3 ms·

Google Is Really Three Companies, All On A Roll

14 points by akosner 14y ago

jballanc 14y ago
If Google is three companies, two of them are clearly not carrying their weight! Unless things have changed significantly since February of last year, Google remains the least diversified of the major tech companies: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-google-is-the-least-diversified-business-in-tech-2012-2 http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-google-is-th...
rm999 14y ago
I hate to be so critical, but this article sucks. If I realized it was a forbes blogger site I would have skipped it; those seem to be consistently low quality. >each one of these functions could be a robust company itself. >3.) The Future Seriously? I literally groaned when I saw that 1/3 of the article was devoted to something as vague and silly as 'the future' - what most companies would simply call R&D or innovation. And how exactly would that be a robust company? Self-driving cars show promise but wouldn't make a robust company until there is a product and market. Singularity is an interesting philosophical concept but I'm unclear how it will make google money (if it will even happen in the next few generations). The other two categories, user services and advertising, are obvious to anyone who knows anything about google. And really, these two are pretty intertwined at google: user services provide an advertising medium and advertising pays for user services. It's always been this way, and probably will be for many years.
sdj 14y ago
"The value that the company provides as a service to internet users is vast and perhaps unmeasurable." Unmeasurable? Seriously? Isn't there already a word for this? Oh yeah, immeasurable. You know why your spell checker was highlighting that word, Mr. Kosner? It's not because the computer is stupid and you are so smart. It's because it's not a word. And that quote... “If you are not paying for it, you’re not the customer; you’re the product being sold.” We're going to attribute that to a MeFi post from 2010? Really? Ever read a book? Even in digital form? Please for love of all that can ever possibly be right with the world, stop writing.

14 points by akosner 14y ago

If Google is three companies, two of them are clearly not carrying their weight! Unless things have changed significantly since February of last year, Google remains the least diversified of the major tech companies: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-google-is-the-least-diversified-business-in-tech-2012-2 http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-google-is-th...

rm999 14y ago

I hate to be so critical, but this article sucks. If I realized it was a forbes blogger site I would have skipped it; those seem to be consistently low quality. >each one of these functions could be a robust company itself. >3.) The Future Seriously? I literally groaned when I saw that 1/3 of the article was devoted to something as vague and silly as 'the future' - what most companies would simply call R&D or innovation. And how exactly would that be a robust company? Self-driving cars show promise but wouldn't make a robust company until there is a product and market. Singularity is an interesting philosophical concept but I'm unclear how it will make google money (if it will even happen in the next few generations). The other two categories, user services and advertising, are obvious to anyone who knows anything about google. And really, these two are pretty intertwined at google: user services provide an advertising medium and advertising pays for user services. It's always been this way, and probably will be for many years.

sdj 14y ago

"The value that the company provides as a service to internet users is vast and perhaps unmeasurable." Unmeasurable? Seriously? Isn't there already a word for this? Oh yeah, immeasurable. You know why your spell checker was highlighting that word, Mr. Kosner? It's not because the computer is stupid and you are so smart. It's because it's not a word. And that quote... “If you are not paying for it, you’re not the customer; you’re the product being sold.” We're going to attribute that to a MeFi post from 2010? Really? Ever read a book? Even in digital form? Please for love of all that can ever possibly be right with the world, stop writing.