Google Tries to Explain How to Make Another Google
November 15, 2017
Here’s the headline which snagged my attention: “How to Build the Next Google, According to a Google Executive.” In my three monographs about Google, I learned that Google was a result of several missteps and circumstances which Sergey Brin and Larry Page were able to seize upon. The exogenous factors I documented included:
- The Clever method which IBM did nothing to commercialize
- AltaVista’s unhappy campers who were looking for new gig
- Yahoo and other “search” services bumbling and portal craziness
- An understanding university
- A vision for making information accessible on Web servers to users with modest expectations for precision, recall, timeliness, etc.
Google was in the right place at the right time, and it was able to obtain some cash from a Silicon Valley money guru. The company’s efforts to sell itself were going nowhere until the bright idea for standing on the shoulders of GoTo, Overture, and Yahoo ignited the online ad money machine. The rest, after the 2004 settlement with Yahoo over an intellectual property issue, has become the success story MBAs love. Well, it was until Facebook came along.
The Fortune article disappointed me. The Google story was not complete in my opinion. The scalable business model referenced in the article was not Google’s. Google emulated the pay for play and perfected putting ads in front of people who used certain key words. As I stated, this was the GoTo (later Overture) revolution.
The write up reports:
The idea of changing the world isn’t at odds with making a buck, Felten (a Googler) said. In fact, the latter is usually necessary. “If you want to solve really large problems in the world, unless it’s a sustainable business, it probably won’t scale,” she said. “So, finding those things where there’s both profit and purpose is sort of our sweet spot.”
Too bad Fortune did not probe into the exogenous factors which allowed Google to generate billions. But in the world of business mythmaking and the “you can do it” advice sought by would be billionaires, cooking up tips which provide the path to success is okay.
By the way, after 20 years, what percentage of Google’s revenues come from the GoTo, Overture, Yahoo online advertising model? Look it up, gentle reader. That means that Google itself has not been able to move beyond the Steve Ballmer analysis of a “one trick pony.” High school science projects do not seem to become scalable businesses. I admit there may be some buyers for the solution to death. But that seems to be just out of reach like Loon balloons providing comprehensive mobile service to the island of Puerto Rico.
Note to Googlers and Xooglers: Put your comments in the comments section of this blog. Don’t email me unless you have read The Google Legacy, Google Version 2, and Google: The Digital Gutenberg. Just a modest request.
Stephen E Arnold, November 15, 2017
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