Google Guessing Game?

[vicki2]

Sometimes, I think Google simply throws in some new thing like Google Maps for the publicity and to further brand recognition. That's not a bad idea and, perhaps, the 'chatter' created is worth the financial output on such products, but, at the same time, they've got to keep the money rolling in on the mainstream stuff!

[triumph]

vicki2 Wrote:Sometimes, I think Google simply throws in some new thing like Google Maps for the publicity and to further brand recognition. That's not a bad idea and, perhaps, the 'chatter' created is worth the financial output on such products, but, at the same time, they've got to keep the money rolling in on the mainstream stuff!

I don't disagree with that, but right now if I think of most of their recent projects they have announced most of them generate any direct revenue and very little if any indirect revenue.

[vicki2]

Direct revenue makes more sense to me ... a few fun things are great for publicity and recognition,, but keep that money rolling in!

[andreww38]

well, look at it another way.

if you kill off all your competitors and you are the last man standing.
if you switch to a paid model, you monopolize the market.

triumph Wrote:I think their philosphy of giving away the goods and making money on advertising is a good one. However, I think they have potentially entered into too many areas at once with no real plan on how to make money. Look at Google Maps. It is awesome, but I doubt it generates any substantial revenue.

They need to have a better plan for making money when they undertake this projects and not just push it off until later.

[vicki2]

If I look at Google Earth, there's the possibility of making money with the ability to search for hotels, etc. on those maps, but the development hasn't gone far enough yet to be able to rely on it for real information. I've played with it quite a bit because I have to admit that it's fun (you can really get lost just looking lol), but I couldn't find a hotel on that thing if I tried.

[andreww38]

if u take a macro view, google occupies the space for 'search'.
hence whether it's yr desktop, the internet or GIS (geographical info systems), they'd want to stick their finger in.
once they've established themselves in that space, they own the 'platform' and can go looking for 'application developers' to build LBS (location-based services), GPS or other web2.0 apps on the platform.

imagine they're colonizing virgin territory and just waiting for settlers to ride into town...

[Hurgoll]

Have anyone seen the job ads for google to be a street level person? You go inside places and take pictures for them to show on google earth.

[ACCER]

I haven't seen them but it sounds rather weird. I suppose for public places it's ok...but I wouldn't want street level on private homes etc.