Google in the Spotlight

March 15, 2006

I have recently written two posts about the problems with Google. Lately I've been hearing other people such as Danny Sullivan at SearchEngineWatch (read his article here) or SEO-Scoop.

The general argument seems to be that Google is moving too fast, in too many directions, and is losing focus on all of its projects, especially natural search. While I think Google does have some problems (especially with its logo/brand image and some of its apparent ranking methods), I'm not ready to start faulting them for their business acquirements and project rollouts just yet.

As a matter of fact, I criticized Google for not keeping pace with current innovation or releasing novel concepts before others. My argument was that if other companies start coming out with similar products and services to what they offer, and they were "better", or more intuitive or more user-friendly or just more novel, then Google was failing as being a leader in search and online presence in general.

SEO-Scoop.com has a list of some of the projects Google has started working on. There are some pretty impressive items on that list which I believe started with just natural web searches as its main focus. But why are people bashing Google for getting their hands into different technologies? How many products does Microsoft offer? Google? If you were running a company and had the money that Google has would you let a chance to buy out a company that might have a serious money-making product go by? I wouldn't!

It's easy to pick some of the services Google offers and nitpick at the annoyances and shortcomings. So don’t use it! And if you're argument is that Google is "letting you down" because they are buying and getting involved in more and more companies then I don’t think you could handle the authority, power, and money that Google has.

Now, if you think Google should be branding itself with TV commercials, a nicer logo, and introducing products that are truly novel (think Chitika) and not just safe, Arial, and one color, THEN I'd agree that you have a point.

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