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Comment by icki | Hacker News Reader

Any decision that a company makes is an attempt to improve itself.

According to the article, Jobs recommended to Page that Google focus on five services - I'm curious as to which services HN thinks are core to Google's growth and success? Off the top of my head: Search, Android, Chrome, Plus and YouTube.

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Why would you take advice from a competitor, especially one that is suing you over exactly the subject matter of their advice?

Really, Apple telling Google to concentrate on services is like Google telling Apple to concentrate on hardware.

Google was iirc at some point involved in developing a little phone operating system that competed directly with one of Apple's cash cows. Naturally it would be great for Apple if google forgot about phones, Android and whatever else would cause them to one day run in to Apple in the marketplace.

If google would concentrate on search then that would be great news for Apple indeed.

Android is not a service, Chrome is not a service.

Search, YouTube and Plus are services.

According to this April 2011 LA Times article [1], six senior VP's now oversee these areas: mobile, social, Chrome, YouTube/video, search, and ads.

[1] http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/04/exclusive...

Don't forget Apps: Mail, Maps, Docs, Translate, etc.

+ programming languages.

This is exactly the rhetoric that Steve Jobs wanted Google to avoid, and perhaps he was exaggerating. But really, while there are many excellent products that Google has built, not all of them are capable of generating revenue and/or adoption of other Google products. That is the fat that Jobs was saying Google should trim.

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