最近我刚刚读了尼古拉斯・卡尔森（Nicholas Carlson）的新书《玛丽莎・梅耶尔及其拯救雅虎之战》。这是一本有关雅虎过去、现在以及将来的著作，非常有意思。但令我最感到诧异的是，雅虎管理层的选择竟然可以影响另一家互联网巨头谷歌的命运。
早在1997年，雅虎曾有机会以便宜价格收购谷歌的核心技术，那样谷歌创始人拉里・佩奇（Larry Page）可能就会去追求他的学术生涯。但是雅虎白白错过了这个机会。想像一下，如果雅虎收购了谷歌，网页排名（Page Rank）将会被纳入雅虎搜索。
当然，雅虎搜索可能是一款更好的产品。但是鉴于我们已经了解到的经验来看，管理会让一款伟大产品在随后数年内溃烂，我们有理由相信雅虎也会变得很像今天的谷歌。
尽管谷歌遭到许多批评，包括其支配搜索领域排除异己，许多人担心其成为《终结者》中的“天网”等，但实际上没有哪家科技公司像谷歌那样雄心勃勃，几乎涉足各行各业。
如果雅虎收购了谷歌，还会有另一家公司致力于开发自动驾驶汽车、机器人、人工智能，甚至延长人类寿命吗？很难想出今天有哪家公司可替代谷歌。微软正在其R&D实验室中开发各种有趣的项目，Facebook也正通过投资Internet.org促进世界联网，但这些项目往往都与各公司的业务目标紧密相关。
相反，除了谷歌外，没有哪家公司愿意酝酿“moonshots”大计划，并愿意为此投入巨资。当然，其他公司在面临合法批判的同时，很少有资源去实现谷歌的目标。没有谷歌，当今科技界将出现巨大漏洞。当然，像谷歌这样的公司对未来科技领域具有强大影响力，这的确很危险。可是，如果没有了佩奇及其雄心勃勃的极客军团，整个科技界都会少许多乐趣。
英文原文：I’ve recently been reading Nicholas Carlson’s book Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo. While it’s a really interesting read about the past, present and future of the troubled internet giant, what struck me was how the choices of Yahoo’s management could have affected the fortunes of another giant Google.
Yahoo had a chance to buy Google’s core technology (then called BackRub) in 1997, at a bargain price, so Larry Page could pursue his academic career but they let it pass by. Imagine if Yahoo had bought Google, though. Page Rank would have been incorporated into Yahoo Search and that would be that.
Sure, Yahoo Search would probably have been a far better product, but given what we know about how the management let great products fester in subsequent years, it’s a stretch to think that Yahoo would have become anything like Google is now.
For all that there is to criticize Google about the way it dominates search to the exclusion of rivals, the lingering fear it may become Skynet, etc there really is no other tech company as broad, ambitious and downright fascinating.
If Yahoo had acquired Google, would another firm have emerged willing to explore driverless cars, robotics, AI even the extension of human lifespans? It’s hard to think of any company that exists today that would fit the bill. Microsoft has developed all sorts of interesting projects in its R&D labs and Facebook is investing in getting more of the world online via Internet.org, but projects like that tend to be closely tied to the business aims of the companies concerned.
Conversely, no company other than Google is quite as willing to invest in, and go quite so big on, real ‘moonshots.’ Of course, few have the resources to do this but for all the legitimate criticism the company faces, there would be a huge hole in the current tech world without Google.There’s certainly danger in one company having so much power and influence over the future of technology, but the tech scene would be a lot less interesting without Larry Page’s legion of super-ambitious geeks.
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