Home > Ne(x)t > Archives > 2006 > July > 05 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USGoogle: Hype or hit?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Google critics and fans in the blogosphere are having their say reacting to a volume of recent articles and posts on the search engine giant.
— Business Week got the ball rolling with an article which essentially questioned why other competitors quake at the release of each new Google beta product. The writer notes “there’s not a market leader among them.”
“The problem is that every time Google branches out, it struggles with the very thing that makes its search engine so successful: simplicity. The minimalist Google home page offers a stark contrast with the cluttered sites of key rivals Yahoo and MSN. People go to Google to find information fast. So Google can’t showcase its plethora of new products without jeopardizing this sleek interface and the popularity that generates a $6 billion geyser of cash from search ads. But the lack of exposure for its new products means only 10% of Google visitors use it for anything other than Web and image searches, says Hitwise.”
— Blogger Scott Karp on Publishing 2.0 thinks it’s unrealistic to suggest that every new Google product be as innovative as their search engine. “So why hasn’t Google launched anything as successful as the original search? Because it’s a pretty darn tough act to follow. Google search was life-changing for everyone on the Web, but life-changing applications don’t come along that often.”
— There have even been dueling posts on where the Web would be today if Google hadn’t come along. One blogger writes “our mail account would still have 2MB or 4MB of storage and we would be happy about that.” Karp counters in a post headlined “If Google Didn’t Exist…The Upside” that “maybe there wouldn’t be such a bubble in Web 2.0 start-ups with so many me-too apps, because developers would be forced to think more about business models and REAL innovation — without the crutch of AdSense cash …”
— Don Dodge of Microsoft takes a long-range view. Yes, GoogleMaps is second in market share to MapQuest and GoogleNews is second to Yahoo. And, yes, there is no revenue there at the moment. However, Dodge cautions: “We underestimate the long-term impact of new developments. While the hype today is way overblown, long term some of these products could turn out to be big winners.”
Meanwhile, The New York Times has a favorable piece today on Google Trends, the product which allows users to check the relative popularity of any search term, to look at how it has changed over the last couple of years and to see the cities where the term is most popular. The Times piece refers to Google Trends as “addictive.”
However, blogger Donna Bogatin on ZDnet is quick to point out that Google Trends is not a “real economic phenomenon” that The Times applauds, but just an “entertaining” service.
I could go on …
We’ve asked your feelings about Google before, but heard back only politically based comments. What do you think about Google’s products and the constant beta releases and public testing? Do you think there is too much hype about Google’s services or has the company earned its press?
Services »
Comments
By Bob
July 5, 2006 08:39 PM | Link to this
Google isn’t just a search engine? huh… isn’t that something…
By Prootwadl
July 7, 2006 10:57 AM | Link to this
I think some Google services (Google Maps, for example) are wonderful, but others (Google Groups) could use a serious redesign to make them more useful. USENET oldtimers like myself dislike some of the UI elements and strange assumptions that Google Groups makes.