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Starlink is a futurist project which is really what Elon Musk wants to be. For something like Google they wouldn't do this typically because as a company and th

Starlink is a futurist project which is really what Elon Musk wants to be. For something like Google they wouldn't do this typically because as a company and their leadership they aren't futurists. Google has typically invested in existing viable technologies and forced them into a lower price point to make them more available. Google fiber was introduced 14 years ago when that kind of speed was unheard of. At the time most ISPs wanted to have bandwidth caps and rate limits because they were afraid of people abusing the network. Google came in and showed that it was viable to do at a price point for the residential consumer. This forced the market to adapt. Google also had a similar program with cellular service as well.

govideo 2y ago
your comments remind me of some related, potential factors. I was at Google in the early aughts... definitely had some mega futuristics visions (including later with moonshot). But their CFO (excellent, loved by everyone) had major traditional telco background, so GoogleFi was natural idea, despite it's limited market traction. And you are right -- Google dominant mindset was "ad supported" everything. Separately, Musk of course was physics major. Google 99% CS. So mindsets and ideas vary (with plenty of overlap too)
- tgma 2y ago
  I think you are referring to Nikesh Arora, who runs Palo Alto Networks, the telco guy. He was the business guy, not the CFO. I don't think Look etc was seen as competitive to Google Fi at all. If anything, that would have been a distribution channel. It was entirely execution-related. Musk is much more serious at shipping than Google where X was mostly Sergey's playground of hobby projects.
  - govideo 2y ago
    Nikesh was a telco guy, too. But I was referring to Patrick Pichette, Goog CFO. Before Google, Patrick was at Bell Canada, as President of Operations and CFO. Agree with your sentiment about Musk shipping.
jiveturkey 2y ago
disagree. it’s only recently that google dropped X and moonshots. loon and the wing thing come to mind. sure, now, google isn’t very futurist (look how they botched AI execution), but in the time that starlink was developed, google was very much still futurist. > speed was unheard of. lol. only in the usa. > At the time most ISPs wanted to have bandwidth caps and rate limits because they were afraid of people abusing the network. lol again. it was all about monopoly incentives. do you even analyze, bro? sorry if this comes off too snarky, i have good intentions. i just find your insights very far off base.
- elmerfud 2y ago
  Considering that I've worked at ISPs since the early '90s when they were dial-ups and watched them grow up into something more, Yes I would say that I've analyzed. You offer no evidence of any futurist thing that Google has done. At least nothing to the scale of what Elon Musk has done. Everything Google is done has been a calculated safe risk taking a small step forward in technology that was safe. It was absolutely intended to embed their position as a global leader in search and nothing else. So you can be snarky all you want but it's more important to be correct and back up your statements with evidence. Even Google coming out with Chrome was not a futurist moonshot it was simply taking advantage of the fact that all other browsers sucked and they wanted to cement their position as a search leader and tracking what people do.
  - snowwrestler 2y ago
    Project Loon was futuristic. It did not achieve the scale of Starlink because it failed, not because it wasn’t futuristic. Google also invested early into self-driving cars and remains well ahead of Musk in that area.
    - elmerfud 2y ago
      According to you balloons with radio transmitters are futuristic technology. It didn't achieve scale because the benefits that it offered were too small, and it was too impractical. There was literally nothing futuristic about it at all. You have to understand that starlink itself is only quasi-futuristic and it's the idea of SpaceX that is futuristic. Starlink is just a spin-off. Bringing faster satellite internet around the world is certainly a benefit and a step up from iridium and other satellite providers but SpaceX wasn't founded to make starlink happen. Starlink happened because SpaceX was a thing. SpaceX is a thing because Elon Musk's future vision is for the human species to become multi-planetary. Show me anything that Google has done approaching that scale of future vision. Till we understand I don't know if Musk will actually achieve these visions but that is what is driving the offerings that he has.
sidcool 2y ago
It's great to be uber ambitious and futuristic, but not everyone needs to be. Some companies should excel at solving smaller problems. Like search, smaller AI etc.
more_corn 2y ago
Have you heard of google X? I think they call it the moonshot factory.
- leoh 2y ago
  What they’re doing tends to be neither ambitious nor successful when you cut through the PR
  - tgma 2y ago
    Ambitious, it was. Successful less so, but still, Waymo came out of X, so not sure that is a fair characterization, but yes, overal, it could have been soooo much more under a Musk-like leadership.
inemesitaffia 2y ago
Google invested in SpaceX specifically for Starlink. I hope the OP sees this.
- govideo 2y ago
  I didn’t know that. Thanks for the info.

