Google: A portal after all?

<![CDATA[So, yesterday I wrote: “However, as long as Google relies on quality hacks to enhance its index performance and not on bringing content marketing talent to bear on its unique view of the world, it is actually in a losing battle with Yahoo when it comes to milking value from its assets.”
Today, SiliconValleyWatcher writes: “Google yesterday posted a job listing for a strategic partner development manager on craigslist. Of interest is this line: ‘This high-visibility role requires someone who will be responsible for identifying, structuring and negotiating licensing relationships with some of Google’s largest and most strategic partners to acquire and monetize a wide range of video and audio content.'”
Whether they are talking about building search-based views of rich media or bringing rich media into Googlespace to drive its own page views, Google’s waking up to the reality that it’s a media company with great technology and not a technology company that can succeed on coding skills alone. Even a billion-dollar quarter doesn’t salve the wound Yahoo opens when it makes more revenue with its content-packaging approach.
I’m in Russell Beattie’s camp on this. He writes: “Google watching is like seeing a car wreck in slow-motion.” By contrast, the usually sane John Battelle exaggerates Google’s results when he says “the company created a billion dollars in net cash” during 2004 (the company earned $399. million in 2004, which is a far cry from a billion dollars in net cash.]]>