Google was a originally search company, but from what I can see their major success was figuring out how to run computer systems at reliably and at scale before

Google was a originally search company, but from what I can see their major success was figuring out how to run computer systems at reliably and at scale before anyone else. Everything else you see now - Ads, Maps, Android, Waymo, Youtube was a weed translated onto that infrastructure that went onto thrive. Yeah, there were many, many more weeds that didn't survive the transplant. But since they didn't cost Google much they don't matter. Given what you see from Google now is dominated by the "everything else" (I doubt even losing search would be fatal), Google is a poster boy for growing a technology company by acquiring new products. Given the rumours about their ongoing cultural shift (I'm sure Intel was like Google at one stage), this may not continue. But for new Google is the exemplar for now to do this right.