When Will Google Get Stretched Too Thin?

Back in the 1990s, people thought Microsoft could do anything. It was going to use its dominance of the PC to make a huge impact on media, communication, retailing, banking -- and we even worried at some point that Microsoft was going to "own" the Internet. But MSNBC never amounted to much, MSN is a middling performer, banking/ID/retailing things like Microsoft Passport haven't amounted to much, and now Zune is nowhere in the music player universe. Other than Xbox, when Microsoft got too far afield, it usually flunked.

So now Google seems like it can do anything -- and it seems to be trying to do EVERYTHING. It has moved from its base in search and advertising to applications (Docs, Spreadsheet), communication (Talk, Gmail, municipal wireless) and media (YouTube).

It has tried but largely stalled in social networking with Orkut -- but now is allegedly brewing a Facebook competitor internally known as Maka-maka. (Huh?) It's also supposedly creating a Google wireless phone offering and may bid for wireless spectrum in an upcoming FCC auction.

At some point, Google will overreach -- if it hasn't done so already. That's not a comment on Google, but a comment from history. It happens to just about every business superpower at some point. See: Wal-mart.

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