6 ms·

Why would Google be desperate, though? They are hugely cash positive, have enormous cash reserves, and essentially no competition outside of China.

paganel 7y ago
> and essentially no competition outside of China They have less eyeballs, I presume. Their competition is FB + IG + Whatsapp + whatever it is today's young people spend their time on. They could have made YT as socially engaging as Instagram but they failed along the way.
- sova 7y ago
  Have you ever heard of niko niko douga? (niko niko video)
  - paganel 7y ago
    No, I have not, but I find quotes like the ones bellow (taken from the article) as pure lies told to their investors: > The company wants to make it easier for users to discover and buy new products because they shop in spurts while watching TV or sitting in the bathroom No, no-one in the under-40 target is sitting in front of the TV and then is deciding to shop for stuff, almost everyone in the under-40 target is sitting on their phones (mostly on FB + IG + Whatsapp) even when watching TV, even when in the bathroom, and it's in there (on FB + IG + Whatsapp + other social networks) that the buying decision is made. TV is for the older-than-40 audience.
Despegar 7y ago
Growth is slowing and ad load has already reached its limits. If Google has any undeveloped real estate left, there's going to be ads on it.
JaimeThompson 7y ago
Because they appear to be obsessed with growth at nearly all costs. Which each passing month it looks more and more likely that short term thinking has began to drive how Google acts and reacts.
- resters 7y ago
  This has been getting more and more clear for a while. I had already lost a lot of respect after Google decided to become a defense contractor, but this is just greedy and antithetical to the values that made most of us start using Google in the first place. Google has been selling garbage ad placements for years which has been an obvious revenue boosting game, but nobody seemed to care. Let’s hope Google gets its priorities back in order. I had thought Schmidt leaving the board was a good thing, but he seems to have been pushed out by those whose incentives are much more short term. Companies can be hijacked by people with the wrong incentives.
tyingq 7y ago
They have had many years of revenue growth that exceeds eyeball growth. They did that by slowly pushing organic results down the fold in favor of ads. That trick is played out now...there's little real estate above the fold left to cede to ads now. So, to maintain revenue growth that exceeds eyeball growth, they need new tricks. Basically, they set the bar very high.
- mc32 7y ago
  My wish is that adds fill the first SERP so that I can just go to page 2 and be done. Damn you, Overture, why did you have to do that!
  - JohnFen 7y ago
    In my experience with Google search, it rarely gives me useful results on the first page. So much so that I've developed a bit of muscle memory. When I have to resort to doing a Google search, I have to consciously stop myself from immediately clicking to get the next page of results.
tanilama 7y ago
Greed? Please Wall Street? I don't really know really. Maybe the executives are in fear they will be swept out if they are not delivering on hiking the stock price?
x2f10 7y ago
>no competition outside of China For now. Duck is growing and I wouldn't be surprised to see Apple build their own. Not to mention, the use of content blockers is rising.
- tqkxzugoaupvwqr 7y ago
  For some years now I have the feeling Apple is investing in / helping DuckDuckGo. The most obvious indications are that DDG was added to the list of search engines in Safari, and DDG uses Apple Maps (example [1]). I bet Apple is using DDG to weaken Google while officially keeping a distance. I also bet Apple is not interested in running a search engine themselves. They would either have to muddy their brand by allowing questionable results, or filter everything that is not family friendly and risk being seen as the big censor. [1] https://duckduckgo.com/?q=silicon+valley%2C+usa+map&t=h_&ia=maps&iaxm=maps https://duckduckgo.com/?q=silicon+valley%2C+usa+map&t=h_&ia=...
microdrum 7y ago
Now that they've used DBM, DFP, and AdExchange to cement their U.S. ad monopoly, they can only get more growth by shutting down the flow of money to the rest of the internet. So they need more inventory of their own to compete with that of their clients' (e.g. other websites that use Google Analytics, DFP, GCP, AdWords, etc). I would love to see an estimation of the hundreds of billions of dollars wasted by companies (and by consumers who buy their products) on Google ads.
- shostack 7y ago
  If an advertiser buys ads and attributes results to them, how is that a waste?

