i am still thinking back to the google factory tour. the first thing they talk about--they are 70% search/advertising. and that doesnt sound like its ever going to change.

[moved]

I agree. I don’t see google losing focus on search. Some people seem to think that focus means doing only one thing. I think focus is a matter of setting priorities. Google seems to make search a priority. My only problem with them is that they seem to do this at the expense of some of their other initiatives as you mentioned. Google should realize that having too much lower quality products can breed a negative view on their core product.

Phillip, allow me to congratulate on writting a brilliant piece, with sufficient evidences.

I am totally agree with you in this comment. google seems to deviate from their original theme being a effective search engine. No doubt in my mind they still are number one search engine. But we dont say how long they will be in that position if they intersted in many other money making areas and engage in comptetiion with Microsoft and Yahoo. We all know Microsoft and Yahoo are going for Money and only money. Also Google Search now seems to clutter with plenty of maketing around those results, it clutters the effectiveness.

Anyway thanks for publishing briliant and timely blog.

The fact that everyone wants more from Google is a testament to their success. Sure, they release a lot of stuff, and some of it doesn't stick. But as long as they keep throwing products out and some DO end up popular then they will continue to be successful.

I can't seen anyone dethroning their search anytime soon. It would take some new upstart with a revolutionary technology in search, but Google has a trendency to make sure those upstarts work for Google.

On another note, you made me look at the Google homepage and wonder what's next. How could this page be less cluttered. The only items that really bothered me were the ones across the top: email, personalized homepage, search history, my account, and sign out. I think we will see something in the next year about these links. They pretty much have to go or change in some form.

Nicholas, also take a look at the "ultimate reduction usability test" where I pondered what else could be removed from the homepages of Google and others:
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2005-05-11-n35.html

I do agree the whole top links (Personalized etc.) seem somewhat misplaced. Maybe it's just a problem of proper positioning.

Yes, it seems clear that search is still the priority. Note Google's recent index boost on their anniversary. Google has to be fully cognizant that all of their revenue is derived one way or another from search, even for instance adwords in Gmail – the search drives the technology.

If they are diversifying at all, it is between search and web applications. Even if you consider these business units seperate, there is tons of overlap and ways where the web applications can utilize the search revenue model. There's plenty of motivation for Google to keep search the priority.

Google Blog Search is the best one around? Hey – I'm a big Google fan, but try using the sort-by-date with the blog search and you'll often get over 50% spam.

See my comparisons with other blog search engines at http://www.mackmo.com/nick/blog/blogging/2005/9/29/Google_Blogsearch_A_poor_effort.txt and http://www.mackmo.com/nick/blog/blogging/2005/10/6/Fixing-Google-Blog-Search.txt

well, that defeats the entire purpose of sorting by relevance which eleminates the spam, as it should. just restrict to a date range if you need them from a certian date or something.

You know just the other day I was wishing for a compromise between relevance and date, but now that I think about it Groups and Web search both allow this in the advanced search window... Must have been late :)