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It's been clear for a little while that Google no longer cares about giving the best experience with a lot of their tools and is just focused on maximizing reve

It's been clear for a little while that Google no longer cares about giving the best experience with a lot of their tools and is just focused on maximizing revenue. More and more, Google is the modern equivalent of Microsoft in the early 00s, still good enough that most people use it, but each successive "version" piles on more frustrations than benefits. It's so ironic that Google has become that which they most despised when they started. The dominance of Google and Facebook is turning the web into a toxic waste.

amatecha 7y ago
I watched this clip of Steve Jobs[0] recently, where was speaking about promoting/empowering Product vs Marketing people. Some of his comments seem especially applicable: "[...] the companies forget what it means to make great products. The product sensibility and the product genius that brought them to that monopolistic position gets rotted out, by people running these companies who have no conception of a good product vs a bad product." ... "They really have no feeling in their hearts, usually, about wanting to really to help the customers." [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AxZofbMGpM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AxZofbMGpM
- brazzledazzle 7y ago
  This rings true in my experience. In fact I'd say that some companies that survive this trend tend to repeat it in cyclical manner. Good products, customer oriented then profit motivated short sighted decision making. Rinse and repeat.
- sytelus 7y ago
  Ironically, Jobs installed Tim Cook as Apple CEO and have publicly said that he is "not a product person".
  - amatecha 7y ago
    Oh, interesting.. did he say how he perceives Tim, or what role he sees him filling?
umvi 7y ago
Your fate is sealed the moment you go public. No public company can withstand the shareholder pressure forever
- bemmu 7y ago
  What would happen if they threw their hands up, declared that OK this is as much revenue we can squeeze out, and instead just coasted at current levels?
  - allovernow 7y ago
    The board would fire all of the execs and hire a bunch yes men who promise continued growth.
    - caleb-allen 7y ago
      Do the founders still retain majority votes?
- sytelus 7y ago
  It's not the fate. Google has more cash in the bank than any other company in the world (in tune of $130 billion). They could choose to use this cash to invest in creating new business, new products and the market would reward them handsomely. This is how Amazon's stock had meteoric rise despite of poor margins and a series of failures. Amazon has spent out a massive amount of cash in trying to build one business after another, everything from Fire phone to Alexa to kids tablet to Prime Video to grocery delivery to the pharmacy and so on. Many of these has failed and Bezos have pushed on with eyes on long horizon. People don't realize but Amazon is not its web site or AWS but a product factory, a sort of meta product. This keeps the market hopeful that they would have another big hit and the stock keeps going up on speculation. The majority of CFOs/CEOs of big tech haven't understood this and they keep twisting arm of existing cows to squeeze out more milk while a mountain of cash waiting to be utilized. It's also not that there is a dearth of new opportunity. Every sector from health to education to transportation to energy to finance is waiting for the next revolution. Its only gutsy leaders like Elon Musk who come in out of nowhere and start out things like Boring company or Tesla or Solar City. The market rewards them for taking a risk and being visionary (Tesla market cap is now more than GM and Ford combined despite selling 98% less vehicles!). So, the market is working fine and in fact doing exactly what it should do. So don't blame fate. Don't blame market. Don't blame wall street. Don't confuse a lack of visionary CEOs or their willingness to take a risk with fate or dysfunctional market.

amatecha 7y ago

I watched this clip of Steve Jobs[0] recently, where was speaking about promoting/empowering Product vs Marketing people. Some of his comments seem especially applicable: "[...] the companies forget what it means to make great products. The product sensibility and the product genius that brought them to that monopolistic position gets rotted out, by people running these companies who have no conception of a good product vs a bad product." ... "They really have no feeling in their hearts, usually, about wanting to really to help the customers." [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AxZofbMGpM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AxZofbMGpM

brazzledazzle 7y ago
This rings true in my experience. In fact I'd say that some companies that survive this trend tend to repeat it in cyclical manner. Good products, customer oriented then profit motivated short sighted decision making. Rinse and repeat.
sytelus 7y ago
Ironically, Jobs installed Tim Cook as Apple CEO and have publicly said that he is "not a product person".
- amatecha 7y ago
  Oh, interesting.. did he say how he perceives Tim, or what role he sees him filling?

umvi 7y ago

Your fate is sealed the moment you go public. No public company can withstand the shareholder pressure forever

bemmu 7y ago
What would happen if they threw their hands up, declared that OK this is as much revenue we can squeeze out, and instead just coasted at current levels?
- allovernow 7y ago
  The board would fire all of the execs and hire a bunch yes men who promise continued growth.
  - caleb-allen 7y ago
    Do the founders still retain majority votes?
sytelus 7y ago
It's not the fate. Google has more cash in the bank than any other company in the world (in tune of $130 billion). They could choose to use this cash to invest in creating new business, new products and the market would reward them handsomely. This is how Amazon's stock had meteoric rise despite of poor margins and a series of failures. Amazon has spent out a massive amount of cash in trying to build one business after another, everything from Fire phone to Alexa to kids tablet to Prime Video to grocery delivery to the pharmacy and so on. Many of these has failed and Bezos have pushed on with eyes on long horizon. People don't realize but Amazon is not its web site or AWS but a product factory, a sort of meta product. This keeps the market hopeful that they would have another big hit and the stock keeps going up on speculation. The majority of CFOs/CEOs of big tech haven't understood this and they keep twisting arm of existing cows to squeeze out more milk while a mountain of cash waiting to be utilized. It's also not that there is a dearth of new opportunity. Every sector from health to education to transportation to energy to finance is waiting for the next revolution. Its only gutsy leaders like Elon Musk who come in out of nowhere and start out things like Boring company or Tesla or Solar City. The market rewards them for taking a risk and being visionary (Tesla market cap is now more than GM and Ford combined despite selling 98% less vehicles!). So, the market is working fine and in fact doing exactly what it should do. So don't blame fate. Don't blame market. Don't blame wall street. Don't confuse a lack of visionary CEOs or their willingness to take a risk with fate or dysfunctional market.