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> Google: Had to make all their core technologies efficient, performant, scalable and maintainable or they couldn't sustain their business. Which Amazon totall

by aanm1988 10y ago

> Google: Had to make all their core technologies efficient, performant, scalable and maintainable or they couldn't sustain their business. Which Amazon totally didn't have to do with their firehose of cash?

user5994461 10y ago
Google has to support Google, Youtube and many of the most resources intensive services in existence on Earth. They needed to be "efficient enough" to operate that, meaning incredibly efficient. Amazon runs nothing, it's an outsourcing firm. They needed to make services "good enough" to be sold. If a service is somewhat inefficient, it just charges the clients more to cover the costs. Technologies reflect the business they were created in.
- aanm1988 10y ago
  > Amazon runs nothing, it's an outsourcing firm. What the fuck are you talking about. It's one thing to say AWS services are "good enough" but "Amazon runs nothing" is a ridiculous statement.
  - boulos 10y ago
    Agreed, and I work on Google Cloud. We may have different styles and core businesses, but I wouldn't say "eBay ran nothing" either. Logistics alone is a super fascinating space!
    - ksec 10y ago
      Interesting. But Do Amazon actually do much Logistics? I thought they are much more Warehouse and outsourced delivery to DHL and UPS.
- jplahn 10y ago
  You do realize the way most services get into AWS is that they're first built in the retail side of Amazon (without any thought towards AWS) and then once people realize it's effectively solving an actual problem, it's rebuilt for AWS. Having to support Amazon retail is a pretty demanding stress test -- I'm not sure why you're getting this notion that Amazon doesn't run anything. I should think handling Black Friday alone would count for something..
  - parasubvert 10y ago
    That is something of a myth. AWS was created and evolves completely separately from retail, which didn't really use it in anger until 2010ish. Retail is effectively a large customer to AWS. They're very good at watching what customers are doing in general.
    - discodave 10y ago
      The 'rebuilt for AWS' phrase is key.
  - computerex 10y ago
    No one is saying amazon doesn't test their stuff. The argument here is that Google is inherently a more technical company, which is a fair comparison. Their products are more technical. Ad Sense, Gmail, YouTube are incredibly technical products due to their scale, and the argument here is that nothing of similar technicality exists in Amazon's core business, which I think is totally fair.
    - mavelikara 10y ago
      > The argument here is that Google is inherently a more technical company, which is a fair comparison. I suspect that Google knows this, and their reputation for have poor customer support and sales comes from that knowledge.

user5994461 10y ago

Google has to support Google, Youtube and many of the most resources intensive services in existence on Earth. They needed to be "efficient enough" to operate that, meaning incredibly efficient. Amazon runs nothing, it's an outsourcing firm. They needed to make services "good enough" to be sold. If a service is somewhat inefficient, it just charges the clients more to cover the costs. Technologies reflect the business they were created in.

aanm1988 10y ago
> Amazon runs nothing, it's an outsourcing firm. What the fuck are you talking about. It's one thing to say AWS services are "good enough" but "Amazon runs nothing" is a ridiculous statement.
- boulos 10y ago
  Agreed, and I work on Google Cloud. We may have different styles and core businesses, but I wouldn't say "eBay ran nothing" either. Logistics alone is a super fascinating space!
  - ksec 10y ago
    Interesting. But Do Amazon actually do much Logistics? I thought they are much more Warehouse and outsourced delivery to DHL and UPS.
jplahn 10y ago
You do realize the way most services get into AWS is that they're first built in the retail side of Amazon (without any thought towards AWS) and then once people realize it's effectively solving an actual problem, it's rebuilt for AWS. Having to support Amazon retail is a pretty demanding stress test -- I'm not sure why you're getting this notion that Amazon doesn't run anything. I should think handling Black Friday alone would count for something..
- parasubvert 10y ago
  That is something of a myth. AWS was created and evolves completely separately from retail, which didn't really use it in anger until 2010ish. Retail is effectively a large customer to AWS. They're very good at watching what customers are doing in general.
  - discodave 10y ago
    The 'rebuilt for AWS' phrase is key.
- computerex 10y ago
  No one is saying amazon doesn't test their stuff. The argument here is that Google is inherently a more technical company, which is a fair comparison. Their products are more technical. Ad Sense, Gmail, YouTube are incredibly technical products due to their scale, and the argument here is that nothing of similar technicality exists in Amazon's core business, which I think is totally fair.
  - mavelikara 10y ago
    > The argument here is that Google is inherently a more technical company, which is a fair comparison. I suspect that Google knows this, and their reputation for have poor customer support and sales comes from that knowledge.