Google's singular trick appears to be getting old.
That is, at least, the impression one gets after reviewing the company's fourth-quarter earnings and reactions from the market. While Google posted quarterly revenues of $10.58 billion, its highest ever for a single quarter (and 25 percent higher than the fourth quarter of 2010), Wall Street expected more, and Old G's shares dropped 9 percent after hours.
Analysts have cited a few reasons for being disappointed and, furthermore, worried about the year ahead. For starters, Google faces antitrust investigations into accusations that it manipulates search results; it's facing an intellectual property battle over Android; and if Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility goes through, the company will then have to deal with the fate of owning a faltering handset maker. So, who's excited for 2012?
In addition to all of that, there's Google+. And, we suppose, whether you think of this as a plus (G+) or minus (G-) depends on which side of the Google+ fence you sit.
For example, while many are skeptical of activity there and the service's ability to be prosperous, Larry Page declared on the call that he's "super excited" to share the news that Google+ has 90 million registered users with 60 percent of them active daily. (Side note: Perhaps the real problem with Google is that it has a CEO who says things like "super excited" on earnings calls? Just a thought.)
But there's reason to be suspicious of that so-called "activity." It's unclear what "active" means to Google; and it's probably convenient that the company only recently manipulated its search results to promote Google+ content.
Not to mention, advertisers are still spending their money with Facebook, where engagement is strong. Google is playing catchup in a space where a leader still exists and continues to thrive.
The main problem with Google was perhaps best summed up by Jordan Rohan, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus, who told The New York Times, "Google has big-company problems now, or more specifically, huge-company problems."
In other words, this isn't a startup we're talking about. It isn't a new company. It's a massive enterprise with great resources and great responsibility. With big businesses come big problems, and if Google is only prepared to continue to succeed in the same realm it always has, then it won't be able to keep up with itself and with its own growth. Continuing to bank on the same product that allowed it to emerge as the Internet giant it is today without tapping into new sources of real revenue, or finding financial success with its new products, is not a tactic that's going to sit well with investors.
At this point, the market is growing restless. And the pony Google's been riding for over a decade is looking tired.
I agree with you, kq4ym. I am totally unclear on how Google is going to handle its growth, or continue to sustain it. We're seeing a trend develop, though. You may have heard that Google changed its privacy policy so now information you may have shared with a Google service is shared with ALL Google services. In other words, Google is now becoming the Web... or trying to. Where will this lead?
Let an unconventional company grow huge and watch the bloated crature fester? How Google will handle it's growth is an interesting question.
While, they've tried hard to depend on the web to take the place of customer service, it's questionable how sustainable that might turn out.
Relying on advertising sales, while buying up hundreds of smaller firms, might be too much of a gamble, even with the boatloads of cash available for "investing" in those operations.
While revenue is increasing, the net might not be sustainable.
"Last week, Google said that its business running graphical "display" ads - many of which are integrated alongside YouTube videos - was generating $5 billion in revenue on an annualized run rate basis.Still, most of the 4 billion videos that YouTube now streams worldwide every day do not make money. Three billion YouTube videos a week are monetized, according to the company."
Its the competitors that hire guerilla warriors to criticize these giants (I don't mean people here on internetevo for that matter :p). But most such attempts result in unconciously contributing towards fame of their competitor.
The love for google by masses is in their genes. But that doesnt guaruntee it to over-rule in all its ventures. Afterall we dont see Microsoft anywhere in social media networks (atleast not on front) ; we also do love Microsoft but not enough to force it to conquer all avenues.
Absolutely. What I thought before starting using google+ was that I have to use gmail anyway. So why not do it through google+ to try it out too while checking my mails. Obviously we do predict the upcoming trends when we see new releases from the googles and microsofts and that kind of forces us to make an impulsive move to be first ones to adopt the tech. in our friends circle.
I can concede your point WaqasAltaf. I was speaking to the effectiveness of google+ for myself, not really objectively evaluating the stock price or company valuation. In that part, my commentary was misguided.
