After just reading the latest issue of BusinessWeek, I was intrigued about the cover story -- which prominently figures Google VP Marissa Mayer, an AI and software engineering expert who also has an uncanny knack for releasing products that work sleekly, efficiently and are incredibly simple to use. For many people critical of Google Spreadsheet, I see it for its simplicity and usefulness for the tens of millions who are intimidated by Microsoft Excel and all the lavish functions it offers. Sure, there is a place for both products -- but they are targeting, for the most part, different audiences. Therein lies the "innovation" moniker that continues being placed on the Google folks.Every tried Google's Gmail or Google Calendar? Both are fantastically easy to use and learn with very little configuration and tweaking. Compared to the incredible amount of settings in Microsoft Outlook, both Gmail and Google Calendar are, for many people, highly innovative and useful. One thing gearheads and power users tend to forget is that not everyone needs complex functionality out of their software -- whether locally-installed or web-based.
Having consulted with many Fortune 500 companies on internal agent UI and customer interface, I can confidently say that the majority of workers at home and even at the office do not use more than 25% of all the advanced functions in much of the Microsoft Office software package. Why? Not because the customers don't want to -- it's because the features are hard to find, implement and learn to use. On the flip side, as this CNET article points out, products like Google Spreadsheet are not going to replace a product such as Microsoft Excel in the enterprise anytime soon, which I completely agree with. But, maybe replacement is not Google's strategy for the Google Spreadsheet program -- noodle that one for a while.
And that brings us back to Google -- its knack for innovation and the advertising business model is currently enjoys are what has made it incredibly successful, although it has challenges ahead in terms of monetizing more than just search if it wants to diversify revenue -- and I believe Google shareholders, institutional and individual, are demanding this, and will continue to demand it. So, Google's knack for innovation will soon spill over into how to make money from all its innovative products.
Listen to the BusinessWeek cover edition podcast to hear more on the fascinating culture that is fostered at Google -- for shareholders, it's an interesting look inside the Googleplex from the top leaders to the employees themselves. Easily worth a listen, so get it here in MP3 format.
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