Google's Acquisitions Chief Looking for "Crazy" Ideas

[engine]

Google Inc. looks for ideas that are "really crazy" when sizing up potential purchases, the Internet company's top dealmaker said.

"We look at everything very carefully," Salman Ullah, Google's director of corporate development, said yesterday in a speech at a meeting of the Los Angeles Venture Association. "The really crazy ones do really well."

Google's Acquisitions Chief Looking for "Crazy" Ideas [bloomberg.com]

I have some crazy ideas, but, somehow, I don't think they are the ones they'd be after.

So, if you have a project - contact G

[jbgilbert]

Hey I have one! Buy Yahoo and Microsoft!

[ispy]

Donate it all to charity!

[LifeinAsia]

I have this crazy idea of building a search engine to dethrone Google. You think they'll give me money? :)

[johnnyman]

Create a dolphin dating service complete with led-to-marriage pics

[Januuski]

How about giving your AdSense Publishers 90% of the revenue generated form their websites in stead of keeping 90%?

[Hobbs]

contact G

And I was waiting all that time for them to contact me!

[BillyS]

You can buy my website for $3 billion!

[King_Fisher]

What about the entire state of Ohio?

[itloc]

@LifeInAsia

Hey, go away. That's my idea ;-)

[JAB Creations]

I'm trying to get Opera 3, Netscape 4, and MSIE 4 all working good enough to view within reason and I'm not doing too bad thus far. They can hire me if they want. ;)

- John

[La_Valette]

DoubleClick must be a crazy idea. $3.1b of Google money now says it is...

[amznVibe]

They better invest some of that into the new super-solar-cell technology for their new 15 megawatt data center needs in Oklahoma... ;-)

[itloc]

By the way:

A refreshing read!

This article gives an impression why Google is the leading search engine IMHO. They are highly creative and willing to think openly into new directions.

I don't know about the rest of the world - but you don't find that spirit here in central europe. Not in large corporations.

Regards

itloc

[oldpro]

Yeah..buy my website.

[the_nerd]

I have this crazy idea of building a search engine to dethrone Google. You think they'll give me money? :)

If you show them a real new idea that has the potential to be better than "Google Classic" they might fund you.

[brotherhood of LAN]

Buy a site a million pixels large, for $2 million!

[physics]

This is good to know ;)
But seriously I think I know what they mean. I think many VCs are looking for ideas that have a clear path to profitability without an obnoxious amount of money for infrastructure (tons of servers, etc). But Google has so much cash, technical infrastructure and such a large user base that they are looking to take on really risky investments that can leverage those assets. Big deal if you need more servers than anyone ever has, or if you need an instant community to start being profitable. With Google you'd have access to those things.

[elguiri]

I'm selling sponsorship on the side of my new Yamaha X Max

[elguiri]

No, wait! Crazy idea - contextual advertising on the side of new Yamaha X Max!

Ride through the banking district, credit card ads;
Ride past a new housing development, property sales;
Ride through red light district... that's enough.

[circusboy]

How about Bumper Sticker Ads by Google? You can sell adspace on your bumper now... get paid monthly to rotate the ads... Of course, with an "Ads by Google' logo on there as well...

[circusboy]

That Bumper Sticker Ads by Google idea will only cost you a cool easy $50 million Larry and Sergey... don't think I won't collect if you use it. ;)

[circusboy]

No wait, I got a better one.... ....pay other companies to put Google Ads on their product packaging!

Or, how about this; Gooooogle condoms... you know - with an 'OO to OOOOOOOOOOOO' size rating...

or, the best yet... "The Church of Google", cause like, they do no evil anyway... and they know what's best for everyone else...

OK, I gotta get back to my $15/hr job....

[skibum]

Partner with Ford & GM to give away the cars with geo tartgeted AdWords units on them for nearby establishments. Need gas, just look at the car in front of you and it will tell you the exit to use and how far ahead it is. Need a ski shop, exit 314159

[LifeinAsia]

cars with geo tartgeted AdWords

Yeah, bring back the Geo! That would add a whole new meaning to geo-targeted advertising.

[Propools]

In ALL Seriousness: When you look at Google's business, what do they do? (Besides they're incredibly fast/accurate/relative SERP's). One of the larger things they do, very well I might add, is distribution.

They distribute data all over the world, first through SERP's. Recently added video. And there's much more than this, but you should already know what those are.

So, my 'Suggestion to the Chief' is to get further into something they already do very well.....more distribution. Not exclusively at the computer screen level but at the wholesale merchandise level.

I'm in the outdoor leisure industry, mostly swimming pools. There is ONE Distributor who has over 200 warehouses around the world. 150+ of them in the U.S. They are very good at what they do, accept not as good as they could be on the data side of things. Now, that's not a knock at them, but a valid point. I worked for them for a few years and would, without hesitation recommend them to anyone who is interested in learning product distribution. :)

Google's purchase of a company such as this would at least give this industry the shake up it needs to become more "up-to-date". Stock ticker is: POOL [finance.google.com].

The ideas is not so crazy and you've got to figure that they'll at least be able to get some free pools at the "Plex".

[justageek]

Need a ski shop, exit 314159

And get a pie there as well!

JAG