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Google's main liability is that they can never, under any circumstances, prioritize user privacy. The reason the products listed by the author have rough corne

by aazaa 6y ago

Google's main liability is that they can never, under any circumstances, prioritize user privacy. The reason the products listed by the author have rough corners is that those products don't contribute much to the bottom line. Google is an advertising company that happens to use technology. The problem is that too many people view it as a technology company that happens to be into advertising. As browsers adopt ad-blockers by default, Chrome will be the lone holdout. As smaller companies and startups realize that you can "monetize" products by charging a price and adopting stringent privacy policies, Google will be stuck with its "free" business model. Nothing Google will try to do in the years ahead will change the basic equation.

bogwog 6y ago
> Nothing Google will try to do in the years ahead will change the basic equation. If Google splits up their various products into separate companies forced to survive on their own without Google's monopoly money to fall back on, we might actually see some quality products and services out of Google for the first time in a long, long time. Of course, the leadership will have to pull their heads out of their gilded asses for something like that to ever happen.
buttersbrian 6y ago
The internet runs on ads and unless every site becomes membership driven ads are a natural revenue stream. And I personally don't see memberships becoming a preferred method of subsidizing much of the internet for most people. So ads it is, and ads it will likely be. With that said, Google doesn't have to a bad actor to survive with regards to advertisements, as it is relatively safe revenue stream for the foreseeable future.
zaphar 6y ago
Google has the best software development tooling in the business internally. Their problems are not around technology. Their problems are product focus, commitment and follow through. Google is in fact primarily a technology company. They struggle with being a "product" company.

by aazaa 6y ago

bogwog 6y ago

> Nothing Google will try to do in the years ahead will change the basic equation. If Google splits up their various products into separate companies forced to survive on their own without Google's monopoly money to fall back on, we might actually see some quality products and services out of Google for the first time in a long, long time. Of course, the leadership will have to pull their heads out of their gilded asses for something like that to ever happen.

buttersbrian 6y ago

The internet runs on ads and unless every site becomes membership driven ads are a natural revenue stream. And I personally don't see memberships becoming a preferred method of subsidizing much of the internet for most people. So ads it is, and ads it will likely be. With that said, Google doesn't have to a bad actor to survive with regards to advertisements, as it is relatively safe revenue stream for the foreseeable future.

zaphar 6y ago

Google has the best software development tooling in the business internally. Their problems are not around technology. Their problems are product focus, commitment and follow through. Google is in fact primarily a technology company. They struggle with being a "product" company.