4 ms·

I have been hearing that for a decade. I remember the time when installing anything would change your browser's search engine. Those companies are still alive a

I have been hearing that for a decade. I remember the time when installing anything would change your browser's search engine. Those companies are still alive and going. What eventually hurt their market space wasn't some trendy hippie customer oriented startup but other "lesser evil" big companies with bigger pockets.

close04 7y ago
I think people are slowly getting used to all the tricks the major tech companies use and they are going to see this as more and more acceptable and even perfectly normal. And those companies know this. I'm sure they pay very qualified people to tell them how far and how fast they can take it to get what they want without truly alienating the people. The stuff that many people find perfectly acceptable today would have been absolutely outrageous 10-15 years ago.
rkagerer 7y ago
There's nothing hippie about capitalizing on the opportunity created when a market leader alienates its customers by letting its products rot with pain points. In some ways Google is just as sinister as Microsoft ever was. It's not any sort of intentional master plan, it's simply what happens when you lose sight of the user. Some of the crap being pulled by today's incumbents... They might as well put a little imp in the box that beats you with a whip to drive the behavior they want from you. All of them began as tiny startups with a couple of smart people and disruptive tech... take a long enough view and I'm still optimistic the cycle will continue.
- lioeters 7y ago
  Yes! I believe "the people", in this case the users who are getting abused/exploited/disrespected, need to be more attentive and vocal about borderline illegal behavior of corporations, tech companies included. It's shame how Facebook, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, et al have behaved in recent years, patronizing and manipulating users on a mass scale with a brazenness and near impunity. (OK, Microsoft deserves some love with VS Code, TypeScript, and other open source goodness, but..) I'm with your optimistic comment that the pendulum is swinging back. These companies have lost sight of users, what "customer care" means, and they're leaving an increasing gap in the market for more humane service and technology.

close04 7y ago

I think people are slowly getting used to all the tricks the major tech companies use and they are going to see this as more and more acceptable and even perfectly normal. And those companies know this. I'm sure they pay very qualified people to tell them how far and how fast they can take it to get what they want without truly alienating the people. The stuff that many people find perfectly acceptable today would have been absolutely outrageous 10-15 years ago.

rkagerer 7y ago

There's nothing hippie about capitalizing on the opportunity created when a market leader alienates its customers by letting its products rot with pain points. In some ways Google is just as sinister as Microsoft ever was. It's not any sort of intentional master plan, it's simply what happens when you lose sight of the user. Some of the crap being pulled by today's incumbents... They might as well put a little imp in the box that beats you with a whip to drive the behavior they want from you. All of them began as tiny startups with a couple of smart people and disruptive tech... take a long enough view and I'm still optimistic the cycle will continue.

lioeters 7y ago
Yes! I believe "the people", in this case the users who are getting abused/exploited/disrespected, need to be more attentive and vocal about borderline illegal behavior of corporations, tech companies included. It's shame how Facebook, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, et al have behaved in recent years, patronizing and manipulating users on a mass scale with a brazenness and near impunity. (OK, Microsoft deserves some love with VS Code, TypeScript, and other open source goodness, but..) I'm with your optimistic comment that the pendulum is swinging back. These companies have lost sight of users, what "customer care" means, and they're leaving an increasing gap in the market for more humane service and technology.