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Google's Crazy Lack of Focus: Is It Really Serious About Enterprise?

Posted by Soulskill on from the looking-for-ways-to-put-ads-in-your-brain dept.

curtwoodward writes "Driverless cars. Balloon-based wireless networks. Face-mounted computers. Gigabit broadband networks. In recent months, Google has been unveiling a series of transformative side projects that paint a picture of the search pioneer expanding far beyond an online advertising company. At the same time, Google has been trying to convince enterprise software buyers that it's finally, really, truly serious about competing with Microsoft for their business. Which version of Google's future should you believe?"

4 of 226 comments (clear)

  1. Re:All of them. by Cenan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There is no real reason why Google can't do all of these things

    Except closing down projects that don't meet arbitrary internal goals without warning. Nobody is going to trust Google with enterprisey stuff, since they can't seem to hold focus long enough for people to actually build an infrastructure around their offerings. When the next new thing comes along, guess which balloon side project gets canned, for no reason, with no warning, leaving countless gimps clamoring for an alternative that is nowhere to be found.

    They might be all about processing information, but they can't seem to actually monetize this beyond shoving ads in their users faces.

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    ... whatever ...
  2. payouts come later by flowerp · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Look at what they did with Android. Seemed like a crazy project at first, but now they're essentially owning the market for mobile operating systems.

    So let them do their unfocused things, because some of them will pay out big later.

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    --- Eat my sig.
    1. Re:payouts come later by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The cloud computing business is purely a side business. The only reason they are in it at all is to monetize their infrastructure needs. Ever wonder why in the early years of EC2 is always slowed down at Christmas time? The infrastructure they were renting out was the excess capacity they need to add every Christmas season to meet demand. They started renting it out and then Christmas time came and they needed it all back, leaving EC2 customers in the lurch. They eventually grew it to the point where it is able to survive without affecting customers, but it is still simply renting excess capacity they don't need. I doubt it could survive without the retail sales business.

  3. imagine this article from a few decades ago... by Lluc · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This article summary from a few decades ago:

    Bell Labs' Crazy Lack of Focus -- Is it Serous about Telephones?
    From semiconductors, to photovoltaics, to computer operatings systems, Bell Labs has wanders aimlessly from topic to topic. How will these ever apply to the copper lines strung across the world to carry our telephone conversations?? Doesn't Bell Labs know that it should only invest in ideas and technology that can pay off within 3 years?