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What's funny to me is that so many people complain about large tech companies eating up every product category and preventing competition. But when they later k

by beaner 8y ago

What's funny to me is that so many people complain about large tech companies eating up every product category and preventing competition. But when they later kill these products, people complain all the same. Which is it? Seems like an opportunity for someone else, if it was really being relied on that much. I suspect it wasn't. The author of the article said he hadn't checked in six years. Six years! And he's complaining that Google threw his work away. People want to have their cake and eat it, too.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
protomyth 8y ago
What's funny to me is that so many people complain about large tech companies eating up every product category and preventing competition. But when they later kill these products, people complain all the same. Which is it? Both. They expanded into an area and killed the competition then killed their product and left a void. See Google Reader for the life cycle.
- zapita 8y ago
  Yes, exactly. Those are not contradictory. If anything, it makes it more obvious why unchecked Big Tech expansion into every market, subsidized by their core monopolies, is a bad thing for consumers in the long run.
- beaner 8y ago
  And now readers still aren't popular... There is no big replacement that people are using. Google didn't kill the category, it was already dead.
oconnor663 8y ago
> Which is it? It's different people complaining in each case.
- taeric 8y ago
  There has to be a name for this. Folks love saying "people complained when I did X, now people complain when I do Y." As if that proves something. Unless it is the same people, irrelevant. (Not that it is automatically relevant if it is the same people. But I get frustrated with this general game of moral equivalence somehow being a valid talking point.)
  - prepend 8y ago
    It is curious to me how people seem to accept certain narrative fallacies like 1) the complainers are the same; 2) if the complainers are the same, there are only two exclusive options in existence that must be chosen. I work in an org with a lot of regulations and a rent seeking IT group different than development. I’ve heard a lot of people rationalizing decisions using emotion (eg, “they complain if we do, they complain if we don’t [;therefore their experience isn’t important to addres]” It’s tough to solve and is based, I think, on having your measurement of success be a good story, because objective metrics are not really applicable. In google’s case they make so much revenue and profit from search the rest of the company just kind of bounces around and doesn’t matter. So projects are run, it seems, off who has a great story. Sure, there’s massive data analysis showing things but those don’t matter. Why did a jillion people using finance used to matter, but not now.
AJ007 8y ago
It is definitely an opportunity for someone else. Just take a look at google finance's popularity using Google Trends: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=google%20finance&geo=US https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=google%20finance&... I think Google, Facebook, and especially Yahoo did significant damage to their reputations and brands through how they have disposed of products both for consumers and developers. It is really hard to take anything they put out seriously until that product has been around a long time and is clearly being supported, used, and polished. Google and Facebook are still large, strong, and growing, but what Yahoo did to all of the companies it acquired really fucked both their investors and customers. One wonders if Google and Facebook will wander down that path when their growth stalls out.
- danielaxelsen 8y ago
  I agree ;) Even before Google Finance was shut down, I've wanted to work on this. Given that Google Finance has largely faded, I think we have an opening for https://bravos.co https://bravos.co to enter the market.
munk-a 8y ago
Uh, this isn't that weird... If google enters a market and kills off all the competition then lowers their investment into their tool and the usability slowly degrades then they're basically just Walmarting that market space.
gammateam 8y ago
people complaining that it will predictably lead to competition dying off and reliance on a product that will be abruptly killed? and then that exact thing happens? you're confused?

by beaner 8y ago

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

protomyth 8y ago

What's funny to me is that so many people complain about large tech companies eating up every product category and preventing competition. But when they later kill these products, people complain all the same. Which is it? Both. They expanded into an area and killed the competition then killed their product and left a void. See Google Reader for the life cycle.

zapita 8y ago
Yes, exactly. Those are not contradictory. If anything, it makes it more obvious why unchecked Big Tech expansion into every market, subsidized by their core monopolies, is a bad thing for consumers in the long run.
beaner 8y ago
And now readers still aren't popular... There is no big replacement that people are using. Google didn't kill the category, it was already dead.

oconnor663 8y ago

> Which is it? It's different people complaining in each case.

taeric 8y ago
There has to be a name for this. Folks love saying "people complained when I did X, now people complain when I do Y." As if that proves something. Unless it is the same people, irrelevant. (Not that it is automatically relevant if it is the same people. But I get frustrated with this general game of moral equivalence somehow being a valid talking point.)
- prepend 8y ago
  It is curious to me how people seem to accept certain narrative fallacies like 1) the complainers are the same; 2) if the complainers are the same, there are only two exclusive options in existence that must be chosen. I work in an org with a lot of regulations and a rent seeking IT group different than development. I’ve heard a lot of people rationalizing decisions using emotion (eg, “they complain if we do, they complain if we don’t [;therefore their experience isn’t important to addres]” It’s tough to solve and is based, I think, on having your measurement of success be a good story, because objective metrics are not really applicable. In google’s case they make so much revenue and profit from search the rest of the company just kind of bounces around and doesn’t matter. So projects are run, it seems, off who has a great story. Sure, there’s massive data analysis showing things but those don’t matter. Why did a jillion people using finance used to matter, but not now.

AJ007 8y ago

It is definitely an opportunity for someone else. Just take a look at google finance's popularity using Google Trends: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=google%20finance&geo=US https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=google%20finance&... I think Google, Facebook, and especially Yahoo did significant damage to their reputations and brands through how they have disposed of products both for consumers and developers. It is really hard to take anything they put out seriously until that product has been around a long time and is clearly being supported, used, and polished. Google and Facebook are still large, strong, and growing, but what Yahoo did to all of the companies it acquired really fucked both their investors and customers. One wonders if Google and Facebook will wander down that path when their growth stalls out.

danielaxelsen 8y ago
I agree ;) Even before Google Finance was shut down, I've wanted to work on this. Given that Google Finance has largely faded, I think we have an opening for https://bravos.co https://bravos.co to enter the market.

munk-a 8y ago

Uh, this isn't that weird... If google enters a market and kills off all the competition then lowers their investment into their tool and the usability slowly degrades then they're basically just Walmarting that market space.

gammateam 8y ago

people complaining that it will predictably lead to competition dying off and reliance on a product that will be abruptly killed? and then that exact thing happens? you're confused?