谷歌的“专注”之惑

    去年外界曾一度批评谷歌（Google）失去了发展重点，对此谷歌CEO拉里•佩奇表示，要把“更多的木头安在更少的箭头后面”。翻译过来就是说，谷歌将要削减过于臃肿的产品线，让工程师们把精力集中在更重要的事情上。为了表明对这个问题的重视，佩奇砍掉了一款名为“谷歌健康”（Google Health）的电子病历在线储存服务，另外还关掉了一个名为“谷歌电表”（Power Meter）的服务。它主要用来记录家庭用电，知名度本来就不高。

    然而专注于一个重点是很难的。上周谷歌又推出了一系列新产品，包括一款平板电脑、一个名叫Nexus Q的家庭娱乐播放器，还发布了一项企业计算服务。不仅如此，谷歌还展出了一款极具未来主义色彩的上网眼镜，未来它甚至有望取代智能手机。在线储存服务公司Box的首席执行官艾伦•李维说：“谷歌很专注——只是它对任何事都很专注。”

    整个硅谷都对谷歌的专注度表示怀疑。苹果（Apple）的战略思想“保持简单”在硅谷人看来是最理想的哲学。苹果自己只专注于有限的几款产品，因而更容易在细节上下工夫，因此它的i系列电脑、平板和智能手机都比竞争对手做得出色。

    在谷歌历史上的大部分时间里，谷歌的战略都是“广种薄收”。多年以来，似乎只要就能吸引一次公众的眼球，工程师们任何稀奇古怪的创意都能获得审批立项。

    除了作为核心的搜索业务和在线广告业务之外，谷歌还有好几十项业务是专门为了吸引公众的注意而存在的。要想记住谷歌的所有产品几乎是不可能的，即便是那些密切关注谷歌的人可能也做不到。有时谷歌的某些服务已经很久没有升级，大概是连谷歌内部的人都忘了还有这么一项服务。

    谷歌自己偶尔也会砍掉一些过时或过气的服务。不过自从去年拉里•佩奇重掌帅印以来，谷歌清理次要服务的速度似乎加快了。除了谷歌健康和谷歌电表之外，他还砍掉了在线幻灯片服务Slide、社交网络服务Buzz，以及用来测试一些实验性产品的网站Google Lab。另外维基百科的谷歌克隆版Knol也将在今年10月关停。

    谷歌拒绝对这个问题发表评论。不过从去年开始的一系列博文中可以看出，谷歌高管曾反复谈到，“专注”是谷歌关掉30多个产品和功能的主要原因，目的是把资源分配到那些能产生更大影响力的产品和服务上。谷歌社交网络Google+的产品副总裁布拉德利•霍洛维茨称：“我们渴望能打造出一些能真正改变人们的生活的伟大产品，一些人们每天要使用两三次的产品。要想成功，需要真正的专注和思想——要想清楚什么是要做的，同样重要的是，也要想清楚什么是不要做的。”

    为了提高公司的专注度，去年佩奇重返CEO宝座后不久便将公司重组为7个业务集团。现在公司高层各自分管不同的领域，比如广告、社交网络、Android系统、Chrome浏览器、视频网站YouTube和本地化商业移动业务等。而不是像过去那样，由于产品过度扩张，造成责任不明确，决策效率低下。

    Last year, Larry Page, Google's chief executive, responded to criticism that his company had lost focus by promising to put "more wood behind fewer arrows." Translation: Google would cull its bloated list of products so that engineers could attend to bigger priorities.

    To show that he was serious about focus, Page killed off Google Health, an online locker for digital health records, and PowerMeter, a little known service for tracking home utility consumption.

    But staying focused is hard to do, as Google (GOOG) showed last week when it introduced a series of new products including a tablet computer, a home entertainment hub and a corporate computing service. As if that was not enough, Google previewed futuristic Internet-enabled eye glasses that are supposed to make smartphones obsolete. "Google is focused. On everything," Aaron Levie, chief executive of Box, an online file storage service, joked in a post on Twitter.

    Questions about Google's focus echo across Silicon Valley, where Apple's (AAPL) keep-it-simple business strategy is often lauded as the ideal. A limited number of products make it easier to sweat the details that make a computer, tablet or smartphone better than a rival's -- or so Apple's philosophy goes.

    For most of its history, Google's strategy has been likened to throwing spaghetti on a wall to see what sticks. For years, it seemed like engineers could get any pet project approved for a splashy public premiere.

    Dozens of services vie for attention alongside Google's core search and online advertising business. Remembering all of the products is nearly impossible, even for someone who follows the company closely. Sometimes, it seems like Google's services are forgotten internally as well given how long some of them go without being updated.

    To be sure, the company has occasionally killed duds or those that fell out of favor. But since Page returned to the role of chief executive last year, the pace of executions has seemed to be on an upswing. In addition to Google Health and PowerMeter, he eliminated Slide, an online slideshow; Buzz, a social networking service; and Labs, a test bed for some of the company's not-quite-ready for primetime products. Knol, a Wikipedia clone, is scheduled to be shut down in October.

    Google declined to comment. But in a series of blog posts since last year, its executives have repeatedly mentioned focus as the rationale behind closing more than 30 products or features, and redirecting resources to others that can create a higher impact. "We aspire to build great products that really change people's lives, products they use two or three times a day," said Bradley Horowitz, vice president of product for Google's social network, Google +. "To succeed you need real focus and thought—thought about what you work on and, just as important, what you don't work on."

    In another effort to bring more focus, Page reorganized the company into seven groups shortly after retaking the chief executive role last year. Now top leaders oversee specific areas -- advertising, social networking, Android, Chrome, YouTube, and local mobile commerce -- instead of broad portfolios that diluted accountability and slowed decision-making.