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That Google is losing out to Amazon on this is to me largely attributable to Google always struggling with marketing. I constantly hear about Alexa. I didn't ev

That Google is losing out to Amazon on this is to me largely attributable to Google always struggling with marketing. I constantly hear about Alexa. I didn't even know till now that Google has a new personal assistant your thing that's not Google Now. If I as someone who works as a programmer and reads HN every day don't know, how many regular consumers do? It seems to me that Google mainly is able to get attention for their outlandish projects like car and Glass that go nowhere. That's probably because those products get tons of PR for free.

adventured 10y ago
The flaw in Google's situation has always been its lack of a meaningful connection to consumers. It's why Google Shopping could never make a significant dent. That it's an intangible search & ad company, that essentially no consumers buy anything from (in the Amazon sense), will persistently haunt them as the Internet of things / AI / robotics / autonomous whatever continues to rapidly move forward in the consumer space. Maybe they'll start to change that with Pixel. Meanwhile, Amazon is increasingly touching consumers at every possible turn, including soon to be probably hundreds of physical stores of various types. It's like trying to compete with Tesla in autonomous, doing everything just in the lab, without having any physical driving data. If you think of Google's top services that touch consumers: search, gmail, maps, play store, youtube - it's all a million miles away from the tangibility that Amazon has in physically touching consumers on a frequent basis. Google is completely out of its element when it comes to doing the kind of consumer work that Amazon does, including when it comes to customer support. Today Amazon can physically get into your home in several ways, Google will probably always struggle with that (a fundamental difference in how the two companies are oriented and wired).
tossaway1 10y ago
> I didn't even know till now that Google has a new personal assistant your thing that's not Google Now. I'm guessing you're an iPhone user and therefore don't have much interest in Android...? There were a lot of positive reviews for the Pixel, both on HN and elsewhere, and most of them seemed to cite the new assistant as the main differentiator between the Pixel and other phones. You're probably right that Google doesn't do well with marketing in general but it's hard to believe that someone who follows tech news wasn't aware of their assistant before now.
- daveFNbuck 10y ago
  As someone who reads HN most days and is fairly interested in Android, I'm aware that Pixel and Google Home are somehow different from Google Now but I have no idea what that difference is supposed to be.
- mark_l_watson 10y ago
  I agree that Google Assistant is a strong differentiator for marketing the Pixel phone, but, I think Google is making a mistake not pushing it to more Android phones. For that matter, perhaps they should try to make it available as an app on iPhone and iPad ASAP also. I find the Google App to be very usable on my iPad, so why not update that same app to support Google Assistant?
- ajmurmann 10y ago
  I keep hoping back and forth between iPhone and Android. However, I didn't need a phone when the Pixel came out and thus didn't pay much attention to it beyond noting that it's more premium and thus its successor might be a real alternative for my next phone. That being said I also wasn't very interested in the iPhone 7 for the exact same reasons. However, I heard all about it organically at work because people keep talking about the cameras, missing headphone jack etc. Same with Alexa where co-workers talk about ordering stuff through it via prime with visitors on the house just to show off the device to them.

adventured 10y ago

The flaw in Google's situation has always been its lack of a meaningful connection to consumers. It's why Google Shopping could never make a significant dent. That it's an intangible search & ad company, that essentially no consumers buy anything from (in the Amazon sense), will persistently haunt them as the Internet of things / AI / robotics / autonomous whatever continues to rapidly move forward in the consumer space. Maybe they'll start to change that with Pixel. Meanwhile, Amazon is increasingly touching consumers at every possible turn, including soon to be probably hundreds of physical stores of various types. It's like trying to compete with Tesla in autonomous, doing everything just in the lab, without having any physical driving data. If you think of Google's top services that touch consumers: search, gmail, maps, play store, youtube - it's all a million miles away from the tangibility that Amazon has in physically touching consumers on a frequent basis. Google is completely out of its element when it comes to doing the kind of consumer work that Amazon does, including when it comes to customer support. Today Amazon can physically get into your home in several ways, Google will probably always struggle with that (a fundamental difference in how the two companies are oriented and wired).

tossaway1 10y ago

> I didn't even know till now that Google has a new personal assistant your thing that's not Google Now. I'm guessing you're an iPhone user and therefore don't have much interest in Android...? There were a lot of positive reviews for the Pixel, both on HN and elsewhere, and most of them seemed to cite the new assistant as the main differentiator between the Pixel and other phones. You're probably right that Google doesn't do well with marketing in general but it's hard to believe that someone who follows tech news wasn't aware of their assistant before now.

daveFNbuck 10y ago
As someone who reads HN most days and is fairly interested in Android, I'm aware that Pixel and Google Home are somehow different from Google Now but I have no idea what that difference is supposed to be.
mark_l_watson 10y ago
I agree that Google Assistant is a strong differentiator for marketing the Pixel phone, but, I think Google is making a mistake not pushing it to more Android phones. For that matter, perhaps they should try to make it available as an app on iPhone and iPad ASAP also. I find the Google App to be very usable on my iPad, so why not update that same app to support Google Assistant?
ajmurmann 10y ago
I keep hoping back and forth between iPhone and Android. However, I didn't need a phone when the Pixel came out and thus didn't pay much attention to it beyond noting that it's more premium and thus its successor might be a real alternative for my next phone. That being said I also wasn't very interested in the iPhone 7 for the exact same reasons. However, I heard all about it organically at work because people keep talking about the cameras, missing headphone jack etc. Same with Alexa where co-workers talk about ordering stuff through it via prime with visitors on the house just to show off the device to them.