Bloogle: Making "Portals" Irrelevant

Get it: Google + Blue Ocean Strategy = Bloogle? OK -- it's Sunday. I get to make a bad joke that'll probably bring about a letter from Google's trademark lawyers.

Many people don't think Google is a Blue company because the Googlers seem to be so into technical innovation: making things for no apparent purpose other than to invent. I spent over an hour on the phone with a prominent consultant who argued passionately that Google's pure Red Ocean (he got angry when I wouldn't budge and now won't return email). Normally that'd be deadly -- the red ocean, not the consultant -- except, in the case of Google, they know that their experiments are ... experimental. They're not betting the farm on Google Docs any more than they are on corporate jets or top-notch cafeterias.

There's a big difference between Microsoft building Vista then not being able to articulate a why, and Google creating GMail because somebody thought that during the process they might stumble upon something interesting. The entire time Google's run off buying Blogger and web-based word processors and a Brazilian social networking site they've kept a laser focus on maintaining the quality of their core search and advertising business.

Why is Google Blue? Type in www.google.com and notice a) they eliminated configuration options for regular users, b) they've dramatically reduced the clutter: both the visual clutter of other "portals" and the not-so-valuable stuff it represents, c) they've dramatically raised ease of use, and d) they created Page Rank: the magic algorithm that seems to read your mind and return relevant results.

Most people would say Google breaks my "Create" rule that technology isn't the centerpiece of a Create key element. They're wrong. The center of Page Rank is links, and links existed long before Page Rank. Similarly, Page Rank wouldn't exist without links but links aren't an overt part of Page Rank: links aren't entirely hidden but they're also not something Google would list as a key element.

Net-net: when Google launched they had many competitors. They didn't beat the competition: they made it irrelevant. The appropriately named Yahoo, whom I can't say enough bad things about, is still charging $300+ to be listed in their directory that fewer people seem to use every day while Bloogle's single-handedly changed the entire face of the advertising industry.