govideo 2y ago

your comments remind me of some related, potential factors. I was at Google in the early aughts... definitely had some mega futuristics visions (including later with moonshot). But their CFO (excellent, loved by everyone) had major traditional telco background, so GoogleFi was natural idea, despite it's limited market traction. And you are right -- Google dominant mindset was "ad supported" everything. Separately, Musk of course was physics major. Google 99% CS. So mindsets and ideas vary (with plenty of overlap too)

tgma 2y ago
I think you are referring to Nikesh Arora, who runs Palo Alto Networks, the telco guy. He was the business guy, not the CFO. I don't think Look etc was seen as competitive to Google Fi at all. If anything, that would have been a distribution channel. It was entirely execution-related. Musk is much more serious at shipping than Google where X was mostly Sergey's playground of hobby projects.
- govideo 2y ago
  Nikesh was a telco guy, too. But I was referring to Patrick Pichette, Goog CFO. Before Google, Patrick was at Bell Canada, as President of Operations and CFO. Agree with your sentiment about Musk shipping.

jiveturkey 2y ago

disagree. it’s only recently that google dropped X and moonshots. loon and the wing thing come to mind. sure, now, google isn’t very futurist (look how they botched AI execution), but in the time that starlink was developed, google was very much still futurist. > speed was unheard of. lol. only in the usa. > At the time most ISPs wanted to have bandwidth caps and rate limits because they were afraid of people abusing the network. lol again. it was all about monopoly incentives. do you even analyze, bro? sorry if this comes off too snarky, i have good intentions. i just find your insights very far off base.

elmerfud 2y ago
Considering that I've worked at ISPs since the early '90s when they were dial-ups and watched them grow up into something more, Yes I would say that I've analyzed. You offer no evidence of any futurist thing that Google has done. At least nothing to the scale of what Elon Musk has done. Everything Google is done has been a calculated safe risk taking a small step forward in technology that was safe. It was absolutely intended to embed their position as a global leader in search and nothing else. So you can be snarky all you want but it's more important to be correct and back up your statements with evidence. Even Google coming out with Chrome was not a futurist moonshot it was simply taking advantage of the fact that all other browsers sucked and they wanted to cement their position as a search leader and tracking what people do.
- snowwrestler 2y ago
  Project Loon was futuristic. It did not achieve the scale of Starlink because it failed, not because it wasn’t futuristic. Google also invested early into self-driving cars and remains well ahead of Musk in that area.
  - elmerfud 2y ago
    According to you balloons with radio transmitters are futuristic technology. It didn't achieve scale because the benefits that it offered were too small, and it was too impractical. There was literally nothing futuristic about it at all. You have to understand that starlink itself is only quasi-futuristic and it's the idea of SpaceX that is futuristic. Starlink is just a spin-off. Bringing faster satellite internet around the world is certainly a benefit and a step up from iridium and other satellite providers but SpaceX wasn't founded to make starlink happen. Starlink happened because SpaceX was a thing. SpaceX is a thing because Elon Musk's future vision is for the human species to become multi-planetary. Show me anything that Google has done approaching that scale of future vision. Till we understand I don't know if Musk will actually achieve these visions but that is what is driving the offerings that he has.

sidcool 2y ago

It's great to be uber ambitious and futuristic, but not everyone needs to be. Some companies should excel at solving smaller problems. Like search, smaller AI etc.

more_corn 2y ago

Have you heard of google X? I think they call it the moonshot factory.

leoh 2y ago
What they’re doing tends to be neither ambitious nor successful when you cut through the PR
- tgma 2y ago
  Ambitious, it was. Successful less so, but still, Waymo came out of X, so not sure that is a fair characterization, but yes, overal, it could have been soooo much more under a Musk-like leadership.

inemesitaffia 2y ago

Google invested in SpaceX specifically for Starlink. I hope the OP sees this.

govideo 2y ago
I didn’t know that. Thanks for the info.