Google's engine, which it has been specatacularly successful at, is obviously search

… Google's engine, which it has been specatacularly successful at, is obviously search. More specifically, it's search advertising. Google is a dominant player in display advertising (eg Google Ad Exchange, AdSense) but, at least when I worked there, these amounted to <10% of AdWords' revenue. They were a sideshow. Chrome, Android, Maps and Youtube are all key parts of this engine. The latter three were acquisitions and that gets to the key point. At some point a company becomes too large to innovate because no new business can compete, or will be allowed to compete , with the company's core business. Google missed the social media boat for this very reason. Google+ came way too late. Google spent billions on this failed effort. The real mistake was not buying Twitter. I mean Google ultimately offered a rumored $6 billion for GroupOn at one point. They dodged a bullet on that one when GroupOn rejected the advance. Rumor also had it Google tried to buy Twitter in ~2010 when Twitter was seeking a $3 billion valuation. Imagine if Google had slapped down $6 billion to buy Twitter. …