Google & Amazon

Google and Amazon, arguably giants but for most people, not at all alike. I read two books, Googled by Ken Auletta and The Everything Store by Brad Stone. Since it is virtually impossible to exactly replicate what I read, nor is it possible to write a summary of the books, because it was not a story. However I felt the need to disseminate information I read in these books. So, following are some points comparing the two companies and some other random events and information.

1. Sergey Brin and Larry Page are the founders of Google while Jeff Bezos (pronounced like Bay-Zos) is the founder and CEO of Amazon. Eric Schmidt is the CEO of Google.

2. The founders of both companies were literally nerds and since childhood were destined to be trend-setters.

3. Amazon had a very humble start. Google on the other hand, of course, started slow but rapidly progressed. Amazon stayed low for many years.

4. Googles motto for many years has been “Don’t be Evil”. Google initially followed this motto in a die-hard way and stuck to it. However, regarding matters of copyrights in Google Books and even video copyrights on YouTube, it had to eventually defy its motto. Google actually wanted major TV Shows to be broadcasted on YouTube. However the TV Channels proposed against it, as then they would lose traffic. Another significant problem for Google has been how to be financially stable. One wonders how a free search engine, no matter what quality can generate income. Well the answer is straight forward. Advertisements. TV Channels and many industries simply survive on the advertisements. Google’s finance is also highly dependent on ads. However Google uses a unique advertisement system. Normally, the companies pay the media center and the media center runs advertisements. In Googles case, Google runs advertisements without payment. However, the number of clicks on the advertisement simply determine the payment the company would have to give. Privacy is the newest and I think the biggest threat to Google. People are now raising concerns on the mere fact that their online life is depicted by a cookie and their every single clicks improves the Google Database. Advertisers then use the Google Database to know which product the customer is interested in. For example, if you are searching for a washing machine on olx but then just decide to leave it there and open google, it is then highly possible that Google would direct washing machine ads to you. Page Rank, an algorithm by Larry Page, ranks the sites and in which order they are supposed to be displayed on Google. This way people only get results which are usually preferred or utilized. Another example here is that…um..ok lets say you search for ‘Mr. Holmes movie’ the results you will get would be the links that most people have visited, which in this case might be IMDB or Wikipedia. However, the backdrop is that, it is not necessary that these links which though are most visited might be the most authentic. So yeah, you search on google is based on visits not relevance. I think that’s more or less Google…Also Eric Schmidt the CEO and the founders had a lot of arguments initially when Eric was hired but now its all cool. Moreover, Google acquired YouTube, just because Eric had the hunch that YouTube would be the next big thing, which it is, as now every single show and event is broadcasted live on YouTube. The video ads generate more income that text ads. About Android, it is (well you all know) the counter part of iOS. I personally have used both…and well to be honest, iOS is damn better than Android. Actually Android is supposed to be a simplistic open source operating system, which can be modified by anyone with mediocre programming skills. This is also why more phones have Android, and also Android is kind of more flexible or rather diverse. Okay too much Google…now Amazon.

5. You know…when Google started Bezos was one of the investors in Google….and it is still unsure if he is still an investor or not.

6. Well there is not a you know serious hostility between the two giants but the biggest possible conflict was way back in 2003-4 when Amazon was doing terrible and its employees were being sucked by the newly-successful Google.

7. Bezos, has some radical measures implemented in Amazon. You work tirelessly there. There is no travel expenses, insurance, café blah blah. Google is quite the contrary. Amazon some years back made its employees work 24/7…yep with no day off. Bezos forbids the use of PowerPoint in meetings and the presenter is supposed to make a thick documentation on a word-pad, and all people who attend the meeting are supposed to read it all. Actually this documentation way was the way, Bezos learned in his High School. Amazon in its earlier years used doors as desks….yes you heard me right. Also Amazon did terrible financially till the mid-2000s. This was because of the innumerable expenses and lawsuits which Amazon has been fighting legally ever since its inception.

8. Amazon only started as a book-selling online company, but later expanded further. However Bezos is well-known for his rashness. The company surged forward at incredible speed in other categories but lost money in the end in the dot com bursts. Bezos is famous for his laugh. This is such a screeching, lively and unique laugh, that it is said that he uses this laugh, to make the situation awkward and turn the tide during meetings. That is to say he uses this as a diplomatic weapon. Bezos is radical. And the people who follow him 100% percent, not to get bonus (there is little concept of bonus in Amazon) but just because of his radical ideology attracts them are known as JeffBots. Emails from employee that require something more or are contain incomplete or unsatisfactory work get a one digit reply from the CEO: ?. Just a question mark. Also Jeff has no secretary and sees his email himself. He believes that no time should be wasted in work.

