Dr. Neil Hair

The ultimate category buster? I suppose it shouldnt come as too much a shock to learn that Google is planning on entering the travel industry. With money to burn acquisitions are likely in many areas to help it maintain it's edge. Several issues trouble me, the first involves the failure of previous efforts to diversify - lets point to Froogle and its inability to really make a dent in existing competition. A classic case perhaps of failing to 'stick to the knitting?' Similarly it's IM plans. She does however have a successful record in other areas - Gmail for one of course. Yahoo in the late 90's was queen of diversity when it comes to product and service offering and we all know how that ended. We can also point to similar organizations that have used its central brand to diversify into new areas and examine their history - Richard Branson's Virgin is a classic case. Virgin Vodka (not good), Virgin Trains (actually rather competent), Virgin Airlines, Virgin Records, Virgin Cola (dont go there), Virgin Mobile (cell), Virgin radio and so on… whats interesting here is that many of these firms were sold the moment they became unweildly. It will be interesting to see what Google does with its ailing businesses - and even more so to see if consumers take to its attempts at brand extension.