Comments on: Can Europe Overtake Google?

By: ジェイソン (Jason)

ジェイソン (Jason) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:57:20 +0000

The EU will probably see the err in their ways after the Kenyan software industry passes them by.

So … another half-century or so?

By: Make Money Blogging

Make Money Blogging — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 11:15:07 +0000

When will they realise that throwing money at it will not solve the problem!

By: Bibokz

Bibokz — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:47:49 +0000

Sounds good, Giving Big G a good competitors is pretty nice news to hear.

By: ジェイソン (Jason)

ジェイソン (Jason) — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:42:40 +0000

Top-heavy management styles stiffle innovation about as effectively as the sun warms our planet. Unfortunately, from what we can see in most European technology companies, most ambitious projects are done as a team. While team work is certainly an effective tool to accomplish great works, when taking on something as big as Google an organization needs to start off small and work their way up.

Quaero has been an on-again-off-again project for years, and should be abandoned rather than heavily invested in. The 23 organizations that are working on this project each have their own goals and, because of this, should likely set out on their own to provide a solution. When these organizations have built a customer base around their technologies, then a group of managers and analysts can look at possible synergies and integrations.

Google started off really small, and became popular because they provided a superior service. The same was said about Yahoo until they tried to be everything for everyone. Microsoft couldn’t compete and tried to buy their way into the game with a top-heavy management style, and we can see what kind of successes they’ve had. Apple and HP are other examples of how much an organization can accomplish by starting out small, and working their way up in the world of technology.

Looking at this historically, one of the most effective ways of becoming really big in technology or on the internet is to have a small and talented team of people work together to solve a problem with as little management as possible. I’m not saying that management is a bad thing, necessarily, as they handle all the mundane stuff that crops up when organizations start to get bigger. However, when too many people have their fingers in the pie with their own interests and expectations, nothing good can come from it.

Rather than promoting technology jobs in Europe, this 99-million Euro package could just provide another example of why many European software companies never make it big

(Note: There are several great European software companies, and I’m not saying that Europe can’t compete. However, the corporate culture on that side of the planet does not mix well with the dynamics required to be popular online.)

By: ms danielle

ms danielle — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:15:33 +0000

thanks for the article, jason. i agree there are too many cooks in the kitchen. they’re just going to create a big mess… what do you see as a possible solution, though? i don’t have much faith in mahalo but you never know what will happen with online…

By: Jez

Jez — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:08:48 +0000

Yeah don’t expect it to accomplish much… think they should focus their attentions elsewhere.

By: ジェイソン (Jason)

ジェイソン (Jason) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 08:05:44 +0000

You’ve got to love it when a group tries to be everything to everyone. Quaero has been around for over three years and accomplished nothing innovative due to the existing top-heavy approach to solving a problem.

Perhaps one day governments will learn how to better invest taxpayer’s money