The Google Finance beta has just been launched, and I’m not sure whether to be surprised or not. Google is clearly going after not only being a portal in the traditional sense, but almost aiming to rebrand the internet itself to “Google” as it becomes the provider of all our most used content and communications. I actually found out about the GF launch through the built-in RSS reader in GMail, and then researched more through the Google search engine. How are they doing it?

Google is Repeatedly Building a Better Mousetrap, and Turning Disadvantages into Advantages

I’ve been thinking about Google for a good portion of today and I’ve noticed two key factors that allow services such as GMail and Google Maps to succeed. The more obvious point is that any new product is a better mousetrap. It’s why they have so many incredibly skilled and creative people, and why the Google job application is famous in its own right. Google Finance already has slick features such as being able to type an industry name to get all stock quotes and integration of major news items as markers directly on the stock information.

A second point I find interesting is that Google seems to be very aware that its the “new kid on the block” when it launches yet another product that competes head to head with established giant business. Google manages to benefit from this by not being tied to an older architecture. It has the luxury of executing the following steps:

1. Examine existing product.
2. Create a solid new architecture using its vast R&D capabilities.
3. Add several powerful “pillar” features from the get go. In other words, have something people will use and talk about.
4. Release a “beta”.
5. Perfect the product from public user feedback without suffering the negative criticism and public dismissal that would occur if the product were labelled “finished” or “1.0″.
6. Allow the viral nature of the internet and generally superior product to suck users away from existing companies.

Now here’s the catch: while Google is executing all this, competitors have their heads in the sand. At some point word of Google’s plans becomes known. In order to react the competitor must now respond to these exciting new features by building them on top of an existing complex platform. As this excellent interview with a Hotmail product unit manager shows, major changes to a system with millions of users are not a simple or cheap process. Meanwhile Google has had the advantage of planning out these features from the start, and in many cases having the luxury of developing them before the competition learns of what they are.

This advantage is compounded by the deep pockets and excellent human talent that Google has. It is able to play the role of the new kid with innovative new ideas, but where the new kid would be bought out or destroyed by the larger companies, Google has the major resources to required to fight head to head to maintain its advantage.

While Google has had some negative publicity recently, as pointed out by the ArsTechnica article that alerted me to GF’s launch, it is evident that it is continuing to follow the above formula and consequently drawing users to more and more of its services. Is this good or bad? We’ll just have to see.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 21st, 2006 at 5:45 pm and is filed under News & Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.