Google = 7-Eleven?
eWeek, looking at Google Spreadsheets, has a shocking (yet shockingly accurate) summation of Google’s ambitions.
It’s not for Fortune 500 companies yet. So is Spreadsheets any kind of competition for the incumbents in this space, namely Microsoft?
The answer seems, for now, to be that Google continues to prove with its actions it’s shaping up to be a kind of 7-Eleven of office desktop software, which is likely to pose little immediate impact on Microsoft’s cash cows.
Ouch.
I wonder if Larry Page and Sergey Brin, working on their PhDs and creating genius algotithms, building a company by hiring geniuses, bucking all the trends and innovating in so many ways, ever thought they’d be called “the next 7-Eleven”. That is the sort of comparison that needs to give you pause and maybe consider that you are totally blowing one of the greatest opportunities since AOL fell apart.
The fact is, Google has a product that the entire internet loves and lives on. They had incredible popular and media support. They had incredible support from Wall Street. But what have they done to show they are interested in doubling their success? Or tripling it? Where is the ambition at Google?
Google’s problem stems from its culture. The founders have done everything in their power to instill a startup-like culture, one that produces innovative products for little money, and very quickly. Problem is:
- Startups don’t make money
- Google needs billions, not small thinkers
Does anyone think Google is developing anything that will make the billions Microsoft Office pulls in? Office is Microsoft’ number two product, selling billions every year. How in the hell will Google Spreadsheet ever make Google billions of dollars? Where is the big idea from Google? Where is the new market? Where is the category killer?
Why doesn’t Google think big?
UPDATE: Turns out this is the “meme of the day”, so to speak:
They’re afraid to think big.
Comment by Jason Schramm | June 7, 2006
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060607-7005.html
You have got to read this, but particularly you have got to read the discussion re: Search Appliances.
Query: Once a Search Appliance can host, display, and edit a company’s documents through an intra-net browser (such as Firefox on Ubuntu) (I mean the simple stuff most of us spend our days on), what happens to MSFT’s cash flow?
Comment by Brock | June 7, 2006
“Startups don’t make money”
Google is throwing things against the wall in the hope of finding the next…Google.
“How in the hell will Google Spreadsheet ever make Google billions of dollars?”
You could have said the same thing about search 6 years ago.
Truth is, one of Google’s products may become the next MySpace or iPod or mouse and no analyst can predict it.
Comment by Hashim | June 7, 2006
I’d like to hope there is a big picture (i.e. Google OS) or something that is going to tie together their disparate services. But it’s hard to justify many of the directions they have branched out into. With Writely and Google Spreadsheets, there is some kind of basis for a “Google Office” with collaboration features. But it doesn’t seem likely to catch on, particularly as a total replacement for MS Office.
Comment by Niraj | June 7, 2006
Ah, Hashim, but MySpace and iPod were relatively new ideas. There’s nothing new about spreadsheets. Google will never make billions on these old ideas. As for search, it was an area in which money could have been made, but no one was trying hard or smart enough. Spreadsheets have been making money for years, and most companies are satisfied with what they have.
Comment by Nathan Weinberg | June 7, 2006
[…] Shrikant Joshi has a detailed post challenging what’s going on at Google with all the product launches and apparent loss of focus on search. Nathan points to an eWeek article that compares Google to 7-11. […]
Pingback by Make You Go Hmm: » Why can’t Google experiment? | June 8, 2006
Nathan, I don’t completely agree about there being nothing new. There is chat so multiple people can have a discussion, but more importantly there’s AJAX. Anyone updating a shared spreadsheet doesn’t have to worry about anyone else they’re sharing with having an older copy. People can watch their spreadsheet update in real-time whenever anyone changes it. This hasn’t been done before, to my knowledge.
Comment by Niraj | June 8, 2006
“but MySpace and iPod were relatively new ideas.”
Social networking and hard drive based music players were old ideas - Friendster and SONY.
Comment by Hashim | June 12, 2006