8 ms·

Google is trying to do to Facebook what Facebook did to Snap

44 points by SREinSF 9y ago

dqv 9y ago
After getting that update, I noticed that every news suggestion was something that interested me and that I'd actually read it. It was eerie, but sort of satisfying that it wasn't littered with sports or celebrity news or "feel good" stories like it once was.
nsebban 9y ago
I have to say I was pretty disappointed at Google for pushing their "use the iPhone Gmail app" popup to me : They have plenty of data about my usages, and it was easy enough to figure out I never owned an iPhone, or accessed any of their services using an iPhone.
rimher 9y ago
If this is really what Google is trying to do, it's pointless. Google can't stop Facebook when it already has 2bln users, plus WhatsApp and Instagram. There's just no way Google can beat them at their own game.
- MildlySerious 9y ago
  And to be honest, if they somehow did, I would be even more scared of their power than now. I don't want to depend on one single company for every detail of my digital life, thank you very much. Just as I don't want to trust one single company with all of my digital data. That is not the internet I want.
- netsharc 9y ago
  IMO Facebook is just 9gag now, plus a huge dose of fake news, it's a shitty forum-type of site like digg or reddit but with terrible UI (here are the top 50 comments, you want the rest, keep clicking "More..."). Nobody shares anything personal anymore, it's just weblinks and, as I said, 9gag-ish content, plus people raging on topics like politics. I think the youth are now sharing their lives through the Snapchat-features of WhatsApp and Instagram, but lucky for Facebook they also own these 2. If Google (as rumoured) redesigned their homepage to give you a personalized "news feed", that will eat Facebook's lunch. They need some social features to keep people engaged though.
  - ClassyJacket 9y ago
    The utility of Facebook outside chat and events is gone. They don't let you see posts anymore, just "your friend tagged their other friend in this meme". So much for "connecting people".
    - JCzynski 9y ago
      Events is enough to keep people using it, though. Sometimes I think that the only features FB uses internally are events and groups. They're the only parts of the site that do what you want them to do well and intuitively.
  - riku_iki 9y ago
    Plenty of my friends share personal stuff to group of friends on FB. There are many very active specific topic groups, e.g. 40k fans, asian food cooking groups, which are much more active than say reddit groups for the same topic. Facebook is still regular people choice.
    - beeeebo 9y ago
      You are right FB is big with some groups but not all. It's too much work to start something but existing groups will stay
  - scarmig 9y ago
    > They need some social features to keep people engaged though 2017: the year Google Plus crushes Facebook!
  - notacoward 9y ago
    The contents of your newsfeed are mostly determined by the people you befriend and the pages you like, as modified by your mute settings. If your feed is full of garbage, try changing those parameters. Plenty of people have a good experience because they have given inputs that reflect what they really want to see. The same is true on many other sites, BTW, and across sites as well. If all of the content on SuperCoolTechNews was garbage, would you still visit or follow their RSS feed? Even Google creates a filter bubble based on what you've searched for and which results you've clicked on. The internet is becoming ever more personalized. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing for you largely depends on your own behavior.
- xbmcuser 9y ago
  Google has more users than Facebook
HugoDaniel 9y ago
Too big to fail
kronos29296 9y ago
Somehow I am using more google than facebook (removed the damn bloated app that eats all the free space on my old phone). Subjectively Google just might succeed in things like Feed because Facebook is for situations where you want to know what the other guys around you are doing. Google is about what is happening generally like news or blog posts or announcements or anything interesting but not personal. Can't beat Facebook at social network but at everything else Google can use similar features to solidify their market.
raghavtoshniwal 9y ago
Clickbait at its worst. Facebook leveraging its userbase to mimic snapchat stories and Google rolling out their feed on their mobile app to solve the Google Now vs Google Assistant dichotomy aren't really similar. Google trying to take on Social Giant behemoth by making an interactive non-social feed on their mobile app makes for a nice headline though. Facebook did not invent pushing people towards their native apps by a long shot. Most websites with a native app urge their users to download apps for more engagement. Calling it a Facebook "feature" is laughable.
- superplussed 9y ago
  At least it was clear that it was clickbait before even clicking it. But yeah that is a cynical article that is really scraping for an angle.
rakibtg 9y ago
My opinion on this would be simple. If Google want it to do, then it should do the way exactly Facebook did to snap, a pixel by pixel copy/paste. Also, besides facebook there is importance of having another social networking site, clearly google plus failed, now Google should do it on a new frame.
- JCzynski 9y ago
  Google will never figure out how to do social apps well. They have failed repeatedly to make anything resembling a good social platform, and the one that came anywhere close (Google Chat), they killed and replaced with a succession of moribund, inferior replacements which are all being killed off in succession. (Hangouts is dead within a year, supposedly; Allo and Duo are not doing well either, and there's a totally new one coming.)
  - lokedhs 9y ago
    It's funny how their replacement are consistently worse than what they replaced. You mentioned Google Chat, which was pretty great, followed by Hangouts which I'd still very good (arguably the best one out there that still exists), but succeeded by something that had no redeeming qualities at all. Then we have Picasa which was succeeded by Photos. I like to be able to sort my photos, thanks. Google Plus still doesn't have a public API. Do you remember when it was possible to compile an Android application in seconds? Before you had to spend 30 seconds for Gradle to do absolutely nothing? And Google reader was replaced by, well whatever they want you to use instead is not something I want to use.
jbverschoor 9y ago
The next orkut or waves?

