I guess putting technology in the hands of the non-visionary executive with a strong business sense is basically asking for your [tech] company to die. You need engineers or at least visionary product people in management positions making these kinds of decisions. While it would have been sad if excite had bought Google, it would never happen because they didn't have the vision. And if they did get the vision, Google probably could have continued to become a semi-success in that environment (although probably nothing like what it is today).
If Excite killed Google, it is likely someone else (perhaps even Googlers who hadn't been hired yet in the hypothetical world) would build Google instead.
According to In The Plex, that deal was actually very close to going through up until that moment. Excite's VCs pushed to get the new CEO on board at some point during the negotiations with Google (and up until that point, Excite's engineer-led founding team had the most control). Strange to think how different things might be if that deal had gone through.
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Adapt or die
I guess putting technology in the hands of the non-visionary executive with a strong business sense is basically asking for your [tech] company to die. You need engineers or at least visionary product people in management positions making these kinds of decisions. While it would have been sad if excite had bought Google, it would never happen because they didn't have the vision. And if they did get the vision, Google probably could have continued to become a semi-success in that environment (although probably nothing like what it is today).
If Excite killed Google, it is likely someone else (perhaps even Googlers who hadn't been hired yet in the hypothetical world) would build Google instead.
According to In The Plex, that deal was actually very close to going through up until that moment. Excite's VCs pushed to get the new CEO on board at some point during the negotiations with Google (and up until that point, Excite's engineer-led founding team had the most control). Strange to think how different things might be if that deal had gone through.