I wonder how Google's success as a search engine could have unfolded differently.
Imagine they had launched adwords with more basic tools: less granular targeting and such. Imagine that their revenue had gradually climbed to $1bn by now, enough to employ a battalion of the best engineers they could find and focus on search. Investors (those delivering truckloads of cash in the article) would still have called it a big success.
They probably wouldn't have built or bought all the expensive speculative stuff like self driving cars, android, wave & youtube. Would the search engine be worse? Would it be better? Would they have been able to maintain their lead in search?
Imagine they had launched adwords with more basic tools: less granular targeting and such. Imagine that their revenue had gradually climbed to $1bn by now, enough to employ a battalion of the best engineers they could find and focus on search. Investors (those delivering truckloads of cash in the article) would still have called it a big success.
They probably wouldn't have built or bought all the expensive speculative stuff like self driving cars, android, wave & youtube. Would the search engine be worse? Would it be better? Would they have been able to maintain their lead in search?