Google arrogant?

by on December 26, 2006

Mary Jo Foley: “Microsoft has — justifiably — been called arrogant. But Google takes arrogance to a whole new level.”

I’ve been hearing this more and more lately at Silicon Valley parties. I think there’s a disconnect at Google about how they are viewed by the outside world and how they view themselves. Will that matter? It did to Microsoft — eventually — when Microsoft got so arrogant it thought it could take on the government (Microsoft lost that argument, if you remember, even if losing didn’t hurt as much as some would have liked). Will Google follow the same path?

I think at the end of the day you’ll find that Google is one of the fastest learning big companies. It’ll be interesting to see if Google continues pissing off people outside of it. Especially as Google grows extraordinarily fast (they are attempting to double in size in the next year, according to some people I’ve talked with).

And, at Shel’s party I met someone who had some founder stock in Google. That guy is still bullish on Google. The consensus at the party was that Google wouldn’t be stopped — at least not in the next quarter or two.

Whether it’s arrogant or not, Google is the company to watch right now. It’ll be interesting to see if Microsoft can take some of that swagger away.

  • Stanley
    There are more companies than just Google and Microsoft (and Apple, the other company that gets so much play in your posts). I don't think Microsoft will necessarily take some of Google's swagger away, but it could be other companies that do so. More likely, Google will take some of its own swagger away, as there's a growing backlash against them.

    Microsoft is involved in so much more than Google's areas (for example, their Robotics Studio coupled with the Lego Robot makes for a fantastic gift, and that's something we're never going to see from the likes of Google). Microsoft's "Live" unit is competing with (and getting its butt kicked by, at least for the foreseeable future) Google, but the rest of Microsoft is doing their own things, with Google not having anything to answer those things (nor would I expect them to).

    My point is, Microsoft is doing more than just competing with Google, and other companies besides Microsoft are competing with Google. Your posts make it seem that everything comes down to MS vs G, which is not the case.
  • Doug
    Stanley is right. It's not about MS and Google alone. MS and Google have marketshare and mindshare, and while these go a long way, they are not everything.

    I remember when Gmail hit the street in '04. People went nuts and you were considered a loser in the IT community if you didn't have an account. On that basis alone, I refused to have an account. I proudly used and still use my Hotmail account I've had for years. I refuse to get on the latest trend bandwagon.

    Some people say that Google is interesting. I disagree. They are just another large (and getting larger) company that puts out products that people use. I still think that their ad-based business will one day fail them.

    I'm something of a maverick, so having access to the latest online craze means nothing to me. I never had an Orkut account, never had a Flickr account, I don't have a blog, and I don't belong to any organizations. I honestly believe that unless your life demands you to be visible, quite a few people are going to regret some of the things they post online. More and more employers are looking online for tidbits about potential employers, and I for one am thankful that my name is not on the Internet anywhere. No majot search engine has my name, address, or anything about me in the slightest. I do vanity searches every 6 months or so to see what may have been put there by someone. Call me paranoid, but that's my policy. I've never heard of not being able to find someone ever being a problem.
  • It is a serious flaw in any argument to talk about an organization as if it was one monolithic organism acting and thinking in unison.
  • Hopefully Microsoft will not take away anything from Google (or any other company that made life more comfortable on the net). A company that solely builds on copying successful business of others while not able to put a serious contender on os x and a standards compliant browser to the market for more than four years but disrespects their users doesn't deserve to steal away any marketshare from the inventors.
  • "No majot search engine has my name, address, or anything about me in the slightest. I do vanity searches every 6 months or so to see what may have been put there by someone. Call me paranoid, but that’s my policy."

    But people with no credit history don't get credit cards... There may be negative potential to an internet presence but there is lots of good potential which is easily realised.

    i.e. you being "mr. nobody" may not get a job over another candidate with proven history on the 'net.

    Just food for thought...

    And as for Google; this is one to watch. Interesting how they are starting to step on toes and annoy people. 2007 will surely be an interesting one for them.
  • Tim's quite right, there are plenty of positive benefits to be found from a well managed & professional online identity, and if you are working in a tech related industry its quite likely these benefits could end up out-weighing the possible negative possibilities.

    There's no reason to plaster your name online, but if you think you have something interesting to say there's no reason to hide.
  • joe
    I like commenting on outdated blog entries. It just baffles me to see and read about some future prospects and then actually living in the stated time and seeing that there's nothing happening like it was mentioned and written by bloggers.

    Amazing!! Google continues to dominate the online search and ad market and still are arrogant. And they will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
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