It is hard to understand why companies so big get evaluated so critically anyway.
Most of us would love to have the growth that google has had in the last year or years for that matter.
being "big" attracts attention, no question about that! Google has attracted attention for all the bad reasons, but nevertheless, their profits are huge! Maybe not as huge as some greedy investors hoped, but still huge!
WaqasAltaf, - In fact i would predict a exceptionally quicker breakthrough for google+. For the reason that they have used their other huge machinery to sort of force it down our throats - although i'm not saying i have any special dislike for google+. It is so easy to work with because you can do some of the things right from your gmail inbox e.g. responding to new additions to circles.
@Nicole, do you think this is the right opportunity for Yahoo to capture the search engine market because some major shuffling is taking place in Yahoo board.
The ThinkerNet does not reflect the views of TechWeb. The ThinkerNet is an informal means of communication to members and visitors of the Internet Evolution site. Individual authors are chosen by Internet Evolution to blog. Neither Internet Evolution nor TechWeb assume responsibility for comments, claims, or opinions made by authors and ThinkerNet bloggers. They are no substitute for your own research and should not be relied upon for trading or any other purpose.
At the IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit here in Nashville, I'm hearing many stories about how businesses have adapted their IT strategies in response to this rapidly changing, pressurized, data-driven commercial world.
Neal Stephenson is best known as the author of science fiction novels such as SnowCrash and Anathem. But he does other things as well. Among them: He's assembled a team of scientists and engineers to figure out how to build a 20-kilometer-tall tower to use as a platform for launching rockets into space.
While interstellar travel presents huge challenges, it's "almost inevitable," according to a speaker at the Starship Century symposium here in San Diego.
Twitter's changes are clearly aimed at being more Facebook-like, and this is because both companies are vying to serve the mobile social network market. But can that market work for anybody, given how difficult it is to push ads to social-update readers?
Google Maps 6.0 helps users navigate indoor locations like IKEA and airports. While this sounds good, Nicole fears it will also breed dumber humans who bump into each other a lot, or something.
Congrats to the best-selling author who persuaded Facebook to allow him to register an account as Salman, rather than under his "real" but never used name, Ahmed Rushdie.
Based on reactions in Nicole's Newsfeed, everyone hates this version of Facebook. This should matter to Facebook now that there's a real competitor on the scene named Google+.
Facebook's "Improved Friends Lists" are rolling out, but they're very different from Google+ Circles. The latter are like private labels; you're the only one who sees them. The former are like rooms you can invite visitors to, where they see you and each other. Google's approach is better.
With Google+ about to be added to the multitude of online platforms governing your life, virtual living is starting to feel overwhelming – and it's creating online widows (and widowers!).
Microsoft's buy of Skype could revitalize Phone 7, give Microsoft a social, gaming, and collaborative strategy, and spell the end for old-fashioned telco voice. It will also certainly give Google a headache in its Voice, Chat, and even Android strategy!
Google's replacement of CEO Schmidt by founder Page has a lot of Valley types agog with expectations of a renewed 'startup' mindset. But the Google of today can't be a startup, and it may well be that chasing the next Internet fad is the wrong approach for the company.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
Expert Integrated Systems: Changing the Experience & Economics of IT In this e-book, we take an in-depth look at these expert integrated systems -- what they are, how they work, and how they have the potential to help CIOs achieve dramatic savings while restoring IT's role as business innovator. READ THIS eBOOK
your weekly update of news, analysis, and
opinion from Internet Evolution - FREE! REGISTER HERE
Wanted! Site Moderators Internet Evolution is looking for a handful of readers to help moderate the message boards on our site – as well as engaging in high-IQ conversation with the industry mavens on our thinkerNet blogosphere. The job comes with various perks, bags of kudos, and GIANT bragging rights. Interested?
To save this item to your list of favorite Internet Evolution content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
Email This
