What’s Driving Google’s Wild Moonshots? Desperation

It's moonshots help recruit more of the top engineers and developers to work for the company.

The high risk / high reward moonshots help fuel competition and keep the company from becoming boring and stagnant. A small number of them might even generate massive revenue in the future, but nobody is stressing if they don't, at least they tried and the research gained is still very valuable.

If companies didn't constantly try to push the boundaries of what's possible we wouldn't have ANY of the awesome technology and gadgets we have now. Look at DARPA, same philosophy as Google X Labs, it's most successful moonshot was the Internet. Thank you Google for continuing to think outside-the-box and for trying to develop what other companies are too scared to attempt.

Google is developing things such as self-driving cars because that technology needs to be built and is largely a software problem. They have several advantages such as their massive amount of engineering talent and their Maps databases which are playing a key role in the self-driving vehicles.

Don't forget all of the research that Google employees do on a wide variety of subjects. Test products such as Google Glass isn't for everyone, but it has several uses-cases which would make it valuable and it was undoubtedly worth trying.

Why would anyone not support companies like Google? The company doesn't harm people, creates amazing technology, inspires millions, employees tens of thousands, and has made the world a better place.

They are probably playing the same game with these moon shots.

I don't think Google is desperate. I think Google is a personal playground for Larry and Sergey to invest in whatever takes their fancy - they have the money, and they don't answer to shareholders, given Google's unusual voting structure.

Sadly, they seem to favor flashy but questionable technology demonstrations (self-driving cars, glass, ara). Which is not to deny that some of the spending has been great (street view, google translate, etc.) They're no Bell labs, though, or IBM in its heyday, which is a real shame.

That includes Glass, Self-Driving Cars, Drones, and all the other superfluous stuff they're throwing money at.

My suggestion -- focus -- on search. Redefine how we find information again; we're still looking at blue links on a white background with pagination.

In that regard, Google's been stagnant for over 10 years.