A discussion about the software industry and their coders

John Battelle in a Podcast interview with Tom Raftery demystifies Google's Spaghattei at the Wall approach to Product Releases. Most people are wondering whats going on with the rapid product releases from Google that dont seem to be gaining big audiences. I had ruminated over similar questions in my post Google's Strategy Anyone?

Answering a question from Tom Raftery whether "Google is losing focus"; John Battelle (www.battellemedia.com) explains that Google's "Hit and Miss" product release strategy is meant only for non-core businesses that are outside its core business of Search and Advertising. He calls it the Spaghetti at the Wall approach to product releases.

This makes complete sense to me -- throw Spaghetti at the Wall and see what sticks. Whatever falls off is just an experiment.

Further, this also explains why comparing Google with Yahoo! and Microsoft in product release strategy does not make sense. Both Yahoo! and Microsoft are much more deliberate in releasing products to the market. Both these companies work with the belief that whatever products get released to consumers need to be supported, so they go slower.

This deliberate approach in-itself sometimes is taken as a lack of innovation by popular media. That i think is a mistake. Crazily releasing beta products without regard to supporting customers is not necessarily a very innovative approach either. (However, when media believes something crazy is cool -- thats what it is! Media is a biased and unfair power broker in a democratic society. We can only write blogs and have our way!)

John says in the podcast interview (not exact transcription of the Podcast):

I am Not sure if they (Google) ever had a focus. Its actually sort of planned. Hit and Miss Development strategy : except in their core assets of Search and Advertising Business.

You dont see them throwing spaghetti at the wall with the next rev of Ad sense or Advertiser Tools for Ad sense.They are very focused in search and advertising. They are hoping that one of their businesses will catch fire and become a big business. They throw spaghetti outside of the search and advertising domain.

You cant judge them (Google) by the way Yahoo and Microsoft do products because thats not their intent to do it that way.

However my argument that the "Hit and Miss" product releases could hurt Google's long term partnering prospects with other players and create misunderstanding and/or animosity is still valid. When a big player like Google (GOOG) rapidly releases products in categories that Yahoo! (YHOO), Amazon (AMZN), eBay (EBAY), or Microsoft (MSFT) are well entrenched -- the latter will develop counter strategies for Google's advances into their domains. Amazon's fall-off with Google in Site Search was one such example.

Continued... Strengths and Weaknesses of Yahoo!, Google & MSN