Google successfully Goes the Disruptive Way

Its finally taken a Google to break the Microsoft trend! I just downloaded the new Chrome, and it took me a few minutes before I could come to believe that this was a web browser. Yes, it feels lighter than feather. I'm not exaggerating!

Microsoft created the design of having the notion of a Menu. The terms File, Edit, View which get featured prominantly in every Windows application was something that Microsoft came up with. There were many players who have tried to break this monotony. Apple did try to change this with its Mac OS styles. Mozilla did try to improve on the browser capabilities with its Firefox. But it is Google that brought in this disruptive innovation into the world of web browsers.

More than sheer removal of flab from the versions of web browsers provided by Microsoft and Mozilla, Google has increased the usable area for users. Here is a comparison of how much of the screen area the three browsers' (Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome) top part (title, menu and others) occupy-

View a larger version of the above image here.

Google Chrome has also done away with the traditional status bar that we find in the bottom of Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox browsers. From a mouse-click perspective, Google Chrome also seems to effectively reduce the need for a right-click. Even to open a new tab, Google has a small plus-sign that you can click.

While lean principles have been the secret behind Toyota's success in the manufacturing space, Google has successfully adopted the lean approach in removing unnecessary (or) non-value adding artifacts (Kaizen) in its products.

Whats the next Big thing in the M&A world?

With Yahoo! rejecting Microsoft's unsolicited $44.6 billion bid, the buzz has come to an end now. After a series of meetings over the past week, Yahoo's board determined that the $31 per share offer "massively undervalues" Yahoo.

I personally was very curious on whats going to happen to this deal. But it all concluded the way I felt. The deal, if materialized, could have seriously damaged the way the software industry's future...making it more proprietary oriented. Anyway, Google is now very happy, and I assume so is the Yahoo! board.

Now that this has come to an end, whats going to be the next buzz in the world of M&A?

What does it take to be a Google?

Here are some of the bare minimum qualities a company needs to possess to "Be a Google" -

1. Extremely Short product cycle times - From idea conceptualization to the first beta
2. Open communication across the corporate management (and technical) executive lines (most often companies spend too much time on funding and the related areas)
3. Use the best web platform - Preferably one that is really light weight - Zope works well for Google
4. Have a good deployment strategy in place - Low cost, High Efficiency - Use Linux based servers!
5. The cost of memory is dropping drastically - Its approaching zero cost - Don't try to limit the memory alloted to each user - Users love more memory (which translates to more 'Freedom' to do what they want)
   
6. Hire top-notch techies to be able to convert idea to a prototype to a beta to a full version
7. Have large reserves of capital for research and product marketing
8. Concentrate less on proprietary software and business models
9. Kick of multiple simple and powerful product initiatives - Not to pack everything into a powerhouse - Its like putting all eggs into one basket!
   
10. Know when to quit - Don't beat a dead horse!

Not sure if Microsoft has better plans and strategies in place (if they convert the Yahoo! bid to a success) to compete with Google. I've seen a fundamental difference in the way the two companies (MS and GOOG) have looked at the software industry (MS is more in the proprietary software space, while GOOG is more in the free-to-use software space).

I'm sure things will unfold in the days to come. Lets wait and watch!

Microsoft to take over Yahoo?? ....Nah....No way!

This is been the talk of the towns...all over the world - Microsoft to take over Yahoo Inc.
Wow! That is indeed something that will raise a trillion eyebrows. This has indeed brought a lot of smiles in the faces of several MS and YAHOO stock holders....not for long!

Yes, this has been one of the most sizzling stories of recent times...and the 'would have been' the monstrous deals of recent times and of course in the history of Microsoft. Yes, I did say 'would have been'. In my opinion, this is certainly not the right thing to happen (and most likely will not materialize). I have three good reasons to support my opinion...

1. The first and foremost reason being - A Profile Mismatch
• MS being totally into the product space (starting from an Operating System space)
• MS later branched into hosted application space and the portal space
• MS has not been into the middleware space - though having tried to do something here by some acquisitions (like that of Groove Networks)
• Yahoo has predominantly been in the Search business
• Yahoo has spread its offerings into the Internet world - collaboration space
• Yahoo also went into signing a deal with the Big Blue and rolled out the IBM Omnifind Yahoo! Edition, which was a move to get a hold in the enterprise search engine space
  
2. The second reason is that Microsoft acquiring Yahoo will be construed as Microsoft accepting a defeat to Google - not withstanding competetion and going in for an acquisition due to lack of capabilities to come up with an in-house solution!
3. The third reason I would see from a business impact standpoint is that - The deal, if it happens, will be too humongous a deal, to the business case in hand (that I can think of)
   

Currently, as per current rankings of Search Engines, Google tops the charts with Yahoo following second and Microsoft falling third.

It was not long ago (in 2005) that Bill Gates treated Google and Yahoo as new-kids-in-the-block. He even said that Google search API's were not as good as Microsoft's!!!

"With Google, there are rumors about them being interested in that services piece, but they really haven't done that much. Our search API is way better than their search API
- Bill Gates, at Microsoft Professional Developer Conference in 2005

This is always going to be an interesting thing - The Microsoft - Google war!