Google: A One-Trick Pony?
It's nice to see BusinessWeek has picked up on my contention Google is a company in search of the next big thing. In an analysis piece Ben Elgin contends Google's phenomenal success in search has “blinded” it from aggressively pursuing other opportunities. He argues Google has wronged itself by not being more gung ho about new ventures such as GMail. “Google is a one-trick pony,” Forrester analyst Charlene Li says in the story. “It's a nice trick, but it's all they do.”
Not sure whether Elgin, who writes for BusinessWeek from Silicon Valley, will be invited to Google's spawling headquarters any time soon but I like his thesis. While there is no arguing Google is the search engine giant and churning out tons o' cash, senior management needs to look down the road and position the company for the next wave of growth. This may require it to do something radical like making a multi-billion dollar move to acquire a real business rather than trying to seed internal ventures such as comparative shopping, social networking, e-mail and desktop search. Maybe Google should look to eBay, which is attempting to diversify through deals for companies such as Rent.com.
