A Google Engineer Explains Why Google+ Sucks: Platforms vs. Products

You probably remember the guest lecture on platform-mediated networks by Prof. Marshall van Alstyne, right? He also shared some slides, and this one on Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos caught my attention:

Bezos Platform Mandate. Source: http://www.slideshare.net/InfoEcon/platform-strategy-ibm-72511

I googled this so-called “Bezos Platform Mandate” to learn more about it. I expected it to be part of an article Bezos published, or maybe a presentation he did.

As it turns out, the quote is part of an infamous rant by Google engineer Steve Yegge, that was accidentally made public. It was meant as an internal memo, highlighting some key differences between Amazon and Google. It provides an honest, uncensored and at times hilarious insight into the differences between these companies in terms of culture.

It’s quite a long read, but it’s totally worth it. In a nutshell, Yegge states that Google is in every way more awesome than Amazon, except for one thing: Google fails to understand the value of platforms.

At Google, every service is a product

 A product is useless without a platform, or more precisely and accurately, a platform-less product will always be replaced by an equivalent platform-ized product.

– Steve Yegge

So, Yegge’s primary complaint is that Google delivers services as closed products instead of open platforms. Yes, there are some API’s that allow developers to access parts of it, but really, it’s nothing compared to others like Amazon or Facebook. That makes it hard for developers to leverage the power of Google Maps, Google+, Google Search and other Google products to create added value on top of these products.

At Amazon, every service is a platform

At Amazon, it’s the other way around: every service is an interface that can be leveraged by anyone. That means that everything needed to run the Amazon.com store, like web servers, load balancers, and databases, are essentially separated and infinitely scalable modules. This allowed Amazon to easily rent out its IT infrastructure, making it not only the world’s largest online store, but also one of the largest providers of cloud services.

Not convinced? Did you know Netflix, Pinterest, Spotify and Adobe are all leveraging Amazon’s platforms? Read the case studies on how these companies use Amazon’s awesome IT infrastructure.

Why Google+ sucks

Google+ is a prime example of our complete failure to understand platforms from the very highest levels of executive leadership […] down to the very lowest leaf workers […] We all don’t get it.

Google+ is a knee-jerk reaction, a study in short-term thinking, predicated on the incorrect notion that Facebook is successful because they built a great product.

– Steve Yegge

Facebook is successful because they built a platform, not a product. And as Prof. Van Alstyne explained, this is one of the key attributes of Facebook’s success. Opening up the platform in 2007 allowed others to provide added value. And voila, a two-sided market was born, greatly increasing the value of Facebook’s network (and murdering MySpace in the process).

Facebook vs. MySpace. Source: http://www.slideshare.net/InfoEcon/platform-strategy-ibm-72511

 

Both these slides by Prof. Van Alstyne and Steve Yegge’s rant originate from 2011.  Two years later, Google+ and most other Google services are still relatively closed products. Why do you think that is? Will Google eventually offer its services as platforms instead of products?