Comments on: Is Google A Leader?

By: Seun Osewa

Seun Osewa — Thu, 12 May 2005 19:47:47 +0000

"... the majority of the projects we see coming from them are simply the result of sticking a thousand geeks in a building and giving them computers and free food?"

Exactly. Google as I see it is not a 'tight ship' with clear goals, clear directions. It is directed by two young people who started it out of grad school

Young people will *always* make mistakes, and they may not always know what they are doing. Fortunately, until recently, they were in an industry that was not well understood by their competitors.

Now that the industry is "awake", they cannot afford to make as many mistakes as before ... But wait a minute, Sergey and Brin have already sold stock worth hundreds of millions of dollars! Thanks to over-eager investors, Google doesn't have to survive the upcoming search war for the founders to remain rich!

By: Ari

Ari — Wed, 11 May 2005 21:51:53 +0000

Why does everyone seem to think that Google has some sort of "Grand Vision"? Is it possible they aren't quite as cohesive as we think, and the majority of the projects we see coming from them are simply the result of sticking a thousand geeks in a building and giving them computers and free food?

That said, I do think they are becoming a much less fun company to watch (work for?) with the DoubleClick-ization process that's been going on. In short, it looks like any big business schemes they have going on are boring ad-related stuff, and I wonder how much longer the fun side-projects that make us love them will keep coming with their shift in focus away from technology.

By: IDentity

IDentity — Wed, 11 May 2005 20:31:40 +0000

When the Ancient Greeks built the famous monuments, a row broke out between the Principal Architect and the City Accountant. The accountant argued that they wanted a discount as they were not willing tp pay for the statues to be carved on the back, as no-one can see backs only the fronts.

The Architect responded, the Gods can see, and that

By: Dean Rowan

Dean Rowan — Wed, 11 May 2005 19:42:47 +0000

But given its success and its stock price, it has no choice. We're expecting the company to act how we want it to act. The problem, of course, is that we all have different expectations, and we all think we're right about what the company should do next.

I'm not sure this is a problem. If leadership is measured merely by "success" (i.e, stock price), then perhaps we have a problem. Instead, perhaps leadership is about addressing or accommodating different expectations, rather than simply announcing, "This is how it is!" Of course, part of Google's "success" as a search tool has been its ability to adjust our expectations.

The only thing a company can do in such a spot, it seems to me, is lead. Lead on issues of policy, transparency, open APIs, IP/DRM, and the like. How to do that? Have a clear and consistent voice and vision about where you think the web is going, and what kind of web you want to see built. That requires a confidence and certainty, characteristics which I sense exist in spades at the company, but have not really come out in a full throated way.

It's more subtle than this, I think. One can't simply "lead." And confidence and certainty are not always or necessarily a priori characteristics; they often emerge after the fact to explain a perceived success. A confident, certain, clear, and consistent voice and vision is often consonant with an off-putting haughtiness, such as the kind that provokes Fred's "rant." (And so denominating his comments sorta begs the question, doesn't it?) More affirmatively, there are ways to lead that entail confronting uncertainty, avoiding a monotonous message, and playing with risk.