Google Keeps Rising

I once went to a keynote address by Tom Siebel, where he described the secret of Siebel’s success through the nineties. One thing he had said that stuck with me: “We kept on executing meticulously, quarter after quarter after quarter, while our competitors faltered and failed. In one word, the secret of our success was consistency.”

Looks like, that’s Google’s story right now. Yahoo falters. eBAY falters. Microsoft falters. But Google is relentlessly executing.

I have had lots of skepticism about many of their decisions and philosophies, but there is no going around the fact that they’re leading and everyone else is following.

Look at these jaw-dropping price targets.

Further reading:
Google versus Yahoo.

Some earnings call transcript excerpts.

Notice, Eric Schmidt talks about personalization. What a pity for Yahoo! Personalization was their ultimate sweet-spot, with MyYahoo being one of the most incredibly sticky places on the web. And yet, nothing seems to be happening yet, besides a bit of UI cleanup. Pertinent Ads don’t get served up. No great discovery surfaces due to the fact that Yahoo knows me. Damn, what a wastage of a GREAT asset!