Definitely an interesting read, and IMO he gets a lot of things right.

But at the same time he's a grunt with a lot of opinions about how his (mindbogglingly successful) employers do things. Many of his opinions sound great but don't entirely make sense when held up against reality.

The best example is how critical he is of Amazon's user interface (and Bezos' part in it). A user interface which is largely responsible for making them the most successful online retailer in history. His points make perfect sense, provided they are referring to a completely different company.

(mindbogglingly successful) employers

Yes, for search. The announced closing of Buzz being the latest example of a G Inc feature that just never really catches on. I can't fault them for taking a shot at other avenues, but at this point it is coming across at throwing spaghetti at the wall.

.........................

Mashable is reporting GOOG closing down more than Buzz--

In addition, Google is shuttering Code Search on Jan. 15 and other social media offerings, including the Twitter-like Jaiku — which will also be discontinued on that date — and iGoogle’s social features. As previously announced, Google Labs will also shut down.

[mashable.com...]

...and also reporting that Google+ is continuing to lose steam.

[mashable.com...]

If you're quick enough to catch the Google Labs site before the plug is pulled, many of the recent posts there in recent weeks simply announce multiple products that are being yanked. It looks odd to see that much back-tracking in just one place.

...and also reporting that Google+ is continuing to lose steam.

I find this hard to believe. Just yesterday Larry Page, known as a brutally honest man and as a visionary said:

Google+ is now open to everyone and we just passed the 40 million user mark. People are flocking into Google+ at an incredible rate and we are just getting started!

[technolog.msnbc.msn.com...]

Google needs to step away from the incessant vanity changes and stick to just the ones that are really needed. No doubt about it, 500 a year is at least 450 too many imo. Stability is important.

No doubt about it, 500 a year is at least 450 too many imo

You're not alone in thinking that - looks like the culture involving this concern may spread into core search areas too. When a product matures, there comes a time when it is stable.

Mess with it and the organisation and product will loose it's appeal as projects get shelved.

Walkman, I believe people are still flocking to 'see' google+, most of them won't use it. It's sort of a shame, be nice for Facebook to have some real competition.

I believe google+ is quite good, but needs to be a lot better than 'quite good' just to survive. The continuing development on Facebook is making it a product that is almost impossible to beat.

The Google Toolbar also seems to be phased out as it is no longer available for recent versions of Firefox (4.0+).

The continuing development on Facebook is making it a product that is almost impossible to beat.

Facebook will really have to screw up to lose non-techie social networking market share to Google.

I dropped out of Facebook about 10 months ago after a 6 month run using it, (I actually deleted all but 5 friends and every bit of personal content -- I now only login to maintain one FB page which I use to post links to one of my websites, then quickly log out so I don't get tracked across the internet by their Social Media widgets).

Yesterday I wanted to contact a friend from high school (we are in our 50's), and the only way I could was via FB... that person now has 600+ "friends" in FB -- and they are all real people, (unlike the teens who "friend" anyone who knows anyone they know, plus every celeb they can find).

I'm also the parent of a teen and can tell you they live by their FB accounts... and mine has no idea why they'd ever want to even look at G+

With teens, 20, 30 and 40-somethings as well as middle aged "average computer user" type folks that embedded in FB, (with photos, contacts, games, and everything else they do), FB has become "the internet" for many of them, and they likely will never even consider moving to or using You+ or Google+ or whatever confusing branding GOOG is using this week.