I recently read an interesting post evidently written by a Microsoft employee who had left that company to join Google and then returned after finding the grass wasn’t so green on the other side of the fence. Google is well-recognized for providing one of the best working environments in the world, but like many companies that have been similarly revered, they appear to be systematically killing it, according to this post. This all sounded very familiar, and in Google I see the repeat of catastrophic mistakes made by IBM, Apple, Microsoft, Netscape, Sun and Yahoo.

Of this group, Microsoft survived, IBM has nearly recovered, and Apple actually eventually became greater than it had ever been, suggesting the pattern need not be terminal. But Sun, Netscape and likely Yahoo illustrate that it certainly can be the end of a once successful firm. Let’s look back on how Google’s inability to learn from the mistakes of others is setting the stage for its failure.

The Microsoft-Google-Microsoft Blog

I could have written a blog entry similar to the post describing how Google lost its way several times in my own career. It tells the very sad story of a company that started out founded on fairy dust and dreams that has suddenly had to face the twin realities of losing its focus and being rendered obsolete by Facebook. What is interesting is the writer, James Whittaker, left and then returned to Microsoft. I imagine this was because Microsoft is in a steady state, while Google is in transition and transitions, particularly when they come at the expense of cherished entitlements, are incredibly painful and demotivating.

Whittaker also tells the story of a company that has lost its way in a desperate need to be seen as successful, one that misinterpreted Steve Jobs’ advice about focus and simplicity. Google is simplifying and focusing on people, which is consistent with the Jobs’ counsel, but the company appears to have skipped the part about deciding what they are good at and focusing on that. Google still seems to be chasing Microsoft, Apple, or in this post, Facebook. This last elusive target has been a recurring theme and one that has contributed to the crippling of a lot of great companies.

IBM Now Is Focused

When I first ran into this problem it was as an internal analyst at IBM. The company owned the tech market and was actually operating under what we now know as a SaaS model. In fact, it was arguably even more advanced, in that everything was pretty much a service. Corporate leaders saw the personal computer emerge and viewed Apple as a threat. They responded by creating the IBM PC and partnering with Microsoft as a block to Apple, and then they saw Sun come up and decided to sacrifice the mainframe on the altar of client-server computing. Next, they identified Microsoft as a threat and decided to do outsourced software with OS/2.

Each attempt to become another company further weakened IBM to a point where the firm almost failed. Now that IBM has shifted gears and is focusing on being the best IBM it can be, the company doesn’t appear to be trying to be Google or Facebook and shares are trading higher than they have ever traded.

Microsoft Still Faces Challenges

Next on the list is Microsoft, whose success was tied to outsourcing software. Hardware engineers have never really understood software, and Microsoft’s big idea was to provide an outsourced service. They first did this with Apple and then IBM, and Office and Windows eventually resulted. However, IBM became concerned that it was being eclipsed by Microsoft, and the two companies went to war. Microsoft began to sell to corporations directly.

Next, Microsoft saw AOL as a threat and created MSN but missed the Web and Netscape ambushed them. In the process, Microsoft lost focus on OEMs and users. They began to worry that Sony was planning to turn the PlayStation into a PC and built the Xbox, which further alienated OEMs and pretty much killed the PC gaming business.

Finally, Google arrived and Microsoft spent billions trying to be a better Google. But Microsoft didn’t seem to get Google’s core model and the once-unstoppable outsourced software model is no longer unstoppable. Microsoft continues but the OEMs that initially made the company unbeatable are now also using Google, and Microsoft has been eclipsed in cellphones and tablets.

Apple, Once Near Death, Stronger Than Ever

Apple, which started as the consumer PC company, was initially eclipsed by Commodore, which better focused on the consumer early on, but then died trying to be a better business computer provider. After losing Jobs, Apple seemed to get lost in first trying to be Compaq, Sony/HP, and then Microsoft. The company massively expanded its hardware lines, jumped into cameras, printers and hand-held computers, and then ventured into outsourced software by licensing the MacOS.

Apple was months away from going under when Jobs came back. He refocused the company on the consumer PC business and then, anticipating that PC growth was slowing and recognizing that catching Microsoft from behind wasn’t going to work, moved into entertainment. The renewed narrow focus on consumers and excellence allowed this company to recreate itself in its own image. Apple is the only firm that actually emerged stronger than its prior peak after losing its way.

Netscape Mistakenly Blamed Microsoft

Netscape was the first poster child for forgetting what it was about. Netscape was the Internet, and when people initially went to the Web virtually all of them used a Netscape product. But Netscape couldn’t figure out how to do what Google would eventually do and properly monetize the Web, and instead the company decided to focus on displacing Microsoft.

