Stephen E. Arnold: Google’s Wanders About — Still Not Making Sense

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Hardware Management Congruence: Google and Barnes and Noble

I have been scanning the Google Motorola news. The write up fall into two camps.

On one hand, there are the Google is really smart. See, for example, “Google to Keep Motorola’s Advanced Technology Group” and “Google’s Tasty Lemonade.”

On the other hand, there are the Google goofed viewpoint; for example, “Analysis: Larry Page’s Smashed Handset Strategy – Google Ends Bid To Be Apple.”

My view is somewhat different.

First, I see some parallels between the Barnes & Noble Nook adventure and Google-Motorola.

Second, the management shifts at Motorola did not have a material impact on the revenue-generating power of Android phones. Keep in mind that these phones were treated just like other vendors’ phones in terms of access to software.

Third, the confusion between indexing the Web and building a business using Overture-type methods and sustaining a diversified business persists. Even the somewhat uneven ZDNet spotted this trend of revenue erosion in AdSense. Check out “Google’s Earnings: What Future for Plunging AdSense Business.”

Now the tide is turning in other important ways. I noted that Google is going to pay a cost of business tax going forward. The most recent indication of this is “Patent Troll Strikes at the Very Heart of Google’s Empire.”

In my own little world of information retrieval, the challenges Google faces are easily viewed by running queries against the Google search system. In order to help my team and some of my clients navigate the interesting world of filtered results, sponsored results, personalized results, and irrelevant results, I have set up DeeperQI. It is a free service.

Google is fascinating and emitting some interesting signals. Not all of them are beamed at Motorola devices and marketers.

Stephen E Arnold, January 30, 2014

Phi Beta Iota: Google has earned our “Best Digital Trash Bin of the Universe Award.” It has not and will never earn “Best Information-Sharing and Sense-Making Toolkit Award.”