This is a valuable lesson for all of us, but I believe can be stated differently, which will enable an even more profound result to take place for all of our ideas. People often ask themselves, what is it in for me, and if the product/service that you are developing can not answer this question in a appropriate fashion, then the user will become a non-user! How is the product or service going to benefit my life? This should be the first question that all of us entrepreneurs are answering on behalf of the audience that we are looking to capture…
Yes and no. When I first read the article I hadn't noticed the date, and thought "finally!". But having seen the dateline, and with the onslaught of half-baked Google products continuing, it doesn't seem like the strategy has permeated.
On the other hand, they have been releasing a lot of "labs" features into existing products like Gmail and search, which previously might have become discrete products.
So I think they've got a long way to go on this strategy, but I think its a good one for them and they've made progress. I certainly don't think they should stop innovating, but I do think they need to pay more attention to their positioning.
I actually did not realize the date until I read the first few paragraphs either! In my mind, Google has come closer than any company history to doing everything for anyone. With this being said, I agree with the focused innovation point that you made and the attention to positioning themselves as we progress...I find it to be rather exciting to think about what Google will become in 30 years.