Here at Internet Evolution, we give Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) its fair share of abuse. If you asked them why, they might suggest we're jealous of their yoga balls, gym memberships, Stanford MBAs, daycare centers, cute graphics, endless food supply, and stock options.
The truth behind the favorable press and the Google-generated blogs is that Google hasn't really transcended Web 1.0. It's certainly found a great deal of success and money as an Internet company, but that success starts and stops in two related areas: search and advertising.
Alright, it has also cool maps.
Otherwise, Google is a classic point-and-click Internet company – not the Web 2.0 innovator it pretends to be or that the media sycophants give it credit for. And the more Google continues to release half-baked, for-beta-only stabs at Web 2.0, the more its stock may slide, and the more it risks irrelevance.
What follows, in order from bad to worst, is our own pitiless analysis of the Top 10 Google Disappointments. Click on any of the links below to wallow along in our dissatisfaction.
10)Gmail
It doesn't get better than beta – nor should you expect it to.
9)Monetizing YouTube
Who knew talking cats and psychotic rants would be so unprofitable?
As with any organization seeking competitive advantage, Google seeks to continue to capture a larger market share. We saw this with Microsoft but, the difference in Google’s newly attained competitive advantage is that their products are free versus having a price tag.
"Talk about culture , is there any other company that allows its employees to work on the project of their liking in their spare time "
Why, yes! I would imagine just about any company would allow its employees to work for free in their spare time on something that it then can put out as a product. LOL!
"It is better trying something risking to fail, rather than doing nothing" says the common adage. I don't think that we should blame Google for trying what you think are "disapointments". We cannot expect everything we do to be successful. As a whole Google is a successful company and like many other major companies (such as Microsoft) there is a time for great acheivements and unfortunatly there is a time for failures. What matters is how such companies can recover from that failures.
Re: "I think some of the projects have been included just to make the disappointments count reach 10"
I just wanted to reply to this because we actually had more than 10 and then widdled it down. Nevertheless, that isn't to say you have to agree with us. Glad to have some pushback from you.
But regarding the idea that some of these project are just experimental, you certainly wouldn't get that feeling from the press that regularly reports on Google's every experiment as if it were the replacement for every similar project that came before it.
"There is potential in advertising but it might be harder than anyone thinks"
...might be? more like...certainly is.
Google has to plug every possible copyright infringement leak on Youtube unless they want death by a million cuts. Even if they manage to plug virtually all the holes....there's an army of attorneys salivating to pounce on Google the minute they monetize Youtube...and this is on top of the army that already came after them for the obvious / big-ticket instances of infringement.
"Hey, look, I used my video capture card - Here's the final episode of the Sopranos! woohoo! enjoy!"
RE: numbers, I recall prior to the Google acquisition hearing that the bandwidth cost alone for Youtube was on the order of $2-$3 million per month. I see calculations from 2006 that placed the cost at $170,000 per day, $5.1 million per month, and certainly there's more bits being pumped now than 2 years ago.
I know there are countless commercial sites that lever Youtube for hosting content (marketing or otherwise), I suppose they could charge for that (maybe they already do under certain circumstances?).
If targeting banners and/or pre-roll, postroll, midroll, leave-behind ads are coming, so are the lawyers.
...will be interesting to see how google escapes this trap.
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