The Honda S2000’s antenna fits perfectly on my Toyota Matrix, and looks much better than the skinny piece of plastic that came with the car. So I bought one – an S2000 antenna, not an S2000. Yet as Google ignores all but one part of Urchin, you have to wonder if it would have bought the whole Honda.
Urchin’s “Software as a Service” (SaaS) product became Google Analytics; in our metaphor, this is the nice antenna. Everything else owned by Urchin has languished, though, and become a sort of rusty relic. Ars Technica’s Ken Fisher writes, “Here’s a news flash: when it takes 2.5 years to get an upgrade out that was due shortly after the Red Sox won the 2004 World Series, it’s already effectively ‘discontinued.’”
This isn’t without precedent; not too long ago, we watched the founders of Dodgeball leave Google after the search giant acquired their company. Dennis Crowley, one of those founders, cited a lack of support. It now seems like Google’s making a habit of cannibalizing its acquisition targets.
Which is Google’s right, I suppose – it paid an estimated $30 million for Urchin, and can more or less do whatever it wants. Still, I’d hate to see an S2000 die a slow death, and Urchin’s fans (and customers) aren’t at all happy with the way things have turned out.
