44 ms·

No, their (main) product is search. Advertising is how they monetize it. The Tribune Co.'s product is news, monetized through advertising. Conde Nast's product

No, their (main) product is search. Advertising is how they monetize it. The Tribune Co.'s product is news, monetized through advertising. Conde Nast's product is magazines, monetized through advertising. Just because advertising pays for the operation of a service, doesn't make the service not the product. And yeah, I understand that Google also sells advertising as a separate item from their search engine, but that's not what parent anecdote was referring to.

zepto 11y ago
Not really - their search product is optimized to be better for advertisers - not for consumers. If it wasn't about advertising, search would put a lot more advanced capabilities for analyzing the index and the results into the hands of users.
- manigandham 11y ago
  What search features are you missing?
  - jhasse 11y ago
    searching for special characters, e. g. ~=
  - ivan_ah 11y ago
    In the early days of Google, they used to be a `link:URL` option which returned pages that link to URL. e.g. `link:https://news.ycombinator.com` https://news.ycombinator.com` would return search results of webpages that link to HN. I had to abandon a project when they stopped supporting that...
    - naveen99 11y ago
      They claim to provide link: functionality within Info: operator. https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433?p=adv_operators&hl=en&rd=1 https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433?p=adv_op... Edit: Actually link: still works also
      - ivan_ah 11y ago
        Indeed, there seems to be some support for `link:HASH:URL` search operator, but only works for very large volume websites, e.g. it works on news.ycombinator.com but not on small and medium websites. still... it could be partially useful.
AdamFernandez 11y ago
Search is not a product for Google since they do not sell it. No matter how much everyone in the world might (including Google) categorize it as such. Products are sold. The only product they sell in relation to their search engine is an advertising platform. That is by definition the product.
- azinman2 11y ago
  So what is NBC's product? Ads? I would guess that's not the common perception.
  - dchuk 11y ago
    Their product is advertising, their delivery mechanism is television content.
    - vinceguidry 11y ago
      A TV network's product is television content, their monetization strategy is advertising. The delivery mechanism is cable / airwaves. Sure there are secondary economic effects and markets that complicate the picture. But the basic business model of a television network isn't all that different than a regular company that sells their products directly.
      - jsprogrammer 11y ago
        Yes, but the product being sold is broadcast time slots, not audio/video.
    - azinman2 11y ago
      If that's true, then what's their programming called? Programming is their product, and customers buy it by paying attention (or to netflix, hulu, comcast, etc more directly). Attention is the currency, and ads let them exchange attention for USD.
    - 1812Overture 11y ago

zepto 11y ago

Not really - their search product is optimized to be better for advertisers - not for consumers. If it wasn't about advertising, search would put a lot more advanced capabilities for analyzing the index and the results into the hands of users.

manigandham 11y ago
What search features are you missing?
- jhasse 11y ago
  searching for special characters, e. g. ~=
- ivan_ah 11y ago
  In the early days of Google, they used to be a `link:URL` option which returned pages that link to URL. e.g. `link:https://news.ycombinator.com` https://news.ycombinator.com` would return search results of webpages that link to HN. I had to abandon a project when they stopped supporting that...
  - naveen99 11y ago
    They claim to provide link: functionality within Info: operator. https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433?p=adv_operators&hl=en&rd=1 https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433?p=adv_op... Edit: Actually link: still works also
    - ivan_ah 11y ago
      Indeed, there seems to be some support for `link:HASH:URL` search operator, but only works for very large volume websites, e.g. it works on news.ycombinator.com but not on small and medium websites. still... it could be partially useful.

AdamFernandez 11y ago

Search is not a product for Google since they do not sell it. No matter how much everyone in the world might (including Google) categorize it as such. Products are sold. The only product they sell in relation to their search engine is an advertising platform. That is by definition the product.

azinman2 11y ago
So what is NBC's product? Ads? I would guess that's not the common perception.
- dchuk 11y ago
  Their product is advertising, their delivery mechanism is television content.
  - vinceguidry 11y ago
    A TV network's product is television content, their monetization strategy is advertising. The delivery mechanism is cable / airwaves. Sure there are secondary economic effects and markets that complicate the picture. But the basic business model of a television network isn't all that different than a regular company that sells their products directly.
    - jsprogrammer 11y ago
      Yes, but the product being sold is broadcast time slots, not audio/video.
  - azinman2 11y ago
    If that's true, then what's their programming called? Programming is their product, and customers buy it by paying attention (or to netflix, hulu, comcast, etc more directly). Attention is the currency, and ads let them exchange attention for USD.
  - 1812Overture 11y ago