Archive for May, 2004

SearchEngineJournal is conducting a survey:

1. What do you think of Google’s IPO and its effects on the future of Google?

2. Do you think that Google has “sold out”? Why (why not)?

3. What do you think Google should do with their new found cash? What improvements?

You can send responses to Loren Baker.

My response:

1. I’m sure everyone’s fairly familiar with my stance on the Google IPO. To be honest, the auction way of doing things will, in my opinion, lessen the hype for 2 reasons. First, it’s an extra step people have to take. It’s a little bit of extra commitment. I’ve already heard from dozens of people who were planning on investing that thanks to this extra step they won’t be.

Just goes to show you that they weren’t really concerned about the numbers, eh? (yes, that’s an “I told you so Loren”).

Second, because it’s an auction, there should be less of a typical IPO “wave”, because the selling price isn’t dictated by the market (initially) so much as by what someone is willing to pay (or feels everyone else is willing to pay).

As a result, you’ll have less buyers, spending less money. A smaller pool, a cleaner pool and a more knowledgeable pool. All a good thing.

2. Google sold out a long time ago. There was a time when the entire company was focussed so much on the product. The line “do no evil” has changed in meaning over time. It’s now much more “Bush-y”. It now means “do less evil”. Or, it means “do no Evil” (whereas before it essentially meant “do no bad”).

Google has taken on a more survivalist mentality. A good thing. I just think they’ve changed their core values and mentality. The way this IPO was done, the way staff were told, everything is evidence of minor changes.

I say minor, because Google is obviously still a company with heart (the auction style IPO is strong evidence of this, as is their continued investment in Blogger, for instance).

So, maybe sold out’s the wrong word. Maybe “changed” is a better one.

3. To be honest, 2B$ isn’t a lot of money. It’s only 2 years income for Google. Sure, it’ll be a lump sum, but it’s not like they could even buy all new servers in cash for that much (honestly). My hope is that they’ll “take care of home” first. Do some cleanup, pay off some outstanding debts (personal ones) that have been dragging some of the founders down, take care of some staff bits and then focus on the future.

I hope that future doesn’t include an OS (I’ll blog about this more in the future once it’s cooled down a touch); and I hope that future doesn’t include pure search stuff either.

Google needs to expand what it does. If search ever goes “offline”, they’re doomed. Instantly.