI don't know about the rest, but for: 1. Gmail - The history makes it seem like an internal project that became public. Wasn't started to beat some new hot startup earning the attention of the fawning public & investors; wasn't built to muscle into the territory of some startup earning bucketloads of cash. 2. Maps - Was about building a better way to distribute maps on the web. Again, not about muscling in onto a hot new space.
- iantimothy 16y agoMaybe because ultimately doing a clone means you are fighting for a percentage in what is already a fixed pie? Google as a company definitely has the smarts to create a new market.
- Charuru 16y agoI somehow doubt that Google offers is a very high level decision where the space has been thoroughly analysed by many people. What I mean is, google offers probably looks the way it does as a result of an agile process handled by engineers, this is the corporate equivalent of an MVP, and it's like this because it's easy, not because it's good.
- Jabbles 16y agoI don't think the phrase "afraid of upstarts" applies to Groupon, which is seeking a $15billion IPO. http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/01/13/groupon-readies-for-an-i-p-o/ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/01/13/groupon-readies-for-a...