Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think a lot of Microsoft's problem is that they succeeded in their mission statement. "A computer on every desk, all running Microsoft software" was incredible hubris in 1974. It's reality now. What can Microsoft do to top that? It makes me wonder about what the world will look like in 15 years. Google's mission statement is "Organize the world's information, and make it universally accessible and useful." Right no…
> I couldn't imagine how they could possibly finish their mission statement. Aren't they almost there already? Documents, email, maps, news, phone/voice, search, videos online, and soon television. > "Organize the world's information, and make it universally accessible and useful." ... and to sell ads based on that information. Google is still primarily an ad company that just happens to also do technology that helps…
I think that there's still a long, long way to go. I run into information problems that I can't solve with Google all the time, mostly relating to obscure niche interests. Are there really no people talking about my favorite books on the Internet? Because unless I want to talk about Harry Potter or Twilight, I can't find any. Has nobody run across this error message that I just found in my Haskell/LLVM program and solved it? Of the dozen or two restaurants within a mile of my apartment, only about half of them show up on a Google Local search.
Google does really well for popular stuff, basically anything with a Wikipedia entry. It's still remarkably immature for things that are very niche, when there's just a handful of people around the world interested in that topic.
Udi Manber, Google's search VP, had an interesting interview about that:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9960259-7.html
> ... and to sell ads based on that information. Google is still primarily an ad company that just happens to also do technology that helps them sell more ads.
Honestly, working in search, I don't see that. I'm explicitly told not to worry about revenue or ads. There are other departments that handle that.
I think that the way the founders view it, Google is a technology company where ads give them the wherewithal to build interesting technology. It's the old Drucker view of a corporation: profit is the cost of staying in business. A business exists to fulfill a social function; the profit motive exists to keep the business honest, so that it doesn't consume more resources in pursuit of that fulfillment than it generates.