Tag Archives: google

Google finds its soul in China

Posted on by
Reply

We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China. – The Official Google Blog

Good for Google! As an American, I grew up with a pretty steady drumbeat of praise for free speech. It’s not easy for me to think of many values that resonate with me as strongly and as clearly as freedom of speech. And so I’m very happy to see Google withdrawing from their arrangement with the Chinese government. Freedom is the ultimate complementary good.

While Google is on the web’s side, we can be on Google’s side

Posted on by
1

Oh, Android phones aren’t better than an iPhone, not yet; but the Nexus One and the Droid and such will push Apple to do things its closed mentality would rather not do. It will push battery technology — you need power to use a network machine all the time. It will push cellular companies to commoditize their bandwidth. Add in Google Voice, and you no longer need a separate voice plan. Having lots and lots of super-capable smartphones will push people (and then companies) to cloud data, which will make RIM unhappy but Google very happy. The list goes on.

…

Google is intent in raising the average in areas it thinks are key to its future. – Why Did Google Build a Phone and a Browser?

Another way of saying this is that Google is a company that takes complementary goods seriously. When the price of the PS3 goes down, the sales for PS3 games will go up. When your browser’s javascript engine gets faster, you will be happier to use websites with more javascript. These things complement each other.

Google is the only firm I’m aware of with a position of Chief Economist, held by Hal Varian, a UC-Berkeley economist. And it’s with issues like this that we see why such a person is worth their weight in gold (probably literally). I think a lot of what makes Google the friendly company that it is is its understanding of complementary goods. In general, Google seems happy not only to help the growth of industries that it makes money from, but also complementary industries. As far as I know, Google doesn’t sell bandwidth. But they do give it away for free sometimes. Google would be happy if people were a little more used to using the web at the airport. Every additional unit of time on the web that a person spends is a win for Google, because time on the web is a complementary good to their advertising and other services.

For this reason, Google gets to be the technology industry good guy. They’re not trying to squeeze money out of every sector they look at. They do shake things up, as in mobile phones and desktop browsers. But they are great friends of the web for solid business reasons. So, maybe the industries that are fighting the web, like mobile telecoms and some media companies, have something to worry about in Google. But those of us who are also friends of the web have nothing to worry about.

At least for now. My previous post was partially about one of my worries for Google. Right now Google succeeds in large part because it has smart people like Hal Varian, LarryNSergey, and probably thousand of other folks I’ll never hear about. But corporations outlive their staff. One day Google might be run by folks with less sensitivity for a complementary goods strategy, but will still feel the pull of strong quarterly results. I think that Google will remain a company we can trust, so long as they talk the talk and walk the walk of the web. Once they start trying to push everyone into Google services and away from the rest of the web, we should worry. Which is exactly what worries me about Chrome OS.

Say Goodbye to your Hard Drive

Posted on by
2

We’re happy to announce that over the next few weeks we will be rolling out the ability to upload, store and organize any type of file in Google Docs. With this change, you’ll be able to upload and access your files from any computer — all you need is an Internet connection. – Google Docs Blog

Well, obviously Google is getting ready for the world of Chrome OS. Now we get to prepare, too. I don’t really want to list all the aspects of our digital lives already live on servers, but let’s all agree that it’s more than it was ten years ago. The trend toward moving your apps and data onto the internet is real and seems to be speeding up.

It’s also interesting to consider how different approaches to handling multiple devices used by the same person is handled by different companies. At Microsoft, let’s use Exchange as their ideal. A server managed by an IT professional with lots of relatively powerless users each grabbing data from it. For Apple, let’s use the iPhone/iPod model. The Desktop/Laptop is the master copy and for the most part the iPhone/iPod copies from it. Some data can flow the other way, but the Desktop/Laptop is the senior partner here. Google’s model is that all your data is on a Google server. Your devices don’t ‘sync’ so much as ‘cache’.

These three models are pretty tightly coupled to how each firm likes to do business, too. Microsoft loves to sell software to companies, Apple likes to sell computers and devices to consumers, and Google likes to run everything themselves drop prices through the floor in order to bring in users. There are some really great things about having all your data managed by competent professionals, as would be the case with Chrome OS, but it’s hard to see how Google will be able to avoid following Microsoft’s path into making their users’ satisfaction secondary to other considerations. It’s an interesting constraint that Apple has, in that they sell almost entirely to end users. If Windows 7 isn’t compelling to the average Windows user, Microsoft can still try and sell to their real market, corporate IT. When Apple makes their users unhappy, they have nowhere else to turn (for evidence, see Apple’s market cap before Steve Jobs’s return). Sooner or later, it seems that Google’s huge reliance on advertising revenue will turn them against their users.

Google’s Latest Android Phone, the Nexus One

Posted on by
Reply

Google released their new phone, the Nexus One, today.

My initial impressions are

  • This is the best looking Android phone yet. I can easily imagine trading my iPhone 3G for Nexus One, if I wasn’t under contract.
  • I really like that they are emphasizing consumer choice. You can get it unlocked today and bring it to any carrier that can support the hardware. Later, they’ll give you multiple options for contacts with providers. Today they feature T-Mobile and plan to have Verizon soon.
  • One of the criticisms of previous Android phones had been a lack of responsiveness, presumably due to hardware limitations. They boosted the chip speed considerably for this phone and it sounds like it is now very responsive.
  • I expect that when Apple announced the next iPhone, it will blow this phone out of the water. Part of me is rooting for that because I really like technology is advance, but part of me is rooting against a strong iPhone response because I would like Android to pull ahead of the iPhone.

Android apps are still playing catch-up to the iPhone app store, but I can only imagine that it will catch-up in most respects. Developer freedom, like any kind of freedom, is a powerful fertilizer. Amazing things grow in it.