What makes Google go?

So our sustainable advantages really depends on whether we can continue the innovation. The other advantages that traditional investors have we don’t really have, there’s not a lot of patents, there’s not a lot of barriers to entry, it’s very easy for consumers to leave Google to go to a competitor so we cant really lock them in.

Furthermore, by policy we don’t allow it, in fact we have a program to liberate your data if you want to take it away from Google. So it’s part of our trust relationship. Our users’ trust not only can they use us but we won’t misuse their data, but we can also give them their data if they want to switch. That keeps us on our toes.

So for us the pressure around maintaining our leadership is around this core ability to innovate quicker than anyone else.

Froogle is a product we did about five years ago and it was an example of what Google does well. We tried something, it was successful for a while, the market changed, we didn't quite see how to evolve it and so we literally replaced it by product search that’s embedded in our normal search results.

It’s a very good example of how a small team could do something special, we could learn from it and then integrate that into our core results.

So yeah, they’re a great innovative company, but I think there’s more to it than that because to stay ahead in such competitive markets as IT high tech markets are, Google’s got added value.

It’s got great IT resources which it’s maximised the advantage from that, but also it’s about the capabilities, and those capabilities come from the people within the organisation, the people who come up with the ideas, the people who actually think hey, wouldn’t it be great if...?

Now, from what I understand, Google’s a fantastic place to work because they have in place opportunities to break out, to relax, to chill and to come up with these fantastic ideas.

So, from my opinion, that’s part of what Google is doing and I think, dare I say it, that to say that it’s just its innovation is actually selling short what the company does and how it achieves and stays ahead.