According to Nielsen//NetRatings, Google handled close to 2.5 billion search queries in December of 2005. When it comes to search infrastructure and scalability, they rewrote the book.
So how is it that a company with such technical prowess could launch yet another service that crashed and burned do to "extremely high demand?" Is it really possible that such a smart group of people are completely incapable of accurately assessing the potential demand for a new product?
Or could it be that Google has invented yet another clever strategy to build their brand? I mean think about it. There isn’t anything exciting about launching an "invite only" 6 month beta test program for a new product. Both Yahoo and MSN did that with their respective ppc/contextual programs. And neither one of those programs has been able to maintain a reasonable level of buzz during their testing period.
On the other hand, people continue to write about Google Analytics on almost a daily basis. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think it was an actual functioning service. I think a good part of that buzz comes from the fact that they didn’t use the old-school strategy of inviting a specific number of users to beta test the product before releasing it. Instead, the launched as a "ready-for-primetime" product and then were "forced" to shut it down due to "unexpected high demand."
Sure, the hard-core tech crowd is going to be a little upset over such technical ineptness. But who cares? In the end, Google ends up with their beta testers and at the same time their shareholders/brand evangelists are left with a warm fuzzy feeling because Google is so damn popular.
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4 Responses to “ Brand Building and Technical Ineptness ”
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Thanks Greg. I literally 5 minutes ago posted about our private “invite only” beta being delayed a few days. Now I find out that I’m a moron using old-school tactics. Not sure we’d get the same benefit of the doubt Google gets when our stuff craps out due to unexpected demand though.
The funny thing about Google is that you just never know if their latest PR-stunt is due to a VERY cleaver PR strategy or a total fuck up. I am not even sure they always know themselves
Google had to know they would run into the “problem” caused by “unexpected demand.” I mean c’mon, you are giving away a useful product for free that used to cost a few thousand bucks to use. I know if Honda just started giving away Civics, you would see a hell of a lot more Civics on the road.
The impressive thing is that Google has been able to keep the buzz going - and I think the reason is because, for one reason or another, people really enjoy Google Analytics. The same certainly can’t be said for buzz-challenged products like MSN AdCenter with its unbelievably ill-conceived user interface and bizarre editorial judgements.
As far as I am concerned, Google can keep on running into those “capacity issues” as long as their product keeps being enjoyable to use (and as long as I get in the first round of invites
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Seems odd to me that they couldn’t handle the capacity problem.