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Google's Insular Nature
stockpicker_dude_78 writes "Robert Cringley has written a thought-provoking article on Google's insular nature, and compares them to the similar environment at Microsoft." From the article: "Google is secretive. This started as a deliberate marketing mystique, but endures today more as a really annoying company habit. Google folks don't understand why the rest of us have a problem with this, but then Google folks aren't like you and me. The result of this secrecy and Google's 'almighty algorithm' mentality is that the company makes changes -- and mistakes -- without informing its customers or even doing all that much to correct the problems."
This is a good example of uninformed posting.
To compare Google to a dotcom seems more a misunderstanding of what is going on than anything else. While you may not like Google, the value of their stock, how they conduct their business, or whatever else... you can't say it's not worth it.
For example, in my company, we find that nearly 80% of all software purchases start with Google. Not with someone else. Google. In a multibillion dollar industry, that's a lot of searches. We have a lot of money we send Google's way as well because of that.
While Google might not make dollars off of you, you haven't hit their target yet. But that's okay, because that's the beauty of their system.
We haven't even talked about mapping, local searches, etc. You don't see how people make money off of using using Google? You must be loco.
Who cares if they're secretive? It's better than goofy proclamations that always turn out wrong by the likes of Gates, Ellison, McNealy, or RMS. And the last time I checked, I didn't have to pay a dime to get a great amount of benefit from them.