Google Killer Cuill? Ex-Googler Startups Pose NO Threat: FriendFeed, Howcast, Zillow
The New Google Risk: Googlers? I headlined almost one year ago, when Googlers were noticably seeking ways to parlay their Google resume into greater fame and/or fortune, outside of the Googleplex. Soon after, I saw Googler In Chief Eric Schmidt tout the superiority of his merry band of “rocket scientists.”
BUT, what are the ex-Googley masters of the Mountain View universe really achieving once they shed the safe, catered haven sheltered behind the Googleplex walls?
If this week’s ex-Googler (not so) fan fare is representative of what the (legions?) of once Google royalty are actually accomplishing in the real, non-primary color world, master Google has nothing to fear about its once “rocket scientists” being realeased into the wild.
What is the greatest claim to fame of all the ex-Googlers? Being ex-Googlers, of course, according to the blogosphere.
As today’s Read/Write/Web headline illustrates, the FriendFeed “contribution” to the “current trend of using feeds in social networks” is a “story” because Bret Taylor and Paul Buchheit are behind the “innovation.” The REAL story though is that the ex-Googlers proudly hail that being Googley is their key differentiator in a crowded, no-need-to monetize cool app “field.”
How about Howcast? How about entering a crowded online market with a not so innovative Webified product inspired directly from the real world of promotional video?
TechCrunch had the “scoop”?:
A New York City startup called Howcast is launching today that wants to be the YouTube of instructional videos. In fact, the three founders—Jason Liebman, Daniel Blackman and Sanjay Raman—are ex-Google employees who worked on Google Video and YouTube before they left eight months ago. They actually are going for a little more polish than YouTube, trying to bring some production values to the world of Web video.
YAY? The ex-Googler trio loved Chad and Hurley’s video site and their own that failed, while being paid by Google, but NOW, they know “how to” do better, on their own?
YouTube is really not all bad, though. After all, “In addition to their own site, they already have a Youtube channel (where they split advertising revenues with their former employer),” Eric Schonfeld “reveals” with not a twinge of irony. Too bad the ex-Googlers didn’t “know how” to get meaningful ad revenues for YouTube while they were still Googlers, however; The HowCast “rev share” with YouTube will not go very far!
And then there is Zillow. The departure of SEO blogosphere best Google friend Vanessa Fox for online real estate play Zillow was lamented by Webmasters worldwide. Where in the world is the Fox now, though? Writing for Danny Sullivan! Perhaps, after five months of “drinking coffee and occasional singing,” Zillow was not getting the “revenue” they hoped for from the Googley product team lead.
Google IS on the watch for one soon to be unveiled ex-Googler venture, though: Cuill. Ex-Googler Anna Patterson has estimated that there are about 4000 programmers slaving away to hold the next great search engine honors, and SHE IS ONE OF THEM!
Patterson joined Google in 2004 and architected the TeraGoogle search index of 2006. NOW, she is seeking to architect a “new approach to search,” for her own account, as co-founder of Cuill. Watch out Google? Unlikely.
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