Google Pack — colour me confused

by Mathew on January 5, 2006 · Comments

I don’t like to think of myself as being a stupid guy, and the billions of dollars that Larry Page and Sergey Brin have would indicate that they aren’t stupid either, but I have to admit that I share Paul Kedrosky’s puzzlement about the rumoured Google Pack that Larry is supposed to be announcing at CES — at least according to the Wall Street Journal.

What the heck is the point of bundling all that software and branding it as the Google Pack? Sure, Firefox is great — I use it all the time, even though it still has a memory leak problem that drives me nuts. Trillian is another favourite of mine, and I recommend Ad-Aware to everyone I know. The pack will also have Google Earth, Google Talk, Desktop etc.

But why Adobe’s PDF Reader? A nice tool, many people will likely never need it, unless Google has some other plans I don’t know about. And Real Player from Real Networks is a bloated piece of cling-ware that loads so much crap that I wouldn’t install it if Larry and Sergey paid me to. As for Norton Anti-Virus, it used to be a great tool but has become an intrusive irritant for many people I know.

I’m at a loss to explain what Google hopes to gain. The idea that this bundle is somehow a competitive blow against Microsoft is almost laughable (InsideGoogle is also bemused). If all you looked at was Google’s RSS Reader, Orkut, Froogle and even Google Talk (although it’s still early), you would be right to wonder — as Paul does in his poll — whether the search giant has “jumped the shark.”

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Viewing 3 Comments

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    Google really seems to be floundering without any strategic focus. Too many diversified agendas in a period of extreme growth with ready access to lots of cash seems like a recipe for debilitating "strategic drift." I mean, come on, instead of rebranding freeware, use some resources to take gmail out of beta.

    then again, maybe this is all smokescreen, and google will wow us again.
    • ^
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    I said my piece over on Mark's blog (which I am not sure how the link to -- the link isn't showing up, but in any case I won't restate it here). Basic gist is that this is all super-dee-duper, but when all is said and done GYM+aol's future share price has everything to do with how well they are positioned to soak up the future wave of re-directed ad spend (which just better show up, too), and this stuff is just noise.

    I also agree with Rod's comment above: GOOG is going through what all companies who have had that trajectory go through eventually (I've lived it myself). Massive growth leads to massive hiring, massive success leads to massive expectations, all set against the backdrop of an organization dealing with cultural and organizational maturation. It is tremendously hard to do. Maybe they are avoiding that pain, and if so great, but it's a huge challenge for any organization.

    - Stuart
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    I know what you mean, Rod -- a lot of this stuff seems to be of the
    "throw it at the wall and see what sticks" variety. But then maybe
    that's natural -- and as Sergey has said before, a lot of Google's
    best ideas have come from that approach, so maybe we shouldn't knock
    it ;-)

    And I guess you're right about it being noise to a large extent, Stuart.
    After all, distributing the Google Pack isn't going to matter one way
    or the other. And I guess Google is allowed a few missteps along with
    the rest. I suppose we all pay so much attention to each one just
    because they are such a huge and dominant player, and we expect
    everything they do to be a world-changing event.

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