The page is turning on Larry now

By Jay Yarow

Is Larry Page asleep at the wheel? It sure feels like it.
Google looks like it is basically helpless to stop Facebook. It doesn't have an answer for Facebook. It tried and failed with Google+.Google doesn't own a “stream“ like Facebook's News Feed, where it can stick high-quality brand advertising right into what people are reading and doing.
From the outside looking in, as Facebook gets stronger, it looks like Google is running in the wrong direction. It looks like CEO Larry Page has handed off responsibility for the company at a critical time.

While Mark Zuckerberg zeros in on real opportunity like mobile ads in the Facebook app, video plays in the app, monetising Instagram, and building platforms with WhatsApp and Facebook messenger, Larry Page is looking at more pie-in-thesky stuff like robotics and self-driving cars.

Robots and self-driving cars are cool, and we should all be thankful that Google is willing to experiment with them. However, it's not clear they'll ever be huge businesses. It feels like Page is bored with the nuts and bolts of running an ad-based internet company . He isn't going to dive into the display ad business, pushing Google's business to the next level. He'd rather work on changing the world.