44 points by SREinSF 9y ago

dqv 9y ago

After getting that update, I noticed that every news suggestion was something that interested me and that I'd actually read it. It was eerie, but sort of satisfying that it wasn't littered with sports or celebrity news or "feel good" stories like it once was.

nsebban 9y ago

I have to say I was pretty disappointed at Google for pushing their "use the iPhone Gmail app" popup to me : They have plenty of data about my usages, and it was easy enough to figure out I never owned an iPhone, or accessed any of their services using an iPhone.

rimher 9y ago

If this is really what Google is trying to do, it's pointless. Google can't stop Facebook when it already has 2bln users, plus WhatsApp and Instagram. There's just no way Google can beat them at their own game.

MildlySerious 9y ago
And to be honest, if they somehow did, I would be even more scared of their power than now. I don't want to depend on one single company for every detail of my digital life, thank you very much. Just as I don't want to trust one single company with all of my digital data. That is not the internet I want.
netsharc 9y ago
IMO Facebook is just 9gag now, plus a huge dose of fake news, it's a shitty forum-type of site like digg or reddit but with terrible UI (here are the top 50 comments, you want the rest, keep clicking "More..."). Nobody shares anything personal anymore, it's just weblinks and, as I said, 9gag-ish content, plus people raging on topics like politics. I think the youth are now sharing their lives through the Snapchat-features of WhatsApp and Instagram, but lucky for Facebook they also own these 2. If Google (as rumoured) redesigned their homepage to give you a personalized "news feed", that will eat Facebook's lunch. They need some social features to keep people engaged though.
- ClassyJacket 9y ago
  The utility of Facebook outside chat and events is gone. They don't let you see posts anymore, just "your friend tagged their other friend in this meme". So much for "connecting people".
  - JCzynski 9y ago
    Events is enough to keep people using it, though. Sometimes I think that the only features FB uses internally are events and groups. They're the only parts of the site that do what you want them to do well and intuitively.
- riku_iki 9y ago
  Plenty of my friends share personal stuff to group of friends on FB. There are many very active specific topic groups, e.g. 40k fans, asian food cooking groups, which are much more active than say reddit groups for the same topic. Facebook is still regular people choice.
  - beeeebo 9y ago
    You are right FB is big with some groups but not all. It's too much work to start something but existing groups will stay
- scarmig 9y ago
  > They need some social features to keep people engaged though 2017: the year Google Plus crushes Facebook!
- notacoward 9y ago
  The contents of your newsfeed are mostly determined by the people you befriend and the pages you like, as modified by your mute settings. If your feed is full of garbage, try changing those parameters. Plenty of people have a good experience because they have given inputs that reflect what they really want to see. The same is true on many other sites, BTW, and across sites as well. If all of the content on SuperCoolTechNews was garbage, would you still visit or follow their RSS feed? Even Google creates a filter bubble based on what you've searched for and which results you've clicked on. The internet is becoming ever more personalized. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing for you largely depends on your own behavior.
xbmcuser 9y ago
Google has more users than Facebook

HugoDaniel 9y ago

Too big to fail

kronos29296 9y ago

Somehow I am using more google than facebook (removed the damn bloated app that eats all the free space on my old phone). Subjectively Google just might succeed in things like Feed because Facebook is for situations where you want to know what the other guys around you are doing. Google is about what is happening generally like news or blog posts or announcements or anything interesting but not personal. Can't beat Facebook at social network but at everything else Google can use similar features to solidify their market.

raghavtoshniwal 9y ago

Clickbait at its worst. Facebook leveraging its userbase to mimic snapchat stories and Google rolling out their feed on their mobile app to solve the Google Now vs Google Assistant dichotomy aren't really similar. Google trying to take on Social Giant behemoth by making an interactive non-social feed on their mobile app makes for a nice headline though. Facebook did not invent pushing people towards their native apps by a long shot. Most websites with a native app urge their users to download apps for more engagement. Calling it a Facebook "feature" is laughable.

superplussed 9y ago
At least it was clear that it was clickbait before even clicking it. But yeah that is a cynical article that is really scraping for an angle.

rakibtg 9y ago

My opinion on this would be simple. If Google want it to do, then it should do the way exactly Facebook did to snap, a pixel by pixel copy/paste. Also, besides facebook there is importance of having another social networking site, clearly google plus failed, now Google should do it on a new frame.

JCzynski 9y ago
Google will never figure out how to do social apps well. They have failed repeatedly to make anything resembling a good social platform, and the one that came anywhere close (Google Chat), they killed and replaced with a succession of moribund, inferior replacements which are all being killed off in succession. (Hangouts is dead within a year, supposedly; Allo and Duo are not doing well either, and there's a totally new one coming.)
- lokedhs 9y ago
  It's funny how their replacement are consistently worse than what they replaced. You mentioned Google Chat, which was pretty great, followed by Hangouts which I'd still very good (arguably the best one out there that still exists), but succeeded by something that had no redeeming qualities at all. Then we have Picasa which was succeeded by Photos. I like to be able to sort my photos, thanks. Google Plus still doesn't have a public API. Do you remember when it was possible to compile an Android application in seconds? Before you had to spend 30 seconds for Gradle to do absolutely nothing? And Google reader was replaced by, well whatever they want you to use instead is not something I want to use.

jbverschoor 9y ago

The next orkut or waves?