Ankur Sharma

Steve Jobs did it by building Apple aficionados . Marc Andreessen did that with Netscape when he forced people to look web browsing as an entertaining experience and not just "a geek activity". Sean Parker ,  Shawn Fanning and John Fanning did it with Napster when they changed the way people look at the music. They all are/were great product guys who knew what the tribe wanted even before the tribe had laid eyes on their products. They didn't do the focus group studies or market research to know the viability of their idea. They didn't show the stakeholders, mocks of their products so that they can "fill in the blanks". But is that the only way to leave the product legacy? I don't think so. Google products , passes through at least 3000 eyes, before they get released even for the Beta. Agree, their hit rate is low but that is because they churn products dime a dozen, an evidence of their agile environment - one of the most important as

I usually don't read a book just because everyone else is reading it - it makes me thinks conventionally, corrupts my thought process into more of a mass one, not the kind I usually love to live with. But if I can take the liberty of paraphrasing Steven Levy from " In The Plex ", with his new book, Walter Isaacson made me chase everyone elses' tail lights, and for the first time, I am kind of proud at being conventional. From today, I am going to start reading Steve Jobs in Hardcover, which has gotten shipped at a 50% pre-release discount, from Indiaplaza (Yes, Flipkart ; they pipped you this time!), a couple of days back.  Now if you please excuse me, I have to go to get some carrot juice for Mr. Jobs! It's Halloween after all!

"If we aren't a lot better next year, we will already be forgotten," Page said to one of the first reporters visiting the company.  The founders also knew that Google had to be a lot smarter to keep satisfying users - and to fulfill the world-changing ambitions of its founders. "We don't always produce what people want," Page explained in Google's early days. "Its really difficult. To do that you have to be smart - you have to understand everything in the world. In computer science, we call that artificial intelligence." Brin chimed in. "We want Google to be smart as you-you should be getting an answer the minute you think of it." - From " In The Plex " By Steven Levy

When Dick Wolf mouthed those prophetic words , he didn't realize he is talking for Internet industry as well. But sure he did. For all the self-proclaimed SEO gurus, who believe training guns on infinite number of signals Google factors in its algorithm, would yield them results, this is the sole lesson which should work. Not to forget "instant gratification" afflicted, clients - they need to sit back and let the content do the job, if they really want to win the war (not just battles). It is your content, which builds the fan following, brings people come to your site on the days when Google is not your best friend. Any one can be a prince when King is your father. This serves the lesson for the likes of Expedia and Nextag, who are busy championing against Google. Their case is clearly the case of sour grapes! Nextag wanted Google to change their product feature so that Nextag can come up on first page. While Expedia clearly looks pissed off by not finding plac

"He ( Krishna Bharat ) said to Page .  "You are such a tiny group!"  Page's answer was surprising and impressive.  "Looking at things from a different perspective could lead to unexpected solutions", he said. "Sometimes in engineering you look at things with tunnel vision and need a broader perspective."" - From " In The Plex " By Steven Levy