Thursday, June 29, 2006

Hardtalk Google Ireland

Watched a very good Hardtalk interview with the boss of Ireland branch of Google. Interview shows why google employees shouldn’t be interviewed.

Guy came off as normal Ceo that evades tough questions and spun some of his answers were my expectation is as a googler he would give more technical answers which would seem more honest.

I have supported Google stance on China as it is a good argument that it is better to let Chines access 99% of the information then zero percent. A lot of ideological arguments just don’t cut it in the practical world. Google boss saying that it regretted the decision is also cool as I don’t buy into the idea that once you make a decision you have to stick to it.

I was suprised that Yahoo news leads google news and that google is not doing so well in areas I thought they would be.

The argument that google should focus on finishing products instead of branching out in other areas doesn’t follow the 80/20 rule and my understanding of what google is doing. Like the recruiting policy of google which is the stem cell approach, you get smart people and put them in areas and they should be able to grow to meet that area. The same approach can be for business opportunities in which you start with ideas and see how well it can grow of course some will not work well but you don’t wait until it has finished growing before planting another one, That is old school thinking.

The biggest risk is what is being grown doesn’t poison the farm which can happen with some employee and opportunities.


As I blogged before google is creating Gbuy and creating an Adsense method of focusing on conversions instead of clickthrus. I think this is the most accurate model for Internet Adds. Hopefully I will be able to take part.

In terms of competition going forward since my posting “Microsoft where to for now”. Microsoft "has got it" in changing leadership and focus. That one statement that Bill gates watches stolen videos on youtube has really improved his geek status. They also have what I consider a killer application and what I thought google should do in live messenger which I can see causing telco’s nightmares. It is also going to significantly effect our 3g income which our company is about to enter here.

I think going forward the Google’s Search status is un-threatened as long as Yahoo continues to put paid search results in the top 10.

In other opportunities the biggest issue for Google is how easy is it to change from one product to googles product and what is the motivating factor to make that change. It is even harder when a significant number of punters friends/stakeholders are using that product.

My gut feeling is we are entering a new period of change in how people work, communicate and conduct leisure activities and it will be interesting to see how it all unfolds.

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