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> Google is in an ugly place right now. I disagree. Massively. After Elon Musk, and possibly partly inspired by him, Page has driven Google to be, by far, the
by AVTizzle 12y ago
> Google is in an ugly place right now.
I disagree. Massively.
After Elon Musk, and possibly partly inspired by him, Page has driven Google to be, by far, the most ambitious tech titan in the game right now.
Looking past G+ and its nonsense (which is an ugly thing, granted.):
- Loon is in motion, and in conjunction with recent drone acquisitions, will likely bring internet to currently unconnected billions.
- Self-driving cars are actually happening.
- The smart contact lens for glucose monitoring will change the lives of diabetics.
- Investments and acquisitions in AI and Robotics speak to a MASSIVE ambition in that sphere.
- The recent announcements in their consumer lines with TV, Nest, Auto, and wearables are extremely competitive.
And these are just the things we know about.
Compare all this to Apple (which I love, but a Beats acquisition, a bigger iPhone, and a watch coming? Woop-de-doo.), and Facebook (how's Slingshot doing?), it's not even the same game anymore.
To say that Google is an ugly place, or that they're "beholden to the advertising agency", is naive to the bigger picture.
- Chronic29 12y agoGoogle is an uglier place than it was several years ago. The NSA leak combined with all the press surrounding dropped products, makes Google appear more "evil"
- judk 12y agoEverything you described is Sergey, not Larry. Larry did G+.
- AVTizzle 12y agoRight right, I digress there. Still, the point of the case remains - Google is crushing it and is, along with Musk & co., absolutely one of the most exciting companies in the world to watch right now.
- newaccountfool 12y agoSo is the NSA.
- aqzman 12y agoHow long will it be until every mentioned of Google isn't followed by some sort of NSA related comment? Everyone knows, to an extent, what happened and it really adds nothing to the conversation.
- cloudwalking 12y agoActually, Vic did G+.
- snowwrestler 12y agoEvery single one of the things you mentioned is a prototype, research project, or poorly performing product. The only success in that list is Nest, which Google just bought. Yes, it's true that one or more of Google's "moon shot" projects might become massive successes. But it's also true that they might not. Elon Musk, like Apple, focuses on products that actually ship and sell. Tesla sells great cars with great efficiency. SpaceX flies great rockets, for pay, with great efficiency. Musk came up with the Hyperloop, but (unlike Google) he's not spending any time or money on it.
- AVTizzle 12y agoPrototypes and projects they may be, they still speak to Google's greater ambitions. They're aiming high. That's all I'm saying. It's hard to argue against that. It's easy to forget that Tesla and SpaceX weren't always the great cars and great rockets with great efficiency they are today. Just 3-4 years ago they were both on the brink of collapse. In one of my undergraduate business classes in 2009, one of my professors literally used Elon Musk and Tesla/SpaceX as a case study in poor management. Like SpaceX and Tesla, Google X's moonshots deserve time to evolve.