

Can Google Get Its Mojo Back? - ssclafani
http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/08/google-mojo/

======
krosaen
Wow, what a one sided piece. the flops from google: "Buzz, Wave, Google TV,
and the Nexus One". As Paul Buchheit points out,

"They take big risks. People often point to projects such as Wave as evidence
that Google has "lost its magic" or something. To me, it's evidence that they
are still willing to take risks on new ideas and new ways of doing things
(Wave was run as a completely autonomous project in Australia). If everything
you do works, then you're not taking many risks and probably aren't innovating
either. Obviously, if everything you do fails, that's not good either, but
there's a sweet-spot somewhere in the middle. Google has enough big successes,
such as Chrome and Android, to show that they are somewhere near that sweet-
spot"

It's not that google doesn't have problems, but with every possible negative
issue piled on in such a one sided manner, it seems more FUD than any sort of
earnest critique.

~~~
nkassis
I agree with you, some of those projects are way to new to be considered
failures (Buzz, Google TV). They might be but I find it premature to call them
that. As for the Nexus One, it wasn't selling like the iPhone but I know of a
few who did get one, but in the end how many iPhones were purchased online?
The best part is that other Android phones tried to match it's spec once it
came out, no need to call that a failure.

The only argument I can agree with in the post was about the relation Google
has with devs and users. Sometimes they do release stuff and then it seems
they forget about them. But I think most of the time that's just lack of time
by the people working on those projects, they try to add features and move
forward and that's always a tradeoff with maintaining whats there and
developing relations with devs/users.

------
wyclif
_Google is in serious decline._

I didn't bother reading past that. Just scanned down a bit. Total, utter
dreck. Does anyone here take these fluff pieces by TechCrunch seriously?

A more appropriate question on HN would be, "Can TechCrunch Get Its Mojo
Back?" The quality of stories has decreased dramatically, and I've dropped
them from my RSS feed. I don't think this has much to do with AOL-- the rot
had already set in well before that-- but I don't think it will help the
quality come back.

~~~
w1ntermute
> Does anyone here take these fluff pieces by TechCrunch seriously?

Does anyone here take any pieces by TechCrunch seriously? I'd really
appreciate it if someone made a userscript to hide submissions from domains of
my choosing.

Edit: <http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/27105>

Supports Reddit as well.

~~~
wyclif
I doubt TechCrunch really cares that these stories are worthless, after all
this is just linkbait deployed to increase their weekend ad impressions.

~~~
w1ntermute
Which is why we should _stop clicking on & upvoting them_.

------
ggordan
How quickly the media turns.

Looking at how much effort Google is putting in mobile, and how much success
they're having, I'm not sure their mojo has gone anywhere. [1][2] It's easy to
concentrate on the failures, and overlook the successes.

Sure, they've had a few flops lately, but that's an inevitable result of a
company that is trying hard to innovate.

[1] [http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/13/google-mobile-searches-
grew...](http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/13/google-mobile-searches-
grew-130-percent-in-q3/)

[2] <http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2375411,00.asp>

------
dododo
from the article...

    
    
       the data is compelling

...

    
    
       Even their money fount, AdWords, is problematic. An
       illustrative anecdote: I ...did this and that...
    

...

    
    
       While I can’t quantify this, I’m confident that most engineers will agree:
    

the article claims to argue from data, but presents no actual data: simply
anecdotes. c.f.,
[http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~cook/movabletype/archives/2011...](http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~cook/movabletype/archives/2011/01/for_those_of_yo.html)

------
blinkingled
I honestly would like to understand what possible motive(s) the "media" could
have to write this kind of one sided, nearly 100% wrong, senseless article
that claims something really big.

You've got to wonder - is it paid for by a rival? Is it that in the world of
anyone-can-write-for-a-blog, we are seeing utterly stupid people getting
chance to write anything they can dream? Is it just an opinion vs. fact? Is
the writer pissed off by the corporation he/she is writing off in some way?

~~~
motters
Sometimes with FUD articles like this when you check the background of the
author they're either working for, or closely allied with, a rival company
(like Microsoft), but as far as I can tell this is merely a case of
cluelessness rather than partisanship.

------
rlmw
I find it quite amusing that they chose Microsoft as a company who has its
mojo back, despite the total failure of the Kin and low sales of Windows Phone
7. I don't see how Bing, a search service with low market share that is losing
money is a success and google, a search service with high market share that is
making money hand over fist, is a failure.

------
gaiusparx
We must thank Google for its contribution and effort to fight off computing
monopolies. Enterprise with Google Apps vs Microsoft, Android vs Apple, coming
soon xxxMe vs FaceBook, AppEngine/Boutique vs Amazon. But this is kind of
spreading too thin and fighting the whole world alone. Looks like its their
destiny rather than their vision.

ps. Arrington should put forward the question to the CEO and post the video,
like he did to others.

ps. Its too early to write off Google TV. Chrome browser and Android are great
success.

------
aresant
This article handily leaves out that the products most crucial to Google's
core business - selling ads against search - are on an absolute tear:

\- YouTube is now the world's second biggest search engine.

\- AdMob grew by 4x in the last year and is growing FASTEST in China which is
hugely important.

\- Android is well on its way to becoming the ubiqutious consumer phone
platform.

\- Gmail is growing like a weed and rolling out really useful and innovative
features reguarly.

I agree that Google has lost some of the spit shine and I would never want to
work there, but I don't think he's properly framed the "failures".

