In "businessy" circles, the "Google caveat" often comes into play. Basic business strategy suggests that you do what you love, do what you love well, and stick to what you love doing and don't try and do too many other things---except of course if you're Google, maybe because they seem to do EVERYTHING well. Like if you're a band, you play and record songs that resonate with your audience and evoke emotions that positively impact their lives--you wouldn't start manufacturing micro-processors and selling them at your gigs--it would take away from the time you should be spending writing killer jams. Although the
Jack White USB drive is topping my coveted items list right now.....
Being a Google user (like most of the free world), I enjoy a lovely user experience. I can email, share documents, pictures, blog posts, maps, and on and on and on. I have some gripes about their privacy policies and their entrance into the Chinese market several years ago, but for the most part, I'm OK with the free service I use, I'm pretty good at tuning out advertising.
So, it was with some delight and confusion that I read the announcement last year that Google was broadening their core products to solve not only the problem of organizing the world's information, but also solving another pressing problem in our society: energy resources. Unless the Google homepage could turn any computer screen to become a solar panel, I must admit, I was a bit confused at their new endeavor being consistent with the other products they offer.
Grist posted
a great interview with Google's new "Green Energy Czar" that explains how the company is working to make renewable energy less expensive than coal. I have a feeling if anyone has the smarts and the dough to make that happen, it might just be them.
Check out the stories about Google we've posted in the past here:
Labels: Google, renewable energy, sarah
