Ex-Google exec rues social media push

[Derrick]

Ex-Google exec rues Larry Page social media regime

A former Google executive went public on Tuesday with a lament that the Internet star has become obsessed with advertising and seizing the online social networking crown from Facebook...

 

[nelwa]

I agree, google has lost focus...and you can feel all their services deteriorating, it's almost as if the passion is gone...

 

[eltherza]

I agree, google has lost focus...and you can feel all their services deteriorating, it's almost as if the passion is gone...

I agree, they've gone from awesome search to this soft social thing that just isnt working...

 

[entrepr]

Harsh words. I must say that Google hangout is definitely a cool service. Forcing everyone to pay 30% fees for their apps marketplace is not cool.

 

[Viva]

I agree, they've gone from awesome search to this soft social thing that just isnt working...

I agree, google has lost focus...and you can feel all their services deteriorating, it's almost as if the passion is gone...

Are you guys serious?

Google put immense effort into streamlining their product offering by getting rid of products that just did not get of the ground, and focusing on their successful products. In addition, they applied a complete visual overhaul across their array of products to unite them into a unified service.

If you call this "losing focus", I don't know what you expect them to do. Asserting that Google should limit it's business to search as that's all they're good at, is a rather conservative point of view. They're in it to make money. Of course they need to expand the scope of their business by offering new kinds of products.

One last thing: Google+ is extremely successful. It's not just a blind copy of FB - it's intended to be used in a new different way. To assert that Google is not successful at social because Google+ have not yet overtaken Facebook is rather short sighted.

 

[alloytoo]

Are you guys serious?

Google put immense effort into streamlining their product offering by getting rid of products that just did not get of the ground, and focusing on their successful products. In addition, they applied a complete visual overhaul across their array of products to unite them into a unified service.

A change which was largely unneccessary and an aesthetic disaster.

Fact is, some services are not served by the unified theme and forcing them to comply has much the same effect of putting a square peg in a round hole.

If you call this "losing focus", I don't know what you expect them to do. Asserting that Google should limit it's business to search as that's all they're good at, is a rather conservative point of view. They're in it to make money. Of course they need to expand the scope of their business by offering new kinds of products.

Every organisation has a core business which sustains it and which should be protected at all costs. For Google that's Search. Diversifying your product offering, to complimentary products is one thing but this unification in a fruitless quest for social platform status is effecting the core business.

This is like a Dairy farmer diversifying.

First his produces cheese in addition to his milk. This is fine, good milk makes good cheese.

However someone down the road has a tanning factory and the farmer is jealous so he starts his own. Then he finds that his cows aren't the best for tanning so he changes the composition of the herd to suit tanning.

Problem is, tanning cows make lousy milk.

One last thing: Google+ is extremely successful. It's not just a blind copy of FB - it's intended to be used in a new different way. To assert that Google is not successful at social because Google+ have not yet overtaken Facebook is rather short sighted.

Facebook and google+'s brand of social networking are dinosaurs looking for a meteor.

Privacy and ownership concerns coupled with broadband expansion are going to force people to decentralize their social networking for their own security and peace of mind.

 

[CritiKill]

Beware the Googleopoly

A change which was largely unneccessary and an aesthetic disaster.

Fact is, some services are not served by the unified theme and forcing them to comply has much the same effect of putting a square peg in a round hole.




Every organisation has a core business which sustains it and which should be protected at all costs. For Google that's Search. Diversifying your product offering, to complimentary products is one thing but this unification in a fruitless quest for social platform status is effecting the core business.

This is like a Dairy farmer diversifying.

First his produces cheese in addition to his milk. This is fine, good milk makes good cheese.

However someone down the road has a tanning factory and the farmer is jealous so he starts his own. Then he finds that his cows aren't the best for tanning so he changes the composition of the herd to suit tanning.

Problem is, tanning cows make lousy milk.



Facebook and google+'s brand of social networking are dinosaurs looking for a meteor.

Privacy and ownership concerns coupled with broadband expansion are going to force people to decentralize their social networking for their own security and peace of mind.

Well said!!

I'm definitely not a Google fanboy and I've been attacked on numerous occasions for stating my reservations about Google's continued online dominance and foray into vertical markets in which they have no real business being in. I'm personally quite happy that Google's not getting social media right as the company needs to realise that it is not the alpha and omega of the online world.

I also foresee a future where search is peer-to-peer and users have a choice of open-source algorithms to choose from ie. choose if you want results skewed by peer-reviews/social media contributions or skewed to favour sites with high PageRank, etc... I'm following the YACY project (http://www.yacy.net/en/index.html) with keen interest. This is actually Google's biggest threat as the distributed power of the world's computers will ALWAYS be greater than a corporate behemoth's data centers, no matter how many servers they add. The project just needs to grow more nodes, users and come out with a killer-algorithm for returning quality results...I have no doubt it will get there.

I also see social media being replaced by something like the Diaspora project (not much word on that project since that founder-developer-kid died...shame).

We're living in some interesting times...

 

[Viva]

Take a look at this article by Mike Elgan.

He basically voices my understanding of where Google is heading.