

Google investing in some eye-popping projects - charlief
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-google-crazy-ventures-20101029,0,7103276.story

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smithbits
I think some of this is par for the course for a geek-run successful
technology company. Back in the late 80's and early 90's when programmers
still controlled Autodesk it was involved in projects like Xanadu, AMIX and
even created the Cyberspace Developers Kit. All of these were very cool
projects but far from the core revenue generating product AutoCAD. If Google
follows the trajectory of other major tech companies there will one day be a
down quarter, Wall Street will scream bloody murder and management will
release a memo about "refocusing the company on it core competencies." And on
that day you really want to be working on AdWords where the money is and not
on the cool projects.

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tomjen3
Did that happen when John Walker was still running it? Because I could see
Larry and Sergey saying screw you to Wall Street, and just going on doing what
they have currently been doing. Outing successful founders is extremely risky
and the investors know this (imagine what would happen to Apples stock price
if Steve Jobs was fired tomorrow).

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smithbits
I believe Xanadu and AMIX were canceled when Carol Bartz took over as CEO in
1992. That may well have been the right business decision to make, but it
wasn't a programmer decision. And yes, it seems that Apple is a carefully
crafted corporate machine that needs a design-focused highly-opinionated
control-oriented person at the top. It will be interesting to someday watch
Apple transition to being a post-Jobs company. (full disclosure, I worked at
both NeXT and Autodesk)

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krschultz
They don't see the relationship between some of these projects?

Google consumes a huge amount of energy for their massive server farms. Is it
surprising they are investing in solar and wind energy? I don't think it is
much different than the airlines trying to hedge fuel costs.

Google's primary competency is software engineering. Is it surprising that
they are working on cars that drive themselves? That is defintely a lucrative
problem and they are well positioned to tackle it.

There are plenty of other companies with smaller market cap than Google and a
wider portfolio - just look at Yamaha (musical instruments to small gasoline
engines? really?) or even Microsoft.

I think it is a good thing, maybe the 21st century Bell Labs.

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kin
I feel as if projects like these, as eye-popping as they are, are considered a
norm for Google. Also, of all the investments that cause "analysts" to scratch
their heads leads me to believe that after all this time the world really
doesn't understand tech. it's like Hollywood's inability to fathom why
Zuckerberg would build FB just to build it

