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Craigslist is terrible but people still use it. If Google entered that market and showed their own classified ads as search results above Craigslist's, would yo

Craigslist is terrible but people still use it. If Google entered that market and showed their own classified ads as search results above Craigslist's, would you say that "Craigslist couldn't see their audience was going to dry up"? At what point is it too much? Google wants to classify all the world's information—doesn't seem like there are many markets it wouldn't enter. Is every business just living on borrowed time because the Eye of Google hasn't swung toward them yet?

dalbasal 8y ago
This was a big scare 10-12 years ago. Google will eat the world. Whether you were selling an RSS client or giving away a social network, the fear was that Google could take your whole market sector. How? Google search is the way customers find you, initially and every time they want to log in. If they want to compet, all the customers already have google accounts and they're already logged in. Google has useful customer data: "you are in a restaurant now and often visit yelp, do you want to write a review?" Lean on 2 or 3 of these advantages, and Google can have a yelp-killer sketched out in an afternoon and built in a quarter. In reality, Google didn't really eat everything. The web was just too big. They also sucked at some stuff like new communication or social network paradigms (wave, plus hangouts). But, Google's bigger now. Theyve eaten most of the big dishes. Yelp might still be too small a snack, but... the point about dominance is true. Google have a lot of power. If they want into some web sector, they can just power through the marketing & chicken-egg problems that kill 92.6% of the competition.
lithos 8y ago
Craigslist is actually pretty good for some users. It works on a computer that is over 10 years old, it has minimum levels of moderation, and does a really good job of letting people interact/trade in their local areas.
- mratzloff 8y ago
  The quality of the site is not the point. The point is whether or not Google abuses their market position. Whether Nixon bugging the Democratic office at The Watergate is a crime or not doesn't hinge on whether McGovern is a good candidate.

dalbasal 8y ago

This was a big scare 10-12 years ago. Google will eat the world. Whether you were selling an RSS client or giving away a social network, the fear was that Google could take your whole market sector. How? Google search is the way customers find you, initially and every time they want to log in. If they want to compet, all the customers already have google accounts and they're already logged in. Google has useful customer data: "you are in a restaurant now and often visit yelp, do you want to write a review?" Lean on 2 or 3 of these advantages, and Google can have a yelp-killer sketched out in an afternoon and built in a quarter. In reality, Google didn't really eat everything. The web was just too big. They also sucked at some stuff like new communication or social network paradigms (wave, plus hangouts). But, Google's bigger now. Theyve eaten most of the big dishes. Yelp might still be too small a snack, but... the point about dominance is true. Google have a lot of power. If they want into some web sector, they can just power through the marketing & chicken-egg problems that kill 92.6% of the competition.

lithos 8y ago

Craigslist is actually pretty good for some users. It works on a computer that is over 10 years old, it has minimum levels of moderation, and does a really good job of letting people interact/trade in their local areas.

mratzloff 8y ago
The quality of the site is not the point. The point is whether or not Google abuses their market position. Whether Nixon bugging the Democratic office at The Watergate is a crime or not doesn't hinge on whether McGovern is a good candidate.