Marco Arment on Google:
Google’s current “bet everything on social now because we missed the boat” movement feels a lot like Microsoft’s “bet everything on the internet because we missed the boat” movement in 1997. Remember how they wedged all sorts of internet-like functions into Windows 98, like Channels and Active Desktop? Those worked well and made Windows better, right?
It’s eery to me how much Google is slowly drifting into late-90s Microsoft territory. Their primary business remains Search and they don’t seem to be losing ground but at the same time haven’t seem to have make any great innovations there recently either. They seem to whiff on every big “social” release (Wave, Buzz and to a lesser extent Google+) and yet keep banking on it more and more.
Much like Microsoft in the last 90s it doesn’t seem like they they are innovating enough to stay relevant long term. They keep growing but it seems like it’s been a while since they hit a home run1.
- I suppose one could argue Android was successful but I am not sure I agree [↩]
