Why Google has lost its mojo
Google has gone from innovative upstart to fat-and-happy industry leader in what seems like record time. Put simply, the search giant has lost its mojo. That's good news for Microsoft, and it could affect how you use Google's cloud computing services.
Google looks as if it's on top of the world right now, holding an ever-increasing lion's share of the search market. So why do I think it's lost its mojo? Let's start with the way it treats its employees. Google's largesse has been legendary -- free food, liberal maternity and parental leave, on-site massages, fitness classes and even oil changes.
But according to a recent New York Times article , those days may be gone. Google recently doubled the price of its company-run day care, and when employees grumbled, top execs dismissed their concerns, according to the Times . The newspaper reported that Google co-founder Sergey Brin ignored the parents' concerns and complained that he was tired of employees who thought that they were to entitled to benefits such as "bottled water and M&Ms."
The article's author, Joe Nocera, concludes, "Google has shown that it thinks about day care the same way every other company does -- as a luxury, not a benefit. Judging by what's transpired, that's what Google is fast becoming: just another company."
Another example: Google employees have started deserting the company. In one of the strangest turnarounds, Sergey Solyanik, who was development manager for Windows Home Server at Microsoft before he left for Google, abandoned Google to return to Microsoft -- and he blogged about it . Solyanik is not alone; plenty of other Googlers have headed for the exits as well.
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Google is defining the
Google is defining the future while some make ridiculous assumptions and misrepresentations, like the article above. Go ahead and bet against Goog; many have done it before...We have an ex-Microsoft
We have an ex-Microsoft programmer join Google and then leave Google for Microsoft - because Google people are "Too Cool". He finds that Google software gets broken often and then goes to work again for Microsoft where it can't be released if it isn't broken!!Google's generosity to its employees has been legendary. It is inevitable that the management will discover that when this is the case "The number of people who ask what the Company can do for them" will soon amply exceed "The number of people who ask what they can do for the Company". at such a time, the pioneers and early builders will be forced to wonder whether "jhonny come latelies" are taking the Company for granted.
We do not know if Google's ambitions to upstage Microsoft through web-apps will succeed. There are too many issues that make such an outcome very difficult.
On the other hand, there can be no denying that (1) Google's search engine has been constantly improving - I have been using it since it was first released. Nothing comes even close to it. (2) That they have repeatedly turned out brilliant (even endearing) applications like Google Earth, Google Sky and Sketchup that have become standard bearers of a humanitarian approach to the development of information technology - they have enriched and entranced hundreds of million users of all countries in this world.
Every now and then, we see people throw stones at Google - the only question we need ask these people - is please show us in comparison what you have contributed to the world?
Like any "business entity" Google will face the ups and downs of the marketplace. Any Company that steps on the ruthlessly protected Microsoft Turf is certainly going to enrage the Ogre of Redmond - who can fight very rough and very dirty - if you are in any doubt of this - please read the Judgement written by Judge Penfield in the 19-States of the USofA V/S Microsoft.
We can only hope that Google survives and continues to reward all of us with new paradigms of information technology use - more power to them.