Keith Watanabe * NET 2.0

I like Google and admire what they do.  But whenever I look at them, I always see something missing that scares me.  Web 2.0 has been mostly an eco system supported via Google's advertisements.  I explained before how Google handles their success (at least I think I did).  But to me it's a real frail environment and once someone figures out how to pull the plug from Google, many companies will fall hard.

Of course, there's a lot of things plugged into Google.  They figured out how to be needed.  So in another way, they won't be gone so quickly.  They are kinda like a new OS forming through their APIs.  And with things like OpenSocial and Android, it's clear that they want to be more like a crack dealer in getting people addicted to their drug of OSS.

But that's the ting to me.  They try to not only be the crack dealer, but the alcohol shop, the vending machine for tobacco and the old Everclear song "Everything to Everyone."  If Ads is their biggest single point of failure, their other Achilles' Heel would be spreading themselves too thin.  I like what they've done for things like office applications and their charity arm.  But in the end, how do these things fit Google?  When you go up to someone in Google and attempt to have them answer, "What is Google's purpose as a business?"  I don't think anyone could provide a clear answer.  They used to be search.  But what has creating a spreadsheet or powerpoint slide have to do with search?

Then you have them entering the mobile market in many ways like getting into the 700Mhz bid and their Android platform.  I understand the marketing plausibility of it, but again what has that to do with search?

So I see a paradox going on, or maybe even an oxymoron: being everything to everyone or having no sense of identity whatsoever.  I remember reading about how Larry Page grew angry at Google employees for not spending enough time on search.  Is that because Google is supposed to be search? 

Honestly, for myself, I don't care whether or not Google as a business model is supposed to be search.  I just want them to answer it for themselves.  They need to, in 2008, finally declare who and what Google is.  They cannot make the claim, "They are not Evil" because Evil is too subjective of a word.  And it simply is not a business model since business models are about making money through products and services.  Once they've answered this question, I hope that they can focus their efforts on whatever model they pick.