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Google was good because they used to optimise to giving the best search results, that was their aim. Now their aim is best profit, it seems, and their results a

• floatingatoll 7y ago
  An interview with the founders of Google from 1999 offers a more nuanced view on this. https://www.kalemm.com/words/googles-first-steps/ https://www.kalemm.com/words/googles-first-steps/ Google's aim was to replace other sources of information with Google: > People make decisions based on information they find on the Web. So companies that are in-between people and their information are in a very powerful position Profit was on their minds from the very beginning: > There are a lot of benefits for us, aside from potential financial success. Revenue, however, was not urgent back then, to them or to their VCs: > Right now, we’re thinking about generating some revenue. We have a number of ways to doing that. One thing is we can put up some advertising. So over the past two decades, they executed a two-pronged approach: Become indispensable and Become profitable. But now they're trying to pivot from "at web search" to "at assisting human beings", and that's a much more difficult problem when their approach to "Become profitable" was to use algorithms rather than human beings. Here's a useful litmus test for whether Google has succeeded at that pivot: If you were in a foreign city and you suddenly wanted to propose marriage to your partner, would you trust Google Assistant to help you find a ring, make a dinner reservation, and ensure that the staff support the mood you want (Quiet or Loud, Private or Public)? If so, then Google's pivot has been successful.