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Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

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Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#201

Post by serge2k »

> “No one wants to face the reality that this is an advertising company with a bunch of hobbies.”

great line.

> Many former X employees blame overexuberance on the part of Google’s marketing division for the hostile reception that greeted Google Glass

it was $3000, hard to get, and what were people really going to do with it?

Sure. Marketing.

> He notes that although Glass was marketed to the public as the Explorer Edition, many people assumed it was a finished product.

Fair point, but how many years are people supposed to eagerly wait?

> The effort, known internally as Tableau and championed by Brin, had been a plan to create gigantic TV screens.

what? lol.

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#202

Post by AnimalMuppet »

Afforess wrote: post #38

Google has a fundamental problem with solving challenging issues, especially those in the realm of physical "meat-space". Really hard problems, problems that might reveal that Google is not omnipotent, where Google might not succeed, Google pulls back from. In areas where Google is, Google dominates the landscape. In all others, Google does not deign to participate. If Google can't dominate a market, it is not intere…

> ... the minutiae of power line access...

Hmm. Google might actually be a good candidate for tackling the "smart power grid" problem.

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#203

Post by bduerst »

Afforess wrote: post #38

Google has a fundamental problem with solving challenging issues, especially those in the realm of physical "meat-space". Really hard problems, problems that might reveal that Google is not omnipotent, where Google might not succeed, Google pulls back from. In areas where Google is, Google dominates the landscape. In all others, Google does not deign to participate. If Google can't dominate a market, it is not intere…

>> If Google can't dominate a market, it is not interested.

Google Fi and Fiber are counterarguments to this claim. It's pretty obvious their interest in these markets is to influence the oligopolistic prices and practices, not dominate them.

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#204

Post by ravitation »

blackguardx wrote: post #193
ravitation wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iPod to iPhone was certainly not 0 to 1.

I'm an electrical engineer and know people who were on the first iPhone team. I think it was about as close to 0 to 1 as you get in a big company like that. I worked for a major RF test and measurement company when the first iPhone came out and everyone was blown away that a company could design and tool up production for a cell phone without tipping anyone off in the industry.

Compare Apple, a consumer electronics company, building a phone to Google, an ad tech company, building a self driving car.

One seems to leverage the core competencies of an organization better than the other... One seems closer to starting from 0...

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#205

Post by ravitation »

manarth wrote: post #99
ravitation wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iPod to iPhone was certainly not 0 to 1.

The iPhone was released in June 2007. At that point, the iPod models were Classic (click-wheel), Mini (click-wheel), Nano (click-wheel), and Shuffle (screenless). The first iPod Touch wasn't until September 2007, 3 months after the first iPhone. When the iPhone 1 was released, the iPod range didn't have much on any other MP3 player. All the things that make an iPhone an iPhone - the touch-screen, multi-touch, iOS, di…

COPY: Compare Apple, a consumer electronics company, building a phone to Google, an ad tech company, building a self driving car.

One seems to leverage the core competencies of an organization better than the other... One seems closer to starting from 0...

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#206

Post by serge2k »

sahaj wrote: post #116
bad_user wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of Google's products are complementary products that create lock-in. For instance both Chrome and Android have been created with the purpose of controlling the underlying platform that people use, in order for them to not be at the mercy of the other platform owners, like Apple or Microsoft. And it worked. This is very obvious to anybody with an interest in how microeconomics works. For example this is why open s…

"All of Google's products are complementary products that create lock-in" I disagree. Chrome was created to be a standards based browser, Android to unify the different phone operating systems circa 2004. I picked Google products because they allowed me to get out if I needed to. Gmail provides IMAP, POP. Docs and Music let you take out your data as needed. Google intentionally creates a way to get your data out. All…

> Chrome was created to be a standards based browser

Then why not give money to firefox? Why not start contributing more?

instead they built their own, integrated it with google stuff, and pushed it heavily for years and years.

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#207

Post by sangnoir »

espadrine wrote: post #37

Contrast Google's old way of managing bets with Tesla. When Google started working on self-driving cars, they went about it academically. They did not plan a sequence of stepping stones that they could sell. They meant to have a product in an indeterminate future which should be immediately perfect and better than a human, essentially not needing a wheel. Tesla went about it with an engineering perspective. First, ca…

> The end goal is identical; but they make money along the way.

Not really, there's a fundamental difference in the approach and desired result. Tesla is going for Level 3 autonomy (some human help needed on trip), Google attitude is more of Level 4 or bust.

There are pros and cons to both approaches.

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#208

Post by ocdtrekkie »

yuhong wrote: post #105
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They still do it: https://get.adobe.com/reader/ (Checked today, Windows 10, while using Edge. Default checked on this page is to also install Chrome.) It's worth noting that Sundar Pichai's claim to fame at Google, prior to Chrome itself, was getting the Google Toolbar installed on everyone's PCs whether they wanted it or not. The CEO of Google isn't just a fan of software installation dark patterns like this, he's t…

Google Toolbar was one of the better browser toolbars AFAIK though.

If you're diagnosed with cancer, but it is one of the least fatal forms of cancer... you still have cancer.

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#209

Post by dalbasal »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #118
Periodic wrote: post #11

So many companies try to emulate how Google works. There are multiple books, hundreds or thousands of articles. People speculate on the perks, the review structure, the hierarchy, the autonomy. However, when other companies try to imitate Google they always fail because they're missing a crucial piece: Billions of dollars in ad revenue Google doesn't work the way it does to be successful. It works that way because it…

This is exactly correct. If you have a printing press that is dumping a couple of billon dollars into the basement every quarter in spite of what you're spending, you have the luxury of trying all sorts of novel things from a business perspective. That said, the margins on the search advertising business are shrinking, and have been for years now. You can cover for that by eliminating profligate spending and then eve…

How/why are search margins shrinking? Is it getting more expensive to deliver search? Online ad spending is going up, not down.

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#210

Post by sangnoir »

digi_owl wrote: post #49
espadrine wrote: post #37

Contrast Google's old way of managing bets with Tesla. When Google started working on self-driving cars, they went about it academically. They did not plan a sequence of stepping stones that they could sell. They meant to have a product in an indeterminate future which should be immediately perfect and better than a human, essentially not needing a wheel. Tesla went about it with an engineering perspective. First, ca…

Also, Glass was Brin going off script. I wonder if he bought into the press likening him to Tony Stark...

Every company has it's misfires - before Glasses was Wave, Microsoft Bob, Win ME, Apple Newton and that hockey-puck mouse.
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