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Why Google can’t build Instagram

scobleizer.com

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Re: Why Google can’t build Instagram

#21

Post by DannoHung »

zalew wrote: post #16
nikcub wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that is a problem for instagram - it isn't defensible atm. I imagine the Android team will look at it and think 'really, so people want to do that - ok, lets add filters in the next release' and done.

I know, I wouldn't use instagram or these filters anyways, but people seem to like this hipster stuff. Bigger problem for them is, they have to think what to offer their users before these vintage-effect photos stop being trendy.

Ehh, they don't have to worry about that until the cameras on phones stop being so shit. The reason people like the vintage effects is that lots of phones end up taking blurry, slightly out of focus, under and over exposed photos. Slap some vintage filters on that and it looks somewhat charming.

Now, on the other hand, take some serious optics and truths same and unless you explicitly start blowing things out on the photo you've got something weird and artificial looking.

Re: Why Google can’t build Instagram

#22

Post by alecthomas »

I agree with a lot of what he wrote, but his own list of reasons why Google can't innovate refutes his assertion that they can "...by buying companies like Instagram".

Once a company is acquired, all of the same constraints that apply to internal Google projects now apply to it. They are Google for all intents and purposes. "Strategy taxes" now apply, they'll have to port their iPhone app to Android, port their systems to Google infrastructure, and so on.

That is, if the acquisition doesn't get gutted entirely and its employees redistributed to other projects. See AppJet, Jaiku, JotSpot, etc. The "Google Blackhole", or talent acquisitions.

Re: Why Google can’t build Instagram

#23

Post by phjohnst »

axod wrote: post #20
edanm wrote: post #8

I'm not sure I agree with everything Scoble wrote, but it's definitely interesting. One thing I think he doesn't really talk about: whether Google wants to build things like Instagram. The Google Wave example is a telling one - Wave wasn't the success Google wanted, so they scratched it. Nevermind that there were great uses for Google Wave, and there were probably hundreds of thousands of users on it, at least, who r…

> "...and there were probably hundreds of thousands of users on it" I'd be really surprised if usage was that high. I'd believe there being maybe a few thousand using it regularly.

I know 3 completely separate (and non-tech focused) groups of people (each 30+) that were/are running on Wave and are each pretty upset that its going away. I know that each of them came to swear by Wave for almost all intra-team communication.

It wouldnt be a stretch for active users to run into the high tens of thousands. Unfortunately, thats tiny compared to the usage of Google's high-profile projects, so it gets killed.

Re: Why Google can’t build Instagram

#25

Post by sdz »

tav wrote: post #4

Great article, but I'd like to contest a few points. 4. Google forces its developers to use its infrastructure, which wasn’t developed for small social projects One of the advantages of working for Google is that you get access to this infrastructure. At times I wish Google would start offering a raw BigTable service alongside/instead of the richer, but, limited App Engine services. 6. Google’s engineers can’t use an…

Another one:

5. Google’s services need to support every platform

Google services need to support every platform eventually, but nothing stops them from releasing something working on a single platform first. As I recall, Google Chrome was available only for Windows when it was first released.

I think this article suffers from hindsight bias. No, Google is not going to come with with every successful app or web service in the industry, and no, not every product it releases is going to be wildly successful. But saying Google has an innovation problem because it can't build an app like Instagram is like saying Warren Buffet has an investing problem because he didn't buy stock in Apple right before the iPhone was released.

Google's process isn't geared to create novelty hits in the app store, and Buffet's method doesn't lead him to pick high flying tech stocks. But Google and Buffet are still doing fine.

Re: Why Google can’t build Instagram

#26

Post by GHFigs »

axod wrote: post #5

huh? Google have built instagram. It's standard on any Android phone. [photo] -> [share] -> picasa/twitter/facebook/gmail/etc Unless I'm missing something, instagram is a 'feature' that should be on any smartphone. Not surprising it's not on the iPhone though. (First I'd heard of instagram as well. This is an interesting way to get PR).

Unless I'm missing something

You are. Instagr.am is itself a social network and at least as much about looking at photos as sharing them. Where sharing is concerned, it's aimed at sharing across multiple sites at once, and quickly. The filters, as cheesy as many people find them, have a tendency to induce already snap-happy users to take and share more photos with their friends who then ask "How can I do that?"

Re: Why Google can’t build Instagram

#27

Post by asknemo »

I am relatively new here, not based in US, and a bit confused: why is Instagram considered somewhat a huge success in the tone of the article, that Google HAS to learn from it? There has been free iPhone Apps with similar growth before. There's no clear monetization method. There's nothing that competitors can't copy in a week. So what am I missing? Is there something I fail to see here, in the context of what makes it a successful startup?

Re: Why Google can’t build Instagram

#28

Post by adambyrtek »

> Tonight I was talking with an exec at Google and I brought up the success of Instagr.am (they’ve gotten more than 500,000 downloads in just a few weeks) and asked him “why can’t Google do that?”

First of all the number of downloads, especially during the period of initial hype, is not a very useful metric. But even assuming that Instagram is an amazingly successful product, it's still a little fish comparing to Google. This company is more interested in developing Android, a platform on which toys like that can be built, which by the way has more than 200,000 activations per day.

Re: Why Google can’t build Instagram

#29

Post by [deleted] »

edanm wrote: post #8

I'm not sure I agree with everything Scoble wrote, but it's definitely interesting. One thing I think he doesn't really talk about: whether Google wants to build things like Instagram. The Google Wave example is a telling one - Wave wasn't the success Google wanted, so they scratched it. Nevermind that there were great uses for Google Wave, and there were probably hundreds of thousands of users on it, at least, who r…

[deleted]

Re: Why Google can’t build Instagram

#30

Post by wyclif »

tav wrote: post #4

Great article, but I'd like to contest a few points. 4. Google forces its developers to use its infrastructure, which wasn’t developed for small social projects One of the advantages of working for Google is that you get access to this infrastructure. At times I wish Google would start offering a raw BigTable service alongside/instead of the richer, but, limited App Engine services. 6. Google’s engineers can’t use an…

Agree that #7 is off. Scoble mentions bug testing and engagement from the outside community and says that "Google can't do this", but the fact is that they do. Just the other day here on HN there was a post by a Google engineer on the Chromium project asking for code commits from outside, and asking junior programmers to build Chrome and start committing bug fixes: http://www.aaronboodman.com/2010/10/wherein-i-help-you-get-g...
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