Key takeaways : How google works

Key takeaways from the book : How google works. 

Bet on technical insights 
-There are now almost perfect market information and broad availability of capital, hence you need to win on product and platform. They need to solve a problem in a novel way, used that solution to grow and spread quickly. 
-The best products at Google had achieved their success based on technical factors, not business ones, whereas the less stellar ones lacked technical distinction. 

Optimize for growth 
-Scaling the platform needs to be a core part of your foundation. 
-A successful foundation must provide a good basis for sustainable revenue generation 
-Patiently focus on growth rather on monetization. (You could add ads volume to make more revenue, however this will end up hurting your user experience, which eventually impact traffic) 

On open or closed architecture 
Default to open , not closed 
-Open drives innovation into the ecosystem (new features, applications, lower cost of complementary components), this leads to more value and growth for the new ecosystem 
-Allows you to harness the talents of thousands of people, focus on pushing the entire system forward with new inventions. 
Except when: 
-Exception to the open architecture, is when you have a product that is demonstrably better (based on strong technical insight) and you are competing in a new, rapidly growing market. (Apple's success with the iPhone, just like Google's with search, was based on an unusual set of technical insights that yield an obviously superior product in a rapidly growing space. If you can achieve that sort of extreme impact with a closed system,then give it a shot. Otherwise, default to open. 


How to look for the next technology success story: Bet on technical insights that help solve a big problem in a novel way,optimize for scale, not for revenue, and let great products grow the market for everyone.