No letdown from Google - Feb. 1, 2005

Wow, what a story! I have to strongly disagree with Paul Thurrott's statement about Google yesterday. In his news item yesterday, he states "Finally, Google itself is highly overrated. The company values its strange home-brew server farms and offers silly employee perks such as Segways for use at work; a viable contender could easily show the company that the Emperor has no clothes." Well, the proof several hours later doesn't bear this out. Several criticsms should be lodged at Paul for making this claim.

First, Google is about search with many innovative augmentations to this core business. Their technology announcements and offerings are making other companies evolve their services...MSN Search being a great example. How they accomplish this technologically is not an Achilles' heel so it's fruitless to criticize as Paul has done in disparaging their server farm.

Second, attempts at marginalizing Google for their employee perks is "silly". They are hiring world-class talent and everyone better take note. Who cares about their perks!

Third, the use of "the Emperor has no clothes" is ridiculous. In that story, the Emporer was naked and had no idea he was in that state. I can't conceive of how anyone could believe Google is walking around without anything on, implying that what they have to offer is a mere fiction. Get real! They transformed the web and they will continue to innovate in way Microsoft has forgotten how to.

All in all, Google has followed the steps to success for a company that only a few years ago was a research paper.

Paul, I love what you have to say most of the time, but you're wrong on this one.