Reality is finally setting in at Google

http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/12/google-not-even-pretending-to-be-an-engineer-run-company-anymore

So, the Utopia that was Google (supposedly, the reality has never been what their PR people have made it out to be) is finally understanding how the real world works.  After missing 4 quarters of profit projections in a row and having over half of their products in perpetual beta (which means they never have to guarantee reliability, functionality, or even product viability) Google is finally cutting back and organizing to function as a real company.  Google reminds me of people I know who try to work on 50 projects at the same time, never focusing on any of them, and therefore never really end up finishing any of them.  Google has tried to come out of the gates doing everything at once, and it just doesn’t work that way.  Sure, Microsoft is in a TON of different markets and in many regards ‘does everything’, but they didn’t start out that way.  It’s taken them 30 years to get as diverse as they are.  They started in just the OS realm, then spread out to things such as Office applications, Server environments, and now to even media and entertainment, but they didn’t try to do it all at once within 3 years.

As I’ve said before, Google is in and of itself, it’s own Dot Com crash waiting to happen.  Their IPO was the most over-hyped, over-paid, probably in history.  Google does 1 thing well, so well in fact that none of their competitors are even close, which is search.  But, does Internet Search really warranty the billions and billions of dollars they received for their IPO?  The Google hysteria  comes from 2 sources;  First, people hoping to get in on the ground floor with the ‘new Microsoft’ (from the investment perspective) and second, people hoping Google is the company to finally take down the ‘evil’ Microsoft empire. 

This is what happens when people allow greed and emotion to get into business decisions.  Google has squandered (yes, squandered) an insane amount of money on completely fruitless projects simply to satisfy geek lust.  Hey, I’m a geek, we all want to create really cool things but you need to be able to make a business case first.  You are being paid and paying for your resources using OTHER PEOPLE’s MONEY and you need to be responsible with that.  Don’t get me wrong, I do want Google to innovate, but that needs to be handled in an R&D department, not operate the entire company as a whole this way.  I’ve seen this in the past in my own professional life.  When the entire company functions as an R&D company you end up with many projects at once, none of which fully mature into a successful product.  Google’s over-hyped success of ‘Google Apps’ isn’t even realistic and the numbers are showing it.  Some of their ‘huge’ touted clients either never officially switched or have since left them, but at least the ‘beta’ moniker is finally gone from the logo.

In summary, it’s good to see that reality is setting in at Google and that even the founder executive level understands the changes that need to happen.  I’m finally seeing hope that Google won’t implode on itself but is going to change and begin to function as a real company.  This is great to see as competition is always needed and good in the market, and hopefully all their investor money isn’t just going down the drain.

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