Google needs to be more like a bank and less like an ATM machine
A Look Back at Google’s History of Social Media Failures
Sometime back I had read an article about why Google is consistently failing at social experiments. It blamed the company for being too transaction oriented. Although I could not find a link to that article now, I remember the logic it put forth very clearly.
It accused Google of being a transactions oriented company. Just ponder over how you use Google services. You go in, key in the address of one of it’s services, you make use of that application move out. Although the work you did may linger on your mind, you would not much remember the tools that you used for the same. Take an example of Maps, one of the most successful of all Google products. You launch the site, use its massive data, and software wizardry for finding the location of your nearest Pizza or Starbucks joint and quickly move out of the service.
Google’s services are conditioned to solve your specific problems. It does not want you on their servers for a long time. They want you to get the information and move ahead. It is like an efficient desk clerk, it is more interested in getting to the next guy with the next query. It is this DNA that has troubled Google in the social scene. Despite having one of the richest computing power and human talent, it struggles to save face. Does that matter? Not until now.
For better or worse, today, many aspects of our social life are getting ported to a digital environment. We share photos on Instagram, listen music on Spotify, watch funny videos on YouTube (Which is a great success because for most part, Google allowed it run almost autonomously, same was with Orkut), we share location on Swarm, we read about and recommend restaurants on Zomato. Facebook acts as a central stations where all these trains meet. This emergence of specialized internet services has one thing in common when we talk about capital. Their users are the highest capital they have, users who are not really going anywhere. Until recently, Google continued a somewhat shoddy job with Google Profiles. Even today, their contact management is not up to the mark. This is going to hurt them.
People are lazy, but they board every new service almost without caring how dedicated they’d be. Coupled together, it makes it hard to retain them.
Let me expand on my metaphor a little. I perceive Google as the ATM for the most part. People change ATMs fairly quickly. I am suggesting Google to be a bank. A bank where people would have savings, bunch of fixed and recurring deposits, probably a DMAT account linked to it. They may have emails and phone numbers configured, they would have payees and billers registered. With all this, switching a bank is a tiresome task, which is only taken up as the last resort.
Digital spaces are maturing now. Already we call Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon as the big four of internet, along with Facebook somewhere in the mix. All of them have cut out a share for themselves. Apple and Microsoft even have stakes out of the digital world if things go wrong. Today we see people relying on, almost surrendering to services to work for them. May it be Google Search or Facebook. Facebook went down for half an hour and people started calling 911. That much ingrained these systems are with our day to day life. In an era like this, the one who owns user base, owns the world.
Precisely this is the reason why Google needs to focus harder on getting more personal, retaining more people. I have seen people hopelessly scrolling Facebook and Quora timelines in a the hope to find something interesting. The DNA of these sites has a certain opiatic effect. It makes perfect business sense of Google to strive to be the only go to for everything. A digital butler for everything, inseparable. Google Now kinda does that, but I am not seeing sincerity and dedication which I expect from a company which provides Search, Maps, and Mail.
Till yesterday, it was okay to be another tool online, as Internet was more of an entertainer and a supplement to daily life. Today, for a significant section of the populace, internet has become one of the basic needs. These people dearly invest time and money on the platforms of their choice. Once this decision is made, there is a conscious lock in, and a strong symbiotic relationship develops.
…until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it. — Morpheus ( The Matrix )
With the amount of cash, technology and talent Google is sitting on right now, they definitely have the chance to build and be Skynet. They just have to play their cards right.
Sincerely,
An Ardent Google Follower.
P.S.: I would love to hear from you about my views, am I making sense?
