posted by Shiv on Online Tools, Social Media, Web 2.0

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Download the PDF version of the Letter for better readability

This letter comes from India

1995; after my class 10^th, I spent most my vacation in government libraries reading novels & magazines; I used to meet lot of college graduates and professors struggling to find relevant books for their research studies. It was the same time when you guys where struggling hard, somewhere in Stanford campus to change the world.

Google – Information on a single click.

Google is One of the biggest revolutions that world had ever seen. The kind of change that you had brought in is inimitable and irreplaceable. I still remember, when I spoke to my dad on “There is something called Google, that would find anything for you” his response was “WoW”

Years passed on and success came your way through efforts. 15 Years and $ 23 Billion Revenue, no other company in the planet had ever done this.

This is your glorious past

Along with your growing success, you have also started to lose your uniqueness with ever increasing competition.

Most of the Silicon Valley entrepreneur’s wanted to create a company like Google, That Inspiring. But saddest part is google is scared of competition.

Unbelievable but its true

Is google losing its focus?

Here is a Quick & deep dive in to Google’s Portfolio, that’s turning out to be a bunch of mediocrity products.

Google Wave: First thing first. One of the most hyped online product of this decade. Wave was backed by rich technology, character – by- character typing, ability to drag & drop files from desktop and extremely unseen features. I still remember people were going crazy to get a Wave invite.

With all good things in a box, wave still bombed. Google never had an idea of what to do with Wave.

The vision was unclear. Even now they haven’t defined, what exactly is Google Wave? Is it a Project Management tool, is it an Online Chat Corner, and is it a Social Networking site. No one knows even google doesn’t know. That is simpler

Google Buzz: The name was ripped from Yahoo Buzz and functionality was ripped from Facebook.

One of the biggest mistakes google did with buzz was they integrated it with Gmail. So its very clear the user base will be restricted only to 170 Million Gmail users and google still wanted to challenge Facebook in the social space.

Jaiku: Hardly people might have heard about this, Google acquired Jaiku during late 2007, looking at twitters popularity. Jaiku was supposed to be Google’s version of Twitter. Sad that it is dead, even before people came to know there existed something called Jaiku

Blogger: Good that Evan Williams did not sell over Twitter to Google. One big problem with google is they don’t upgrade or develop the product after their acquisition.

Blogger was supposed to be the simplest blogging platform around the web. Google choose to enjoy that comfort zone with out any upgrades for years. By the time WordPress, Tumblr and Posterous ate the major share of blogger

Note: I recently got shifted to WordPress from blogger

Orkut: Google said you can upload videos and Photos in Orkut, rather Facebook said we bring people together. Facebook showed a much larger scope and proved it over the years.

Google’s repeated attempt to captivate the social web had become a big disaster. Once the unique thinker is now keener on acquisitions. Every week google acquires a company. Google is the only company in the History of business to have acquired 70 + companies, not sure about the status (Dead/ Alive) of most of the acquired companies.

Now google is in the process making another Facebook killer called “Google Me”, for which google had strengthened its social kit by acquiring 2 companies – Slide & Jambool. It’s too early to comment on Google Me, but not sure why google is behind the social space.

Where are the developers who gave us Google search and Gmail?

Where are the strategists who acquired Google Docs, Youtube and Android?

It had been more than half a decade we saw an original product from google. My only worry is, Whether Google is becoming the next Microsoft with an array of unimaginative and mediocre products.

Larry & Sergey, if this letter reaches you via. Facebook or Twitter, kindly Retweet and share it for your own good.

Thanks

A Google fan from India

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About Shiv: The author is a Technology Evangelist/ Writer, whose avid interest in the field of technology has helped him to keep pace with the latest trends.

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