Is Google "too big to fail"?

[Locut0s]

Considering how entrenched Google is on the internet and how they have fingers in just about every pie out there it's not hard to believe that Google may be sort of too big to fail in some ways. Gmail, Google Maps, Google Docs and of course search are so tired into peoples daily lives that it's hard to imagine the net without them. Their reach is even further extended by the ability to tie them into other services by APIs. Now of course there are alternatives out there like MSs Bing and hot mail but the amount of user data that Google now holds is just stupendous and it's hard to imagine all this data smoothly migrating to other services in any form of timely fashion should the company go under.

 

[guyver01]

no "search engine" is too big to fail.

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While some of these may still be around in one form or another... they're nowhere near as big as they once were.

 

[Locut0s]

no "search engine" is too big to fail.

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While some of these may still be around in one form or another... they're nowhere near as big as they once were.

True however none of them every grew to one tenth the size google has. Perhaps not even 1% the size.

 

[guyver01]

True however none of them every grew to one tenth the size google has. Perhaps not even 1% the size.

no.. but at one point, geocities was THE host for all freebie webpages...

and they failed.

there's no such thing as "too big to fail" .. especially when it comes to something that has no effect on the economy.

 

[Locut0s]

no.. but at one point, geocities was THE host for all freebie webpages...

and they failed.

there's no such thing as "too big to fail" .. especially when it comes to something that has no effect on the economy.

I'm playing devils advocate here a bit because I don't really think they ARE too big to fail but it IS amazing how central they have become to peoples daily Internet routines. And yes they have a very big effect on the economy. Not only are they a HUGE company but their services are used by many many other corporations.

 

[guyver01]

And yes they have a very big effect on the economy. Not only are they a HUGE company but their services are used by many many other corporations.

Outside of the people they employ (21,000 as of 2010), I don't see any other 'economic effect' they would have if they folded.

There's nothing that Google offers as a service that is unique to google. Anything and everything they offer in terms of services that are used by corporations, can easily be replaced by another application.

 

[SpatiallyAware]

They are already too large to effectively do business with other businesses and have decent customer service.

Their customer service and support is far far worse than Microsoft. When they have downtime they don't talk about it until it's fixed, and even then not until a 'report' is released.


I loved Google until their corporate filtering (Postini) was down for two days last year with NO updates and 10 hour +++ hold times for CSR.

 

[ultimatebob]

A lot of us would need to find new e-mail and calendar hosting services, but that doesn't mean that they're too big to fail.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

No single corporate entity is too big to fail, or too bug to allow to fail. Sure, this is my opinion, but just because the current administration has prohibited being poor doesn't mean we should welfare corporations in addition to the lame (ahem, individual) welfare recipients.

 

[XZeroII]

no

 

[vbuggy]

The only Google thing I use is search. I do have an Android handset, but it's not an important part of my mobile setup. I use Firefox and (yes) IE. I operate my own mini-cloud in a mainly Microsoft infrastructure.

So not for me - switch to Bing and that's me sorted out. I'd imagine the students and cheapskate tech hipsters who balk at paying for anything beyond their Macs will be despondent.

I would however freak if MS failed.

 

[her209]

Google isn't too big to fail because if it does, it will have meant that everyone has moved on from Google for another company's service(s).

 

[tokie]

Google won't fail anytime soon because unlike the posted search engines which all essentially failed, Google has actually monetized things and is making swaths of cash.

 

[mfenn]

They are already too large to effectively do business with other businesses and have decent customer service.

Their customer service and support is far far worse than Microsoft. When they have downtime they don't talk about it until it's fixed, and even then not until a 'report' is released.


I loved Google until their corporate filtering (Postini) was down for two days last year with NO updates and 10 hour +++ hold times for CSR.

This. OMG This.

Google has exceptionally shitty customer service. They still have the small-time "closet hacker" mentality and deep down don't quite comprehend that people (companies) actually do use their services in mission-critical environments. Especially their paying customers.

IMO, Google really wants to be an enterprise services company (see the Exchange to Google Apps migration tool) but they don't quite have the process maturity (think CMMI) to play with the big boys in that arena.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Google isn't too big to fail because if it does, it will have meant that everyone has moved on from Google for another company's service(s).

Exactly. There will never be a need to prop it up with corporate welfare since if it is failing, it has been replaced by other companies that have taken over its services. At that point its failure will have no major impact.

Kind of like AOL now. 10-15 years ago if it disappeared overnight then grandmas everywhere would've been cut off from sending emails with pictures of their cats. No longer.

 

[Ruptga]

At one point GM was just like Google; they owned their market, they were rolling in profits, they consistently outperformed the competition, and they were a huge structure in American business and life. But Rome neither was built nor fell in a day. Google could fail, but unless something mindblowing happens its customers and users aren't going to abandon it overnight.

Her said what I did in about 1/4th the space :/

 

[Slew Foot]

Too big to fail had nothing to do with market capital, and everything to do with how much in political bribes had been paid out.

 

[MJinZ]

People aren't dependent on Google for their day to day.

So, nope, they aren't too big to fail, because Government has no need to prevent them from failing.

But Google also has no easy way to fail, since their business model is pretty much bullet proof.

 

[shortylickens]

If Google failed, we would all feel it. Either directly or indirectly.
I find it amusing that so many people think it is "just" a search engine. Its a lot more than that these days. Its a major part of the digital millennium.
But, I dont think the govt. should protect it either. Someone will come in to fill the void. Microsoft has already started. They'd be in the best position to pick it up. After a few months of ad revenue (increased sharply by the loss of Google) they'd be able to boost their infrastructure a great deal and I suspect within a year no one would notice the difference.

 

[peez]

no "search engine" is too big to fail.

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While some of these may still be around in one form or another... they're nowhere near as big as they once were.

Probably because of Google

 

[gorcorps]

While I do believe they're bigger than anything we've seen before, I don't think anything's too big to fail.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

Outside of the people they employ (21,000 as of 2010), I don't see any other 'economic effect' they would have if they folded.

There's nothing that Google offers as a service that is unique to google. Anything and everything they offer in terms of services that are used by corporations, can easily be replaced by another application.

There are also a lot of people who have invested a lot of money into google. The economy would feel it if Google suddenly went bankrupt.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Google is an anomaly, they're so successful, it has allowed them to branch out and try some interesting products.

Mobile search will be huge, and they're playing that market exceptionally well, it was a stroke of genius to give away Android and integrate Google services into a phone OS.

The voice recognition they implement has overcome data input issues with mobile devices, and once they manage to effectively output data to paper with no additional devices (laptop or desktop) we're going to see another quantum change in the market, think your hand held device replacing a laptop for many people.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Google is omnipotent, benevolent and invulnerable.

 

[Gothgar]

no "search engine" is too big to fail.

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While some of these may still be around in one form or another... they're nowhere near as big as they once were.

never heard of any of them


I have, but you get the point right?