
How to Fix Google - jeanhsu
http://tylerneylon.com/b/archives/118
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mikeryan
This misses out on what the Google "cruft" is all about. Products like Android
or Chrome aren't meant to be standalone products/business (and wouldn't be
profitable if they were). Their nature is a defensive moat around Googles
Search/Ad business.

Relevant article: <http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/25/search-googles-castle-
moat/>

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georgi0u
Came here to say this and post the same link.

However, I wouldn't go so far as to say the article's idea is an all around
bad one. If the described sister companies were how new ideas got brought to
the Google table, and only after their success were they integrated into the
__moat __, then Google can persist with their current business model (Castle-
Moat), and the rest of the world can get sans-barnacle developed products. I
think this might actually fit into that entire "returning to startup roots"
initiative that Larry Page keeps mentioning. If you think about it this moves
all the development overhead mentioned to the integration with Google rather
than the core feature development of the product, so no good idea gets
hindered by red tape, and integration can then thereafter be prioritized by
the degree of each products success.

I realize I'm talking abstractly, from a far, an without any account for
constants, project nuances, or implementation details, but I wanted to post
about the techcrunch moat/castle article, and when I saw you had already
posted it, decided to give a brain-dump instead. Enjoy! haha...

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snprbob86
I wouldn't call it broken, especially compared to Microsoft (I've worked for
both). Besides, why don't we at least give Larry a few weeks as CEO before
proposing a restructuring :-P

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zeynel1
" _Companies are a lot like people._ "

True; but even more so: Corporations are living organisms; I call them
humanoid organisms. [http://science1.wordpress.com/2008/10/09/the-realm-of-
the-hu...](http://science1.wordpress.com/2008/10/09/the-realm-of-the-humanoid-
organisms/) Humans are the domesticated critters of humanoid organisms.

