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Good points well made. I think it's safe to say that Google and parent company Alphabet have legitimately, and for the most part positively, changed the world.

Good points well made. I think it's safe to say that Google and parent company Alphabet have legitimately, and for the most part positively, changed the world. Just their search facility without all the other "fluff" gives me access to more information than I ever dreamed possible when I was still using Microsoft Encarta as a teenager. They definitely lose points for lacking in transparency and shoddy advertising practices though...no question. I suspect it's very very difficult to do the right thing by the world and keep your shareholders happy. Shareholders care about profit, and that is very rarely aligned with doing good - especially on a global scale! With all due respect to everyone on HN, which of course includes me, I doubt the person who has the answer to that billion dollar question is sat reading this thread.

dntrkv 9y ago
And I can say the same about Facebook. They have kept me in touch with friends and family that I would have no relationship with at this point if it wasn't for Facebook's absurd levels of adoption (which is driven by an amazing product, which surprisingly has to be said since a lot of people here on HN like to discredit the technological / design achievements of companies like FB, Twitter, etc...) I mean, you could even argue that the levels of adoption that they have achieved is a hugely positive thing in itself. If those 2B people were scattered across multiple platforms, you would not be able to have one platform which is basically guaranteed to be used by the vast majority of the people you encounter.