Google's Strategy
IMHO, Google's strategy is clear and simple. Let Microsoft own the physical desktop. Google will own the virtual desktop!
Shew
Sun Tzu and Software
The Art of 'Ware: Sun Tzu's Classic Work Reinterpreted is Bruce F. Webster's
interpretation of Sun Zu's Art of War for commercial software.
- Know the strengths and weaknesses of the competition.
- Gather intelligence to track market and product trends.
- Grab and retain the best people.
- Aggressively defend your critical markets.
- Ignore weak markets.
- Know your own strengths and weaknesses.
Here's an excerpt of what Bruce F. Webster wrote in 1996, Microsoft Windows Forever and Ever.
By the year 2006, 1 billion to 2 billion computers will be in use worldwide, 95 percent of which will run Windows. The sheer scale of adoption of Microsoft technology will provide tremendous
momentum to keep things moving in the same direction. The investment in hardware, software, market standards, training, development expertise, custom applications and deployed environments will make the market
resist change, even if it's proposed by Microsoft. The investment in Windows technology will continue to grow each year, feeding the dependence on the status quo.
Bruce F. Webster
Software in general represents/is a model of the real world.
And enterprise software is a bit particular in that it models some other model: Management theories, marketing, hierarchies and a few others. Accounting software is conceptually built for how it's done in the finance department, CRM is built to support the current (and old) ways of the marketing department and so on.
What then if the model the model is based upon is wrong? Would then not the software-cementing-culture be highly unproductive, even inhuman?
Amazon Gets It and Google Gets It.
Google
Buying Spree
Google has compiled an impressive list of companies. I'm surprised at the list. "Google is the new Internet behemoth, snatching up small companies left and right." This is only the start of Google's Master Plan.
Registered Domains and Secret Plans
If you look at Google's domain names, you'll get a hint of their next market space strategies. Hopefully, you're not in their line of fire because it's going to be ugly. Here are some of the interesting domains. I'll save you the trouble. All of the domains are DOA, probably being parked for those black ops projects they're working on.
- Fourth-party.com
- Gbrowser.com
- Gcalendar.com
- Googleaccess.com
- Googleanalytics.com
- Googlebay.com
- Googlebuy.com
- Googlecomputers.com
- Googledoodle.com
- Googlegoods.com
- Googleit.com
- Googlejobs.com - watch out Monster!
- Googlemusic.com
- Googlereader.com
- Googlesex.com, Porngoogle.com - huh
- Googleshopping.com, Googlestore.com
- Googletv.com
- Googlevillage.com
- Mygoogle.com
Google Analytics
Google has just launched Google Analytics which is a refurbed version of Urchin. Hell, I signed up since it's free to AdWords members! Read all about it, Google Analytics Swings at Measure Map. IMHO, Google AKA Urchin was trying to charge way too much money, $495 per month, for it's web analysis services.
Google Analytics is mostly free (up to 5 million page views per month), or completely free if you are an adwords user.
Registration for Analytics is currently suspended but I'll be doing a full side by side review against Measure Map in the next day or two. The screen shot provided by Google (to left) is encouraging.
Michael Arrington, Google Analytics Swings at Measure Map - November 14, 2005
Me-ouchhhhh! I guess Google didn't care much for Urchin customers in it's planning stage for Google Analytics conversion/launch. Why? Because here's one Urchin customer who got burned!!! Do I smell a Google Sucks site? Nuts, googlesucks.com domain has already been taken by none other than Google. I did have my credit card ready!!!.
Here's what happened:
I tried to log in to Urchin. Surprise! Urchin now resolves to Google analytics. I typed in our login and password, and I was informed that this account "has to be validated". As it happens, this is a special account just for Urchin and I don't havedirect access to the email address - a not uncommon problem in any organization larger than, say, one. After a few hours of fumbling around and swapping phone calls and emails, I get one of the other guys to send me the validation information.
Next surprise: Because Google is switching to some damn unified login system, whenever I use the login for this account, it messes up any other Google logins I have. Apparently there's a way to pipe this login over to my Gmail account, but it's another hassle-filled step that I didn't have to take yesterday when Urchin JUST WORKED.
Eventually I get in to Urchin. Urchin is getting slammed with traffic. We hear all this hoorah about Google's hundreds of thousands of servers and their ability to host applications, and all I can say is, if casual interest in a service you aren't even accepting new registrations for grinds you to a halt like this, you are nothing like ready for prime time.
Google isn't acting like a real business, they are acting like an over-enthusiastic Golden Retriever puppy. Oh, they just knocked the vase off the table with their tail, but aren't they cute? Um, no. Google, grow up. If you keep this up, you will piss off enough people that you are doomed.
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