Michael Parekh picks up on the news that Google is encouraging its engineers to look at developing new features rather than new products.
Makes complete sense to me.
Creating small, focused apps is great for getting things up and running quickly, however, as the market matures the feature-count comparisons are inevitable. As Google works towards a browser-based, Office-like suite there will no doubt be chart-after-chart of feature comparisons with Microsoft Office. Little apps don't do well in these comparisons.
Google's challenge is to enhance their product line as much as possible, but at the same time be leary of duplicating each and every feature implemented by its competitors just so that it fleshes out a feature comparison table or satisfies a niche customer. They need to stay focused on the growing uses of products.
For instance, in the "Office" space Google can focus on collaboration, backups, and searching as well as stay true to developing a lower cost product that's easier to manage.
Here's what else I expect to see from Google: More focus on platforms, both internally and externally.


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