Success of one company is often built on numerous failures and the best experiences learned from them: Google is the best proof [infographic]
The world we are living in today, the entire society, our economy and politics, all the way to our daily lives, are driven by the power of technology and connectivity, with all of the benefits and consequences they bring. And often, when thinking about technological innovation and disruptive thinking, one company comes to mind: Google, of course.
It all started back in the 1996, when Google revolutionized the way we access the online information. The success of the Search can be summed up in 2 simple lines: “to google” something today actually means “search on line” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary) and Google.com is the single most-visited page on the Internet.
The list successful projects and initiatives is very long, and it’s even hard to imagine our daily life without some of them: Android OS, Google Earth, Google Maps, Gmail, Chrome and YouTube, to name some of them. On the other hand, Google is famous for its mind-boggling projects, like futuristic Google Glass, the high-altitude Internet-providing balloons, Google Loon, self-driving cars and space elevators.
It takes a lot of talent, courage, hope and even insanity to engage in similar projects. And also you need to be ready to fail: no one, individual or company, can reach the top without leaving some failed projects behind. As Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt likes to say, “We celebrate our failures”.
Let’s take a closer into some of the biggest flops signed by Google.
Google Buzz
Google Buzz was a social networking, microblogging and messaging tool launched in February 2009, as a feature of Gmail. It allowed Gmail users to share links, photos, videos, status messages and comments organized in “conversations” and visible in the user’s inbox. It was created with the ambition to compete with Facebook and Twitter, featuring “likes” and microblogging options. The similarity to competitors and many privacy issues contributed to its shut down, only 2 years after the launch.
Google Wave
Ambitiously launched in 2009, Google Wave was web-based computing platform and communications protocol designed to merge key features of communications media such as email, instant messaging, wikis, and social networking. The idea was to allow users to access a shared space where they can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, etc. As defined by one of its developers, “Wave is what email would look like if it were invented today.”
In order to improve the platform, Google released it as an open source, but it failed to receive interest from developers, and it was criticized as a product that offered already existing technologies, but couldn’t perform the tasks better than the originals.
The project was closed just 15 month after the launch, in August 2010.
Google Answers
Google Answers was an online knowledge market, launched in 2002, that allowed users to post bounties for well researched answers to their queries. The cost for an answer went from $2 to $200, while Google retained 25% of the researcher’s reward and a 50 cent fee per question. The concept was very interesting but the users preferred to choose less reliable but free websites like Yahoo! Answers, Quora or simply browse the Web.
After 4 years, Google announced that the service has been discontinued but the archives are still accessible in a read-only mode.
Google Notebook
Google Notebook was a free online application that allowed users to save and organize clips of information while browsing the web. User could also write notes, clip text and images, and save links from pages into an online “notebook” with sharing and collaboration features. The product was launched in 2006, but in January 2009 Google announced it will be stopping its development. However Notebook can’t be considered as a complete failure since it made a transition into Google Docs, a popular Google Drive App, available in 53 languages and used by millions of users.
Jaiku
Jaiku was a social networking, micro-blogging and lifestreaming service founded in 2006 by 2 Finnish developers, purchased by Google in October 2007. The founders chose the name because the posts on Jaiku resemble Japanese haiku.
Even though Google users expected that Jaiku will offer integration with Gmail, calendar, blog hosting and instant messaging, none of that happened, and most of the users migrated to Twitter. The platform was often down or lagging, and the customer service was almost nonexistent. After some rescue attempts, by transforming it into an open source project, Google finally decided to shut it down in 2012.
And in between…
There is also one more category of products that some consider successes, some failures but one thing is sure: they are here to stay. Google + and Google Glass are just some of them that have divided the public opinion.
Launched in 2011 very ambitiously, Google + was supposed to wipe out all the competition, including Facebook. Thanks to the integration with Gmail, Google + reached over 500 million users in very short time but the user engagement statistics are very difficult to measure. Even though it still didn’t become the “personal ID card” for the users, it is becoming very important for brands, that often use it to complete their web presence and engage with followers through “circles”.
Innovative technology and controversy best describe Google Glass, launched last year. It surely is not a mass-market product but it has a lot of potentials, and it will probably have to wait some years to be accepted and widely used.
In the end, one thing remains certain, Google will continue to design the future of technology. In the words of Scott Strawn, analyst at IDC,
The way that Google approaches innovation necessitates failure. You’re going to end up failing in some respects. But you have to do an effective job of managing that failure. (CNBC)
Check out the biggest hits & misses by Google in our new infographics!
Sources:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101888130
https://blog.kissmetrics.com/google-products-that-failed/
http://searchengineland.com/lets-celebrate-googles-biggest-failures-48165
http://www.wikipedia.org/
The post Google’s Biggest Failures appeared first on Neomobile Blog.