3 ms·

Why does Google do it? I can't understand what business purpose it could possibly serve for Google. And if it is just a side R&D project, how come the sharehol

by jwr 15y ago

Why does Google do it? I can't understand what business purpose it could possibly serve for Google. And if it is just a side R&D project, how come the shareholders do not revolt?

jeffool 15y ago
Off the top of my head, they're probably the most widely known brand in both consumer maps and local search. While "not-driving" people will often be online, and I imagine often searching for places to go. Also, there's the "Bell Labs" of it. How do you know what you can do unless you push boundaries into new places, which necessitate new ideas? The idea that companies should stick to what they know and that shareholders should expect nothing else of them, is to me akin to the idea companies should be expected to fight progression/expansion for fear of losing the market they have. Look at the RIAA. Imagine if they had more than a legal arm, but a research group. What if they had been looking into audio compression and transfer? They may have founded the first successful online music store, and before Napster. The industry could have its own iTunes, instead now they try to herd snakes back into a pen that can't contain them, with lawsuits. That, to me, is irresponsibility. In pushing for new fields, Google pushes for new markets. And in being the popular party doing so, they're seen as "first" in many people's eyes.
VMG 15y ago
Google is an AI company
patrickk 15y ago
They could licence the tech for serious $$$ to the car makers. They could beam 50" google ads into millions of commuters eyeballs on a screen where the windscreen was. I'm willing to bet that they have the machine learning and AI capabilities in-house that car makers could only dream about, so it makes sense that google does this (See the Udacity course on the self driving car by Sebastian Thrun). Asking why the shareholders don't revolt is extremely short-term thinking. Googles rate of growth from their core search business is already slowing, this would be an exciting way to speed it up again.
Lendal 15y ago
They want Street View to be constantly up-to-date, and they don't want to pay hundreds of drivers to constantly crawl the streets of the world 24/7. I can think of many possibilities when every Street View picture of every sign and storefront is updated every morning. They've already got a lock on online advertising. Now what happens when all you need to do to use Google to advertise your business is to hang a sign in the store window and wait for the automated Google Car to come by every morning to take a picture of it?

by jwr 15y ago

Why does Google do it? I can't understand what business purpose it could possibly serve for Google. And if it is just a side R&D project, how come the shareholders do not revolt?

jeffool 15y ago

Off the top of my head, they're probably the most widely known brand in both consumer maps and local search. While "not-driving" people will often be online, and I imagine often searching for places to go. Also, there's the "Bell Labs" of it. How do you know what you can do unless you push boundaries into new places, which necessitate new ideas? The idea that companies should stick to what they know and that shareholders should expect nothing else of them, is to me akin to the idea companies should be expected to fight progression/expansion for fear of losing the market they have. Look at the RIAA. Imagine if they had more than a legal arm, but a research group. What if they had been looking into audio compression and transfer? They may have founded the first successful online music store, and before Napster. The industry could have its own iTunes, instead now they try to herd snakes back into a pen that can't contain them, with lawsuits. That, to me, is irresponsibility. In pushing for new fields, Google pushes for new markets. And in being the popular party doing so, they're seen as "first" in many people's eyes.

VMG 15y ago

Google is an AI company

patrickk 15y ago

They could licence the tech for serious $$$ to the car makers. They could beam 50" google ads into millions of commuters eyeballs on a screen where the windscreen was. I'm willing to bet that they have the machine learning and AI capabilities in-house that car makers could only dream about, so it makes sense that google does this (See the Udacity course on the self driving car by Sebastian Thrun). Asking why the shareholders don't revolt is extremely short-term thinking. Googles rate of growth from their core search business is already slowing, this would be an exciting way to speed it up again.

Lendal 15y ago

They want Street View to be constantly up-to-date, and they don't want to pay hundreds of drivers to constantly crawl the streets of the world 24/7. I can think of many possibilities when every Street View picture of every sign and storefront is updated every morning. They've already got a lock on online advertising. Now what happens when all you need to do to use Google to advertise your business is to hang a sign in the store window and wait for the automated Google Car to come by every morning to take a picture of it?