Google Likes To Steal Others' Thunder

Post by [deleted] » Fri, May 01, 2009, 5:26 AM UTC

qeorge wrote: post #8

showerst wrote: post #4

I think that a portion of this is due to Google's unusual hierarchy model. Between the 20% time projects and the large number of small, loosely related teams, they're constantly trying new strategies (whether internally or in the market). When a related idea makes headlines, it makes sense to release both to make google look good ("We're one step ahead of you..."), and to draw traffic to otherwise unnoticed projects.…

While I largely agree, there are downsides to launching so many "project" services. They end up with a lot of half-baked products under the Google brand. The end result is that I'm wary of investing time in new Google services. As a business owner, its of the utmost importance to me that my vendors are in for the long haul, and outside of its core areas I don't feel that way about Google. Google Talk is a great examp…

Post by gojomo » Fri, May 01, 2009, 7:23 AM UTC

vaksel wrote: post #5

potatolicious wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the article: "Can you imagine Walmart making wholesale changes to its stores because mom and pop's store on the corner implemented some neat features for its customers?" Yes, if Wal-Mart had the magical power to allow 1% of its visitors to walk through the door to a completely different store , they would have the power to experiment with a lot of things that would arguably make the shopping experience better. I…

Walmart does A/B tests too, they just make the changes to a single store to hit that same 1% of its visitors