Google is smart to stay tight-lipped about its operations

It's always fun to try and dissect how Google works -- how its search business works, which the Los Angeles Times does in an article today.  Sure, we've all heard about the global 100,000+ commodity computer network that runs its entire business, the algorithms that run the search queries, the speed of interconnection all these systems have, the massive electricity bill this network consumes, etc.

But, how does Google "work"? Publicly, the company doesn't really say. I think that's a smart strategy.

Even as a public company Google is extremely quiet on the operational side of its business. That helps keep competition at bay. While it's interesting that Google rarely gives any kind on insight beyond what's required by regulators, the company continues to vault forward in capturing more and more business in its core competency -- Internet search. Investors and industry pundits (and some mediocre analysts thrown in for good measure) are screaming for more operational disclosure from Google -- in part to determine how the company is going to keep its edge.

But Google, always the maverick, keeps its edge by operating like a private, nimble company as opposed to the large public company it actually is. LBOs have always been a way for equity partners to take a company off the market so and out of the glare of the quarter-obsessed Street so it can concentrate on a long-term strategy. Google operates like this already. If investors start demanding more and more (disclosure, results, revenue, etc.), Google's tight-lipped nature will probably need to be loosened a little.