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November 07, 2004
Google, Picasa, Flickr, and Rich Clients
Haig Shahinian writes that Google should have bought Flickr, arguing that recently-acquired Picasa doesn't fit with Google's software-as-service model. Anonymonk concurs.
I disagree.
Picasa is the best buy for two reasons. First, images are CPU-intensive, high-bandwidth objects. Web-based image organizers lag behind their client app counterparts because the pipe between your DRAM and CPU is so much faster and wider than the pipe from your NIC to Google's (or Akamai's) data centers. On top of that, Picasa is fast even for a client app. It just plain books.
Second, it takes more resources to build a rich client to accompany a web app like Flickr than it takes to extend a client app web-ward. Google already knows the web--Flickr can't teach them anything new here. What Google doesn't know is rich client apps. The Picasa acquistion nets them valuable rich client expertise. The desktop is where Google wants to be, and Picasa is a strong beachhead.
Google is staving off commoditization and imitation by moving some of its services off the web. If one of these products takes off, Yahoo and Microsoft will be forced to play catch-up, again.
Posted by Devon at November 7, 2004 07:00 PM
Comments
Great points!
On the first point however, working with images becomes cpu/memory intensive when your manipulating them, not when your organizing and searching them. Picasa isn't meant to be a Photoshop-lite, its just supposed to make organizing, searching, and sharing images very easy and intuitive. Flickr does this really well and does it as a service. The only problem is bandwidth when dealing with very large images, but then sharing images through Picasa has the same problems, upload speed remains the same regardless of client type.
On the second point, I do agree with you that Google does have enough knowledge capital to create their own flickr-like system in-house instead of acquiring flickr outright. So yes they don't NEED to buy flickr when they can create a great system from scratch, it just seemed like a convenient fit at the time.
The one point you make that does throw a wrench into my previous analysis is when you say "The desktop is where Google wants to be, and Picasa is a strong beachhead." I had overlooked their whole desktop strategy, instead just thinking of their offerings as service only. Picasa may well be a great beachhead, along with Google desktop search. Something to keep an eye on.
Cheers!
Posted by: Haig S. at November 7, 2004 11:34 PM
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