

Is Google a One-Trick Pony? - gatsby
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2011/tc20110128_084457.htm?chan=rss_topStories_ssi_5

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i386
I asked the same question in a discussion with one of our founders and he said
to me: "Even if they are a one trick pony, its a great trick"

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jacques_chester
1\. Google is in the advertising inventory business. Their biggest competitor
isn't Microsoft or Facebook. It's News Corporation.

2\. Yes, Google has the same problem as Microsoft: all that lovely money and
nothing to spend it on. Like Microsoft they've embraced what I call the
"spaghetti cannon" strategy: they stack projects on top of piles of cash,
shoot it at the market, and see what sticks.

It worked for Microsoft, in that the XBox business is becoming profitable. But
it took them a damn long time, and it overlooks all the failed projects that
offset XBox-related income.

