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Maybe this is silly given Google's vast resources, but I do worry about the future of a company that seems to consistently fall short when it comes to marketing

Maybe this is silly given Google's vast resources, but I do worry about the future of a company that seems to consistently fall short when it comes to marketing and product management. Google probably still has a lot of the best engineering talent in the world, but without coherent product strategy and marketing what good does it do? When was the last time Google made a big bet that achieved the same level of success as their earlier products? Does Google's inability to diversify its revenue stream make it more vulnerable to disruption than say, Amazon, in the long run?

lmm 7y ago
> Does Google's inability to diversify its revenue stream make it more vulnerable to disruption than say, Amazon, in the long run? Yes. If ads went away, Google would collapse. Google's core search experience is not that good any more, though it's still the best in town; you have to wonder what would happen if Amazon or Facebook decided to actually go after search in a serious way.
- dodobirdlord 7y ago
  They do. It is deeply irritating to Amazon that people mostly search Amazon's product catalogue via Google, and only actually navigate to an Amazon controlled page when they go specifically to the product page. Amazon has thrown tremendous resources into building a search experience over their own databases and it still sucks compared to the one Google produced by scraping their website.
  - Marsymars 7y ago
    The Amazon search experience could be trivially improved to be made better than Google search for me by doing two simple things: 1. No ads, sponsored listings, etc. 2. Let me filter out listings that aren't sold/shipped by Amazon.
  - lmm 7y ago
    I'm sure some part of Amazon must be deeply irritated, just as some part of Google must be deeply irritated that so many people buying products after searching on Google go to Amazon rather than through Google Shopping. But both Amazon Search and Google Shopping suck badly enough that I struggle to believe they are high priorities for their respective companies, whether that's based on an objective view of their own business or because (tacitly or explicitly) they've decided to avoid fighting each other directly.

lmm 7y ago

> Does Google's inability to diversify its revenue stream make it more vulnerable to disruption than say, Amazon, in the long run? Yes. If ads went away, Google would collapse. Google's core search experience is not that good any more, though it's still the best in town; you have to wonder what would happen if Amazon or Facebook decided to actually go after search in a serious way.

dodobirdlord 7y ago
They do. It is deeply irritating to Amazon that people mostly search Amazon's product catalogue via Google, and only actually navigate to an Amazon controlled page when they go specifically to the product page. Amazon has thrown tremendous resources into building a search experience over their own databases and it still sucks compared to the one Google produced by scraping their website.
- Marsymars 7y ago
  The Amazon search experience could be trivially improved to be made better than Google search for me by doing two simple things: 1. No ads, sponsored listings, etc. 2. Let me filter out listings that aren't sold/shipped by Amazon.
- lmm 7y ago
  I'm sure some part of Amazon must be deeply irritated, just as some part of Google must be deeply irritated that so many people buying products after searching on Google go to Amazon rather than through Google Shopping. But both Amazon Search and Google Shopping suck badly enough that I struggle to believe they are high priorities for their respective companies, whether that's based on an objective view of their own business or because (tacitly or explicitly) they've decided to avoid fighting each other directly.