This effort to upend Microsoft has been at the core of billions of dollars in wasted spending by more companies in the last three decades than any other failed strategy and it cuts across virtually all of these vendors. What is fascinating is that when you talk to an ex-Netscape executive he will often argue they were put out of business by Microsoft, which, in a similar fight with Google, has been fairly unsuccessful. I reviewed the evidence out of the Justice Department trial, and while Microsoft clearly misacted, the company was hapless in its fight with Netscape. Each major failure tracked back to a decision made by a Netscape executive largely connected to something that had nothing to do with its Internet dominance.

Source:http://www.pcworld.com/article/252000/is_google_facing_the_beginning_of_the_end.html

Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of Chrome, said in an interview that faster Chromebooks are on the way. This is good news for those who wanted to invest in a Chromebook, but were turned off by the underwhelmingly sluggish performance. Google is aware of the issue, and is looking forward to user feedback after they’ve sampled the second-generation device.

“We remain very excited about Chromebooks,” he told CNET. “We got a lot of positive feedback, and we are really looking forward to the next generation of Chromebooks. We will improve on the dimensions of speed, simplicity, and security.”

He added that because Google updates Chrome every six weeks, Chromebook performance is much better now than it was when they first arrived on the market. But speed freaks likely need to shy away, as Chromebooks will still be designed with low power consumption, long battery life, and low prices in mind. Basic online social needs will be met, but Chromebooks aren’t meant for gaming or editing hi-res photos.

In the interview, CNET’s Stephen Shankland said that the current Chromebook is simply underpowered for his overall needs.

“Google Docs documents grind open,” he told Pichai. “Scrolling can be an excruciatingly laggy affair. My son, trying to play the Flash-based Crush the Castle 2 game, cried out in exasperation when trying to construct his medieval defenses. Keyboard repeat rates aren’t adjustable to let me set them fast enough with only a brief delay before kicking in. When I have more than 15 or 20 tabs open, it seems that old tabs must be reloaded from the server when I switch back to them.”

If this is true for all Chromebook models on the market, then Google will indeed need to work on increasing the performance of Chrome OS if it plans for the platform to stay afloat during the tablet and ultrabook craze. Maybe this second-generation is what Thursday’s Android 5.0 “Jelly Bean” report was referring to, a speedier version of Chrome OS that will work alongside Windows 8 in a dual-OS marriage.

Source:http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Chrome-OS-Chromebook-Sundar-Pichai-Google-Docs-Windows-8,14739.html

Now that federal regulators appear poised to approve Google’s $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility, speculation is mounting about what the Internet giant will do with its newly acquired assets. And what assets they are. Once the deal is formally approved — an announcement could come next week, according to multiple reports — Google will be in possession of some 17,000 patents related to mobile phone technology. And it will be well-situated to enter the hardware business, which could mean that consumers will soon see Google-branded phones and home entertainment devices.

From the beginning, the deal was viewed a defensive play by Google, amid an escalating intellectual property arms-race being waged by some of technology’s biggest players, including Microsoft and Apple. Both of those companies are part of a consortium that has agreed to purchase some 6,000 patents from Nortel, a deal that is also expected to be approved.

“Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies,” Google CEO Larry Page (pictured) said when the deal was announced.

But the real story here is that Google appears to be on the verge of entering the hardware market, a move that would represent a radical departure for a company that has built its fortune as a software business. According to The Wall Street Journal, Google is preparing to launch a home-entertainment system later this year bearing its own brand.

As the paper points out, Google’s new system — which could allow users to control their systems using a smartphone or tablet — would bring it even closer into combat with Apple, which is also working to improve on its Apple TV device for the digital living room. So far, both companies’ efforts in that space have fallen short, but expect the competition to heat up moving forward.

Source:http://business.time.com/2012/02/10/after-motorola-deal-approval-can-google-hardware-be-far-behind/

Although Google is the reigning king of online services with offerings such as Gmail, Google Docs, and an ever-fluctuating lineup of myriad other products, the search giant has not yet introduced a straightforward cloud storage service. According to a report from the Wall street Journal, that’s about to change.

Citing “people familiar with the matter”, the WSJ report says the new service, dubbed “Drive”, will offer cloud storage to consumers and businesses alike, with fees associated with larger storage capacities. It appears that it will be part of the Google Apps suite and will launch within weeks or months.

There was talk of such a service from Google a few years ago called G-drive, but little came of it other than some minimal storage options in Google Docs. In the meantime, a slew of similar services has exploded onto the scene, most notably Dropbox and most recently Apple’s iCloud. According to the report, Drive should offer similar capacity and features at a lower cost.

With Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich bringing some unity to Android devices and desktop and mobile versions of the Chrome browser, creating a dedicated cloud storage product that users can access from any desktop or mobile device makes a lot of sense right now for Google.

Google is definitely an innovative company, encouraging its people to develop pet side projects that could become valuable to the company later, but it’s also become adept at “me too” technology like Android. Given Google’s vast resources and product offerings, Drive could certainly be disruptive to the cloud storage market.

Source:http://hothardware.com/News/Report-Google-Close-to-Launching-Cloud-Storage-Service/