~~~
jshen
but the fear is gone. Remember back in the day when everyone feared going into
a market that Microsoft might get into? There was a similar fear with Google,
but it's not there anymore. That's a problem for Google.

~~~
rlmw
Microsoft still tried to compete in search, Apple are competing despite
Google's smartphone entry, there are other mobile advertising networks being
founded and people are still attempting to found alternative video networks.
Did the fear actually stop competitors? I think not.

~~~
jshen
the fact that some competitors exist does not mean that others were not scared
away. Hell, most could have been scared away.

Your argument is a non sequitur.

------
da5e
I consider "Google in Decline" articles to just be linkbait.

------
dholowiski
It seems to me that the industry is ripe for disruption right now, with the
massive focus on mobile everything, major companies have forgotten about
'normal' users on a desktop (or laptop) with a beefy Internet connection, huge
processor and big monitor.

------
some1else
Can Techcrunch only publish articles by Arrington and Wadhwa?

It sucks that I don't know whether to expect a hot story, an in-depth column,
or some guy's delusional subjective opinion.

------
ramanujan
The most surprising stat in the article is the claim that Google actually lost
1.2% of search share from Oct-Nov 2010. To who? Bing? Really?

The one thing Bing does have going for it is that its video search is
significantly better than Google's. And that drives an important category
[ahem] of web searches. I suppose Googlers could see whether that particular
category was impacted, to the extent these numbers are real.

------
mousa
I can't think of a big company more ambitious than Google or one that gets
involved in such a variety of new projects. As a result they are bound to fail
a lot but the money is still rolling from their main products, and young
engineers are still attracted by that ambition. No mojo lost.

------
Aloisius
Does anyone know what percentage of Google's products that originated from
companies they purchased?

I know Wave and Android were purchases, but it is always good to keep in mind
the difference between Google built products and Google purchased/hyped
products.

~~~
blinkingled
Android was not in a shape where it could compete with the iPhone when Google
bought them. They bought it sure - but they also made most of what makes it
successful in today's market.

------
patrickaljord
A few anecdotes and blog posts by angry sites owners who don't get to appear
on top of google results are no arguments. Google is doing more than fine.

------
dannyr
This article is so spot on.

If you discount its success on Android, Search, etc and high-performing stock,
Google has pretty much been a failure.

------
BonoboBoner
The amount of google bashing is ridiculous these days. When will Facebook
reach that ugly part of the hype-cycle? 2 years maybe?

------
jacquesm
I'll just leave it at that:
[http://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&...](http://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=maximized&chdeh=0&chfdeh=0&chdet=1294526272009&chddm=614290.0000000001&chls=IntervalBasedLine&cmpto=INDEXDJX:.DJI&cmptdms=0&q=NASDAQ:GOOG&ntsp=0)

------
sdizdar
I don't think Google is loosing mojo. But I do see one problem: Google revenue
is all connected to search, and the next disruptive innovation seems to be in
area of search (I personally, I'm not satisfied with quality of google
search).

Or maybe ad $$ will move from search advertising to something similar to
GroupOn.

------
yanw
What kind of weak bullshit is that?!

Dismissing products that didn't have immediate traction as failures instead of
recognising them as innovative attempts and experiments.

Characterising a few wildly over-echoed departures as brain-drain (too many
outlets are trying to push that narrative) and ignoring the fact that they
have their largest payroll yet, they bought like 30 startups last year I bet
there is some talent there.

Also characterising chatter in code pages as a problem instead of community
engagement. The App Engine team just released a major update merely a few
weeks ago.

This distortion field these ‘reporters’ seem to encounter whenever they write
about Google is astonishing, and I fear there are some alterior motives behind
all this.

Edit: Also to contrast the nonsense (I am quite annoyed by it) with data:

 _Google Mobile Strategy Playing Out Almost Flawlessly: Ads Growing, Android
Beating iPhone_ [http://searchengineland.com/google-mobile-strategy-
playing-o...](http://searchengineland.com/google-mobile-strategy-playing-out-
flawlessly-ads-growing-android-beats-iphone-60565)

------
maeon3
"Can Google Get It's Mojo Back?"

Loaded question, whether you answer yes or no, you admit that Google lost its
Mojo. When did you stop beating your wife by the way?

------
j2d2j2d2
No. Companies don't get their mojo back.

 _Edit: with the exception of when certain original members of the company
come back._

~~~
tomjen3
IBM got their mojo back several times, yet the founders are rotting in the
ground and would probably cause a panic if they came back.

~~~
j2d2j2d2
Could you explain just what IBM did that demonstrates a return? They're
certainly still profitable, but people don't fear them as a competitor.

~~~
tomjen3
Do you fear Amazon?

~~~
j2d2j2d2
I'd like to hear you examples and continue the conversation but I think email
is more appropriate. jdennis at google's mail service

------
Keyframe
Article is fud/shit.

Having said that, maybe I'm stupid - but I'd really like to see Google taking
a bit of holistic approach to its management/product management.

