I think the main takeaway from this is really conception. There was a problem that a team set about to solve. They were left on their own to operate because solving search wasn't really what the company was interested in, as much as showing how powerful their computers were.
Left to their own devices Altavista became a successful search engine because it was able to focus on what users really wanted from search and do tremendous pioneering in that area.
It was my default search engine of choice before google gained steam.
However, from there, once value was created corporate entities began to try and extract more value. Now the user was no longer front and center, and unless the business decisions coincided with what the user wanted you would obviously begin to move the product further and further away from it's core user benefits.
This is a very typical processes in most businesses. Businesses till think that their needs come first, rather than their customers/users. This happens so frequently that it really is a just insane that no one addresses it. Eventually those business people get enough things wrong that they are left no choice but to return to the core of what made them successful and just hope that the market hasn't moved away to a competitor.
In Altavista's case the market had already shifted.
Doesn't matter how many books you write on this subject this continues to occur and really highlights the need for a strong product focused CEO so that they can ensure that the customer comes first and the business second.
Left to their own devices Altavista became a successful search engine because it was able to focus on what users really wanted from search and do tremendous pioneering in that area.
It was my default search engine of choice before google gained steam.
However, from there, once value was created corporate entities began to try and extract more value. Now the user was no longer front and center, and unless the business decisions coincided with what the user wanted you would obviously begin to move the product further and further away from it's core user benefits.
This is a very typical processes in most businesses. Businesses till think that their needs come first, rather than their customers/users. This happens so frequently that it really is a just insane that no one addresses it. Eventually those business people get enough things wrong that they are left no choice but to return to the core of what made them successful and just hope that the market hasn't moved away to a competitor.
In Altavista's case the market had already shifted.
Doesn't matter how many books you write on this subject this continues to occur and really highlights the need for a strong product focused CEO so that they can ensure that the customer comes first and the business second.