paganel 7y ago

> and essentially no competition outside of China They have less eyeballs, I presume. Their competition is FB + IG + Whatsapp + whatever it is today's young people spend their time on. They could have made YT as socially engaging as Instagram but they failed along the way.

sova 7y ago
Have you ever heard of niko niko douga? (niko niko video)
- paganel 7y ago
  No, I have not, but I find quotes like the ones bellow (taken from the article) as pure lies told to their investors: > The company wants to make it easier for users to discover and buy new products because they shop in spurts while watching TV or sitting in the bathroom No, no-one in the under-40 target is sitting in front of the TV and then is deciding to shop for stuff, almost everyone in the under-40 target is sitting on their phones (mostly on FB + IG + Whatsapp) even when watching TV, even when in the bathroom, and it's in there (on FB + IG + Whatsapp + other social networks) that the buying decision is made. TV is for the older-than-40 audience.

Despegar 7y ago

Growth is slowing and ad load has already reached its limits. If Google has any undeveloped real estate left, there's going to be ads on it.

JaimeThompson 7y ago

Because they appear to be obsessed with growth at nearly all costs. Which each passing month it looks more and more likely that short term thinking has began to drive how Google acts and reacts.

resters 7y ago
This has been getting more and more clear for a while. I had already lost a lot of respect after Google decided to become a defense contractor, but this is just greedy and antithetical to the values that made most of us start using Google in the first place. Google has been selling garbage ad placements for years which has been an obvious revenue boosting game, but nobody seemed to care. Let’s hope Google gets its priorities back in order. I had thought Schmidt leaving the board was a good thing, but he seems to have been pushed out by those whose incentives are much more short term. Companies can be hijacked by people with the wrong incentives.

tyingq 7y ago

They have had many years of revenue growth that exceeds eyeball growth. They did that by slowly pushing organic results down the fold in favor of ads. That trick is played out now...there's little real estate above the fold left to cede to ads now. So, to maintain revenue growth that exceeds eyeball growth, they need new tricks. Basically, they set the bar very high.

mc32 7y ago
My wish is that adds fill the first SERP so that I can just go to page 2 and be done. Damn you, Overture, why did you have to do that!
- JohnFen 7y ago
  In my experience with Google search, it rarely gives me useful results on the first page. So much so that I've developed a bit of muscle memory. When I have to resort to doing a Google search, I have to consciously stop myself from immediately clicking to get the next page of results.

tanilama 7y ago

Greed? Please Wall Street? I don't really know really. Maybe the executives are in fear they will be swept out if they are not delivering on hiking the stock price?

x2f10 7y ago

>no competition outside of China For now. Duck is growing and I wouldn't be surprised to see Apple build their own. Not to mention, the use of content blockers is rising.

tqkxzugoaupvwqr 7y ago
For some years now I have the feeling Apple is investing in / helping DuckDuckGo. The most obvious indications are that DDG was added to the list of search engines in Safari, and DDG uses Apple Maps (example [1]). I bet Apple is using DDG to weaken Google while officially keeping a distance. I also bet Apple is not interested in running a search engine themselves. They would either have to muddy their brand by allowing questionable results, or filter everything that is not family friendly and risk being seen as the big censor. [1] https://duckduckgo.com/?q=silicon+valley%2C+usa+map&t=h_&ia=maps&iaxm=maps https://duckduckgo.com/?q=silicon+valley%2C+usa+map&t=h_&ia=...

microdrum 7y ago

Now that they've used DBM, DFP, and AdExchange to cement their U.S. ad monopoly, they can only get more growth by shutting down the flow of money to the rest of the internet. So they need more inventory of their own to compete with that of their clients' (e.g. other websites that use Google Analytics, DFP, GCP, AdWords, etc). I would love to see an estimation of the hundreds of billions of dollars wasted by companies (and by consumers who buy their products) on Google ads.

shostack 7y ago
If an advertiser buys ads and attributes results to them, how is that a waste?