9. Type www.relentless.com and see the magic.

10. Jeff wants Amazon to become ‘the everything store’. The company has almost become it. Amazon now also sells cloud computing storage and space i.e. cloud space. It means that many free websites that operate now online, exist due to the benevolence of Amazon, which has given them space to operate, not in the physical world but the virtual one. Amazon even sells terabytes of memory space to its customer. Amazon’s main income is from Cloud Computing Centers, its Premium Customers and somewhat the Kindle. Actually there were some negotiations between Amazon and Apple regarding the music industry, however after Apple dominated the music industry through the iTunes services, Jeff knew that they had to dominate the book selling industry. For this it was necessary to make a platform which could provide books to its customers. So LAB126 was formed. Here what became later known as Kindle was made. Initially the Kindle looked horrible but promising. Inside Amazon, it was referred to as the over-grown calculator. Fortunately, Kindle was a success later on and Amazon did indeed dominate the book market. Nevertheless Amazon still had to fight many lawsuits regarding putting books online as the publishers were against it. Still Amazon did some sort of business treachery and successfully put books online. An interesting fact here that LAB126, had this name not for no reason.

Jeff wanted every single book to be on the Kindle. For this, he said he wanted ‘all books, A-Z’. Interestingly, A is the 1st letter of alphabet and Z is the 26th. That is why the place was named LAB126.

11. Amazon was called Amazon.com till a long time. Employees who would say that ‘I work in Amazon’ were literally fired. Instead they were supposed to say ‘I work in Amazon.com’.

12. Amazon never played the angelic company part like Google. From its inception, Amazon faced threats from local giants like Barnes and Noble who were a big name in the book category. Their fights spanned many years but was concluded when Barnes and Noble realized they couldn’t make an online book store as good as Amazon. Then when Amazon expanded it poked the sleeping bear of Walmart. Amazon scooped many Walmart employees and this was a further source of tension. Later on Amazon also developed hostilities with Apple and Google. Amazon as I have already mentioned was very..evil. I will quote just one example and it will suffice you. While Amazon was expanding full speed in various categories, a new website Diapers.com emerged on the horizon. This website home-delivered diapers to mom, who were too lazy to go buy diapers. Amazon also sold diapers. But the thing was that Amazon’s Diaper customers were now inclining towards Diapers.com. Bezos took an initiative. After the Diapers.com dudes refused to give over their company no matter what, the war begun. The very next day, they had to face the consequences. Amazon reduced diapers price by 50%. Customers rushed to Amazon. Bezos again asked if Diapers.com wanted to sell themselves. When they refused, Amazon was selling diapers at 70% off. After an outcry from Diapers.com, to stop, Bezos enthusiastically replied: “I would run the prices of the diapers to the floor unless you sell yourselves.” Diapers.com…still refused. Amazon was then selling free diapers xD yep free, totally free. Though all this was giving loss to Amazon, but it did eliminate their enemy as Diapers.com went bankrupt and Amazon did buy it…and then finished it…yep…after moving all the diapers to its warehouses, the site was closed and except some employees all else were fired. So this was the end of Diapers Chronicle.

13. Amazon has a theory for customer-care and product quality. Amazon’s system have an algorithm by which the prices on Amazon are the lowest than any other retailer or shop who is selling either online or offline. It means that the product on Amazon will always be cheaper. Jeff believes that low price will attract more customers and hence more net profit. However due to this many high-brand companies hesitate before placing their products online on Amazon.

14. Another thing, Google has another theory as well. Google doesn’t want its users to spend time on Google. This is their main objective, to re-direct their users as quickly as possible to their desired location. Any other site who pulls its users to stay at their site only, is automatically Googles foe, let it be Facebook or anything else.

15. Jeff, as a child wanted to go to space and even now has a space exploration company Blue, which was a secret only some knew, a decade back. His company had some launch or something but there was some accident. I don’t exactly remember what, but yes it didn’t go off as planned.

This is it….These were the kinda most important stuff and interesting things. I personally think Amazon is way cooler than Google, also Jeff Bezos has made his way into my inspirational peoples list but…it might be that Ken Auletta doesn’t write as good as Brad Stone. You never know…hope you liked it.