Google and The Titanic: a parallel story?

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Has Google become “too big to handle anything?”. Is Google following the same fatal path as the one the great and famous passenger boat followed to its end?

More than “too big” to handle anything, I would rather say “too inefficient in certain key areas of the business”. Problems on the email front are being overlooked while other, more questionable projects with lower chances of success go ahead on time (e.g. Google talk + Aol) and/or receive important funding (youTube).

Examples? Gmail is much worse than what I would expect on an email product from Google. Alas! After all this time, I still can not open my messages with my center mouse button in new windows, as I used to do with good ole’ Yahoo Mail…

On the SEO side of things, the constantly changing search algorithm has at least half the community angry at Google; the other half is angry and frustrated.

And all this in a business sector where there is no loyalty whatsoever, and switching costs are very low. I have the impression that users, advertisers and webmasters will take the first opportunity they’re given to take revenge. This is the law of the jungle, and they cannot hide under a golden umbrella forever while it is pouring outside.

Watching Google these days is like watching the Titanic getting the first cracks by the sharp, cold and implacable ice… and still pushing arrogantly forward without steering one bit in a different direction. “What for- they seem to think? This ship is unsinkable.”

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Under that premise, the widening holes in the hull are overflowed with pressurized air (cash) to keep the water out, as soon as they are detected, for the joy of the passengers (investors) partying upstairs. But in the end, and not having learnt from the sinking of other ships as mighty as this one –Microsoft used to navigate these seas too- this ship will also go down, unless the captain changes the course…

But will he do it? He may, since he is smart enough to know that after all, it only takes a break in the influx of air to those holes, and the whole ship will start to overflow and sink, slowly, but surely, to the bottom of the sea. The captain knows this. But does he know the extent of the problem? Can he clearly see the cracks so high up in the control room?

He cannot. And that’s important, because the main problem the Google ship has is not that it has growing cavity problem, but rather that the captains at the helm are looking much more at the horizon and the promised, treasured-filled new world (alternative energy, wireless spectrum, open source) than checking their on board instruments to make sure they are actually able to get there. They are not asking the right questions, and thus, they are not getting the right answers.

In the meantime, many levels below the immaculate command and control center, in a machine room populated with the latest cutting edge but highly delicate technology, a mixed army of young seamen in pristine, immaculate white uniforms (Google engineers) are hard at work, 24h a day. Young, cheerful, confident -and naïve- they are proud to work to on this revolutionary ship, the best of its kind.

One of the reasons is that traditionally, the Google Shipping Company has not only always had a policy of hiring the best and brightest mechanics, but has also let them build and operate the ship unhindered, in the hope that their skill at their craft alone would propel the ship right forward…and pushed them it has. At full force.

Thus, in the midst of the dark, chilling, cold December night, the Google ship strongly pushes forward towards its fatal demise, as the crew below, far too enamoured and absorbed in their nut and bolt twisting to pay attention to anything else, fail to notice the noises a typical cracking hull is already making.

And why should they? How could they notice them? It is not like they’ve ever seen a crack before. In fact, many of them are so young as not to have worked yet in any other ship, let alone a sinking one.

In any case, the weather is changing fast, the waves are getting higher and the ship is now heavier, as the openings in the hull keep on widening. Will the Google ship be able to break the icebergs that lie ahead. Nobody knows.

What we all know is that nobody seems to be noticing the cracks in the Google ship’s hull…and if these cracks are left unattended for much longer, they will surely sink the ship much faster than we thought possible.

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Passengers (investors) crew and officials of the Google ship: ignore this warning at your peril.

December 6, 2007 · Filed Under Analysis, Business, Future

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