Google DNA

Article intéressant dans Business Week sur le modèle d'affaire de Google. Selon l'analyste Gabriel Stricker, la structure organisationnelle unique de la compagnie lui donne la flexibilité nécessaire pour transformer uniformément une multitude de défis que le monde peut offrir.

The Google-gloomy-Gus circle contends that the company has by no means created a suite, but rather has simply cobbled together a number of disparate products and services that do nothing to bring cohesion to the brand. They claim that Search, AdSense, Local/Maps/Earth, Froogle, Gmail, Base, Mini/Search Appliance, Google Pack, Video Store, Blogger, and Google Talk are about as much a nuclear family as Joan Crawford's was.

They are wrong.

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Google Communications? This is a genetic no-brainer. Google Talk (its IM and VoIP service) is going head-to-head with eBay's Skype as well as AOL, Microsoft, and Vonage. As part of its Gmail suite, Google Talk gives users a tremendously integrated voice/text experience, featuring its trademark user-friendly interface. With major cities around the world on the verge of offering free Wi-Fi (including a Google-financed San Francisco wireless system), it's easy to imagine the telephony of tomorrow taking place over Google Talk. Oh, and for those who don't want to be tied to their laptops to call Mom, fear not: Google Talk engineers are hinting at new mobile versions of the software in the months ahead.

Google Marketplace? Clearinghouses, such as craigslist and eBay, beware; Google Base is lurking in the cyber-shadows. The stem-cell speculation about the enigmatic Google Base includes everything from a comprehensive classifieds site like craigslist to a Google-managed currency system, which some have dubbed "Google Money." While eBay was busy spending US$ 1.5 billion on its acquisition of PayPal, Google may be circumventing the entire process by inventing a legal tender of its own.

Google Entertainment? Yeah, its DNA can do that. In January of this year, Google announced that it is collaborating with Intel to "give consumers an easy way to search, manage, and consume the huge amount of video information available on the Internet from the comfort of their couch," according to a company release. The Google Video Store currently competes with Apple's iTunes, which for the time being is more user-friendly and has a substantially larger market-share. But given Google's distribution network — either through Froogle or its Google Base — the market-share gap could narrow in a hurry.

Google Hardware? Genetic mission accomplished. A year ago, Google launched the Mini, a scaled-down, blue version of Google's bright yellow Search Appliance, which is essentially a rack-mounted server that businesses can integrate into their network infrastructure for searching shared files and web pages. In this space, Google takes on IBM, Thunderstone, and the UK-based Autonomy. The stem-cell question for prospective consumers is, Where would you prefer to buy this hardware — from IBM, or a company that can give you 5,093,127 results for "enterprise servers" in 0.41 seconds?

Google Everywhere? You read it right: everywhere. Maybe you've tinkered with Google Earth and used Google Maps or Google Local. It's only the beginning. Zagat, Michelin, et al., are shaking in their culinary boots as they watch young foodies downloading the Google Local for mobile beta application to cellphones and conducting geography-specific searches for restaurants, markets, entertainment, etc. — with instant links to their locations and directions, as necessary. At present, even though search results contain no specific ratings information associated with them, the democratic mathematics of Google is itself a ratings proxy: When a restaurant/store/nightclub is prompted for you, it is because other searchers found that suggestion to be useful, valid, and accurate.

Google Organizes the Globe