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Google is not a social media platform, and they aren't even trying to be one anymore now that G+ has been scrapped. Sure, they could be displaced by a better s

Google is not a social media platform, and they aren't even trying to be one anymore now that G+ has been scrapped. Sure, they could be displaced by a better search engine, but that's a whole different kettle of fish.

megous 6y ago
My guess is that this is super unlikely in the age where Google pays billions to be a default, or where people don't even know what URL is, and browsers are set up to automatically search anything you (mis)type into the address bar. Most people probably don't even have a conception of what search engine is, and that it's not just a part of the browser or their phone, but it's an independent service.
hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
> Sure, they could be displaced by a better search engine, but that's a whole different kettle of fish. I don't see how that's remotely possible. The capital costs are just too high. Currently there is only one other formidable English language search engine (Bing - all the other search sites like DuckDuckGo use Bing), and it's been a distant also-ran for over a decade now. If anyone has any plausible scenario where Google looses their search supremacy, would love to hear it.
- richk449 6y ago
  It is hard to imagine how google loses raw search superiority, but the more likely scenario is that they lose their dominance somehow: (1) social networks provide better basis on which to give answers/results to users, so FB “replaces” google. (2) advances in deep learning make googles secret sauce not so critical, and lots of competitors provide good enough search results (and VC funding makes the build out of the massive data enters possible (I.e. the u er/Lyft scenario) Side question: is google’s dominance really built on search these days? If they shut down the search engine, would it have a significant effect on their bottom line?
  - hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
    > Side question: is google’s dominance really built on search these days? If they shut down the search engine, would it have a significant effect on their bottom line? Is that a serious question?
- dmode 6y ago
  One scenario I can think of is where search becomes less and less important for the web. Through years of consolidation you may appear in a landscape where there are well known monopolies on every front, and consumers don’t need to discover the internet anymore. You would go to amazon for e-commerce, FB for social media, Uber for transport, Wikipedia for knowledge, etc etc. That world kind of exist today, but I am assuming there will be a future world where the internet will be lot more consolidated

megous 6y ago

My guess is that this is super unlikely in the age where Google pays billions to be a default, or where people don't even know what URL is, and browsers are set up to automatically search anything you (mis)type into the address bar. Most people probably don't even have a conception of what search engine is, and that it's not just a part of the browser or their phone, but it's an independent service.

hn_throwaway_99 6y ago

> Sure, they could be displaced by a better search engine, but that's a whole different kettle of fish. I don't see how that's remotely possible. The capital costs are just too high. Currently there is only one other formidable English language search engine (Bing - all the other search sites like DuckDuckGo use Bing), and it's been a distant also-ran for over a decade now. If anyone has any plausible scenario where Google looses their search supremacy, would love to hear it.

richk449 6y ago
It is hard to imagine how google loses raw search superiority, but the more likely scenario is that they lose their dominance somehow: (1) social networks provide better basis on which to give answers/results to users, so FB “replaces” google. (2) advances in deep learning make googles secret sauce not so critical, and lots of competitors provide good enough search results (and VC funding makes the build out of the massive data enters possible (I.e. the u er/Lyft scenario) Side question: is google’s dominance really built on search these days? If they shut down the search engine, would it have a significant effect on their bottom line?
- hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
  > Side question: is google’s dominance really built on search these days? If they shut down the search engine, would it have a significant effect on their bottom line? Is that a serious question?
dmode 6y ago
One scenario I can think of is where search becomes less and less important for the web. Through years of consolidation you may appear in a landscape where there are well known monopolies on every front, and consumers don’t need to discover the internet anymore. You would go to amazon for e-commerce, FB for social media, Uber for transport, Wikipedia for knowledge, etc etc. That world kind of exist today, but I am assuming there will be a future world where the internet will be lot more consolidated