Google ≠ Netscape ???
I had proposed the idea that Google was becoming the new Netscape, on the heels of news that Google had acquired Writely and MeasureMap, and later learned that they had also acquired @Last Software, makers of the fun-yet-powerful Sketchup.
But in a seemingly odd cue of events, I stumbled upon a couple of articles that talk about tabs, UIs, Google, and most importantly FireFox from one of the lead UI engineers over at the FireFox crew. What is most evident from this kind of post, is that Google is not Netscape. Netscape went from the fun-loving dragon to a slow, antiquated behemoth that buckled under its own weight: it couldn’t be more apparent if you look at where FireFox came from. Having said that, Google fascinates me as a business-model that grew exponentially and has not buckled under its own weight. One has to wonder, given that it is a publicly held company and that it does ultimately have investors to please, how this all comes together. One theory I have is that Google has the best damn database of user profiles to ever exist. If so many users are putting restaurant requests, emails, directional searches from our homes, our froogality [sic], our website addresses, our social networks through some of those sites, analytics of what kind of people we relate to through our websites, online chat transcripts, and most of our general web conciousness through their servers, how can they NOT be extrapolating and interpolating incredible reams of data on us?
My point being that Google has evolved from just a search engine to being somewhat of a social engine and this is something Netscape never planned on being, at least with their vision of how the web should be. Google is different. There lingers this great sense of philanthropy amongst their many busy bees, despite their somewhat malfunctioning search engine. I think Google will be more interesting to watch than Microsoft, as an evolving organization and business. Where will the size vs. product quality compromise occur in the organization and when?
UPDATE
Here’s some more related reading re: Google
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4816848.stm
I think a better equation is this: google = microsoft * the web
Had Microsoft “caught on” to the Web sooner (remember this? http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/columns/1995essay/essay950815.asp), I don’t think there would even be a Google to talk about. Microsoft would look almost exactly like Google does now — but perhaps even more powerful, since they’d have their OS and Office dominance as well.
“Where will the size vs. product quality compromise occur in the organization and when?”
I think it’s already happened. (Look at the quality of the search results today.)
And it is only going to get worse.
True, but do you consider MSN results to be superior to Google? I recently tried the beta of MSN, styled in Google-esque minimalism, and I still wasn’t blown away by the quality, speed, or depth of search results. I’m not sure MS would have caight on, it seems to be a BIG if… I distinctly remember some peers’ first impressions of Google that ‘It’s just so fast’ in a world that was dominated with bloated, visual-noise-heavy, and especially slow sites. Yahoo has been almost-always been responsive but it seemed to pale in comparison to the .00000789 seconds Google took to deliver the same results.
And if they (MS) did, what would have happened? I’m thankful of being free of 2.0mb ceiling for my Hotmail account and needing to pay for additional storage. I don’t even really see the Google ads relative to the annoying Hotmail ones, all of which would slow my browsing experience to a crawl. I have webmail accounts littered around the web because companies were edging others out with 1mb, 2mbs, 3mbs, etc. Then I used Netscape webmail for years (which still remains locked in the dark ages, for the record).
My point is that Google is no angel, but certainly MS isn’t either and I don’t find that they do “get” the web. I’m waiting for the OfficeLive launch to really build steam to see what MS is capable of.
Don’t get me wrong — I am no fan of Microsoft. With one exception (SQL Server), I can’t stand Microsoft’s products. And I fully agree that MSN (as a search engine) leaves a lot to be desired.
I guess the point that I was trying to make is that it would be nice if Google would devote more of their resources (time and money) to creating a really, really awesome search engine. Find a way to block the search result spammers (the “black hats” as the SEO community calls them). Find a way to address the concerns of Webmasters who claim to have been wrongfully banned or penalized. Find a way to stop click fraud (before it brings the whole PPC business model down).
Google seems so scattered these days, with all of their beta products and services. They should finish and fix what they have started.
My mom always says to me, “Don’t forget where you come from.” I think Google should do the same.
On that note, I couldn’t agree with you more!!!