John Battelle says he was talking to fellow author John Heilemann when John noted that Google is, like Microsoft in the 1997, "coming close to a 'worm turning' moment -- a moment when the world realizes that the company is *too powerful* and its ambitions are *too great.* When such a genie arrives, it is very, very hard to put back in the bottle. The one all encompassing difference, of course, is that Google has real competition -- Microsoft in 1997 did not -- but regardless, the cultural vibe is striking in its similarity," he writes on his blog.
In seven short years, Google has gone from a geeky startup with one good idea into an agenda-shaping player responsible for navigating complex relationships with world governments, the personal privacy of millions, major trade organizations, and hundreds of thousands of businesses small and large. It's an extraordinary weight to bear, it seems to me. It's the kind of position that requires a balanced mixture of leadership, will, and diplomacy. There's very little room for the go-it-alone mentality which got the company to where it stands today. Can the company shift its culture and avoid the fate which ultimately hobbled Microsoft? That, more than anything else, will define the next chapter in the company's fascinating story.
Comment: John Heilemann just wrote a column in New York Magazine (December 5) called Googlephobia.
