Is Google Over?
Is it over for Google?
This question is pulsing through most of the conversations I’ve been having with tech and media industry folk these past few weeks. The company’s narrative has shifted dramatically in the wake of Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI. Nearly everyone I’ve spoken with is convinced the company is in serious trouble — and Wall Street has validated those concerns by trimming $200 billion from the company’s market cap over the past two weeks.
While $200 billion is a lot of money, it’s not clear it matters. In the long view, big tech companies lose and gain hundreds of billions in market cap on a stunningly regular basis. Both Microsoft and Google are trading above where they started this year, and while Microsoft initially saw a bump in its stock price after the beta release of Bing chat, most traders have come to realize that “Sydney” is not ready for prime time — and Microsoft’s stock has settled back to pre-announcement levels. Perhaps Google’s reticence to roll out its own flavor of AI search might have actually been wise.
Regardless, the “Google is f*cked” narrative isn’t going away. Last week’s viral blog post from a former engineer — The Maze Is In The Mouse — offered a deeper proof point as to why (almost one year ago to the date, another post also went viral: Google Search Is Dying)…
