One second thought on HBR Google article
I blogged an HBR article a while back, questioning, among other things, how innovative Google really is. Some news stories today, highlight some overlooked areas where Google is doing some interesting, potentially innovative things:
- App Engine — NYT article today talks about Google’s plans to move App Engine into the enterprise space by opening it up to 10,000 developers. It’s a small launch, limited to apps written in python in the beginning, and it’s a late entrant to a field where SalesForce and Amazon have experience, if not dominance, but it’s a real move, based on another innovation:
- GFS — not news, not surprising, and I can’t tell if it’s good or not, but Google File System can fall under the umbrella of innovation, or innovation-friendly. (Taking control of the infrastructure.)
- SalesForce alliance — NYT article briefly describes how Google is tying its Office apps into SalesForce’s suite of offerings to compete with MSFT. Whether Google’s productivity apps on the web will win out over MSFT’s client or server based apps is the big question, but I have to acknowledge that the apps are lightweight, clean enough to hook into other software, and scalable.
I don’t think this makes the HBR article less silly, however. The examples above are reminders that there are other things going on at Google beyond the usual gmail, Google Earth, ad serving, and blogger acquisition that most articles talk about.
Google’s ability to develop them and wait years to monetize them, however, still comes down to cash flow. This still means we have little to learn from Google about innovation.