22 June 2021 – Earlier today I posted a New York Times piece on Linkedin “Google Executives See Cracks in Their Company’s Success” and I noted:
The restiveness within the company is both a symptom and a cause. This is going to be an uncomfortable few years for Google: U.S. antitrust is looming, as well as EU, and Google still can’t break out beyond being an advertising company.
As you read everybody commenting, tweeting, and blogging about that New York Times piece it seems everybody has forgotten the glorious past of the Google. I noted this one statement from the article which is eerily without historical context and presented as a novel idea:
But a restive class of Google executives worry that the company is showing cracks. They say Google’s work force is increasingly outspoken. Personnel problems are spilling into the public. Decisive leadership and big ideas have given way to risk aversion and incrementalism. And some of those executives are leaving and letting everyone know exactly why.
Google seems to be in one big mess. A collateral story “A very brief history of every Google messaging app” details how Google keeps falling into the same cycle, one that has repeated itself throughout the years. It’ll build out new services, integrating them into more areas of its product lineup, then try to wipe the slate clean, launch new services that (eventually) replace the old set, and start the cycle anew. Then somebody comes along and shows them how it really should be done … and wins the market. There have been four eras of Google messaging so far. Amazing to have already had four such eras, so it’s no wonder nobody can understand them.
Yes, the GOOG. I want to remind readers that in 2019, the dynamic duo Brin/Page … the creators of Backrub, and the beneficiaries of some possible “inspiration” (theft?) from Yahoo, GoTo.com, and Overture … stepped away from their Mom and Pop online advertising store. With lots of money and eternal fame in the pantheon of online superstars, this was a good decision. Based on my understanding of just the information available from OSINT (oh, ok, and a long-time buddy at Google Analytics), the two decades of unparalleled fun was drawing to a quick close. The boys saw danger in them that hills and thus, hasta la vista, baby. Yep, those visionaries clearly understood the opportunities to sell ads could be rendered silly and so they went for the gold … because there was no meaningful regulation and there was blood lust for anything goes.
But, boy, was there a slew of hints of impending trouble. Just doing the OSINT thing gets you:
– Management issues, both personal and company centric. Who can forget drug overdoses, attempted suicides, and baby daddies in the legal department? Certainly not the online indexes which provide valid links here, here, and here. Keep in mind, gentle reader, that these items are just from open sources.
– Grousing from Web site owners, partners, and developers. In the UK, the Foundem persistence gave hope to many that others would speak up despite Google’s power, money, and flotillas of legal destroyers.
– Annoying bleats about competition were emitted with ever increasing stridency from those “clueless” EU officials. Example number one: Margrethe Vestager. Danes fouled up taking over England, other Scandinavia countries, and lost the lead in ham to the questionable Spanish who fed cinco jota pigs acorns.
Oh, and speaking of the EU regulators, they are chatting about employing the “full portfolio” on tech projects when attacking (er, regulating) Google and its FAANG buddies. Which may not be a bad way to think about the next year or two: make a matrix of every country, every big company and every big issue (competition, privacy, content etc), and then fill in every square. Where is that from? Why Lina Khan who was just made head of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and who outlined all this good stuff in that now famous essay in 2017 saying that U.S. antitrust theory “needed to change” to deal with companies like Amazon who combine market power with low rather than high prices. She said you need to look at “the matrix” (no, not the films).
So for the Search Boys it was bail out time. Brin and Page left Dodge City. This was a surprise? Why? The “high school science club management method” was no longer fun and there seemed to be Indians with pretty big arrows on all the hills in the Valley. Plus, that crazy search technology was expensive and getting old. And other guys were doing it better. Besides, the Foosball table needed resurfacing. And the bean bags were beginning to smell.
When Elvis left the building, the show was over. We went back to reality. Messrs Brin and Page left the building. Got the picture?