So says The Motley Fool’s David Meier, roughly. Avoid the portal/diversification meme, he counsels.
I have to say, the more I stare at Google and the other players (and I’m doing a lot of staring lately), the more a strategy of differentiation-by-not-diversifying seems to make sense for Google. And in fact, Google’s halting on-the-one hand, on-the-other-hand approach to portal-like apps (mail, orkut, froogle, commercial search integration) belie a persistent case of Strategic Indecisivitis. The problem: it makes no sense for a public company to focus only on Search, as it hitches your revenue wagon to a one trick pony. No wonder the debate about going pubic was so contentious, and the ultimate framing around it so tortured.
(tip to Andy and IDentity and Greg Linden.)
“Going pubic”? Accidental typo or Freudian slip? 😉
Cheers,
Doug
Google’s core competency is creating scaleable online consumer services. I definitely expect them to continue rolling stuff out. I just expect tham to be wiser than, say Yahoo, by maintaining a superior search engine.
I think going pubic (sic) may be the way forward. Larry and Sergey were interviewed by Playboy, after all.
How about a p0rn search engine where the user describes in words what he/she wants to see and links to the relevant images are retrieved? Now, there’s a killer app
Great article and web site keep up the stupendance work!! Love the real mothley crew though