I have linked to this already on Twitter but this really is a great piece, full of insightful observations and interesting analogies.

Benedict Evans on what Google is:

“I generally look at Google as a vast machine learning engine that’s been stuffed with data for a decade and a half. Everything that Google does is about reach for that underlying engine - reach to get data in and reach to surface it out. The legacy web search is just one expression of that, and so is the search advertising, and so are Gmail and Maps - they’re all built onto that underlying asset. ”

On Google's seemingly schizophrenic attitude towards new projects:

“Google tests new opportunities to see if they fit in the same way that a shark bites a surfer to see if they’re a seal. If not, you don’t change Google to fit the opportunity - you spit out the surfer (or what’s left of him). ”

And then most interesting of all, on who or what Google prioritises on mobile:

“In the same sense, Google needs reach, but mobile means that there are lots of different kinds of reach. Consider someone who has an ‘official’ Android phone, perhaps even a Nexus, and is completely logged in - so Google has ‘perfect’ reach to them as an end-point. But, as I wrote here, suppose they live in a quiet suburb and drive only to work and to a few shops, never use Calendar, open Maps once a month and get a few personal emails in Gmail each week. Now contrast that with a 20-something in a big city who loves their iPhone and is not logged into any Google service - but is on this phone for hours every day, uses Google Maps (or maybe just apps that embed it) and is doing web search all the time. What kind of reach does Google have for these two?
Then, consider a farmer in rural Myanmar who’s just got their first phone: a $30 Android, with enough spending power to get perhaps 50 megs of cellular data a month, if that. What is that reach worth - what do they search for, what can the information they provide to Google be used for and, to raise the boring, pedantic question, how much are they worth to the advertising industry? Are they a higher priority than extending Google Now to the Apple Watch?”

This is the most interesting question of all. Mobile is spreading further than desktop ever could, because these small devices can be so cheap. And where they’re cheap, they’re almost always Android; that is to say they’re almost always Google. This means more data than ever to feed the machine, and some might say even too much: as Evans queries, how can Google prioritise the analysis of such a vast downpour of data?