If it weren’t for the fact that they’re Google, this would be shaping up to be a very bad week to be Google.
Google has decided that they don’t have quite enough of your information, so now they’re offering to pay for more of it. At least you get something in return, but … wow. So much for Google No Longer Caring About Data!
By the way, if you read that post you’ll see that my point was that Google cares more about their own data than everyone else’s, so maybe there’s no change here.
But as Google spreads out, reaching into what seems more and more every day like just about everything, they’re getting sloppy. Google can almost afford that—certainly when you’re Google’s size and have reached “critical mass” there are lots of mistakes you can make that don’t amount to much. Think about it, though; what would happen to your business if your business change looked like some of this stuff?
Google Wallet, which I told you about here, has been cracked. This shouldn’t amount to much in real terms, (there are too many steps to implement the hack, plus credit card protection laws in place) but it’s disturbing to see how small design mistakes can have such a serious impact.
This is far from Google’s first security screw up. And while I generally think many businesses spend too much time worrying about security to justify the expense versus some quick back-end remediation if and when they get hacked, Google can’t afford to be so relaxed on the subject—again, because they’re Google.
It comes down to having too many things going on at once. At Google, quality control is slipping.
We still haven’t seen anything happen with Google’s purchase of Zagat. The monopoly questions just keep getting bigger. And if you take a close look at Google Music, you’ll see sloppiness that, frankly, is hard to believe. No way to clean up duplicates? A feature that imports play count for your songs from iTunes but doesn’t then keep it up to date? Google, you’re just looking sloppy.
Rush new products and services out the door? Yeah, it can work. And again, I’m criticizing Google; who do I think I am, anyway?
One From Column A, One From Column B? Not always a recipe for quality. Want help with your business change strategies? I’m right here.
