4 ms·

I would not consider GMaps as an "essential" service. One, I can find my way around my city well. Two, I can find my way around my country well too, even with o

I would not consider GMaps as an "essential" service. One, I can find my way around my city well. Two, I can find my way around my country well too, even with offline maps. Also, you seem to forget that there are other mapping companies out there. Google Maps itself came into picture after crushing Satnav systems like Garmin, and Nokia Maps. If Google Maps were to be dead today, again, it is inconvenience, but people would move on. As to stepping into the most biggest services? What are they? Google search? I am sure venture capital would flow into other companies that are technically capable to provide internet search. You have Bing, DDG, etc. Sure, they are crap, but they are not end of the world. And they will improve. Google Mail? I can live without it. I can choose other providers. There are hundreds out there. Heck, I will setup my own mail server. People do rely on many Google services, but people can also get by without any of that. In an event of Google failing right now, it would sure be a macro-economically significant event, but for a very tiny section of the population. And they too would move on. Until it fails, people will talk and talk and talk about big, size, impact, and other nonsense. Just see when it fails. It's going to be a collective shrug from 99% of the population.

Goladus 6y ago
> You have Bing, DDG, etc. Sure, they are crap, but they are not end of the world. They aren't, though. Google's search is no longer the undisputed best by any fair and comprehensive assessment. Here's a recent search I actually made: https://i.imgur.com/9A4ORwo.png https://i.imgur.com/9A4ORwo.png Google's page might be better-looking and have more sophisticated features than DuckDuckGo, but in terms of the quality of the service I am trying to use? Google is unquestionably inferior to DDG. Fun fact, on my android device, Google has ZERO results visible at first. I have to scroll past an ad to get to the results. (Often, there are multiple ads that must be scrolled past to get to the content). Maybe only dinosaurs like me actually use web search to search for web pages rather than to have a guided AI-driven experience, but that's the product I'm looking for. DDG delivers that, Google does not. This is all outside the greater issue of the web in general and searched-web especially becoming massively clogged with low-quality, overly ad-laden content. If anyone remembers the state of the web when Google first came onto the scene, the problems were similar. Most advertising was obnoxious, intrusive, and costly in an era when bandwidth was scarce. Google came on the scene offering (a) the best search product and (b) discreet, polite, often relevant ads that didn't trigger all sane people to install ad-blockers. The difference is that in 2000, the internet ad market was tiny compared to today. The audiences were different, also.

Goladus 6y ago

> You have Bing, DDG, etc. Sure, they are crap, but they are not end of the world. They aren't, though. Google's search is no longer the undisputed best by any fair and comprehensive assessment. Here's a recent search I actually made: https://i.imgur.com/9A4ORwo.png https://i.imgur.com/9A4ORwo.png Google's page might be better-looking and have more sophisticated features than DuckDuckGo, but in terms of the quality of the service I am trying to use? Google is unquestionably inferior to DDG. Fun fact, on my android device, Google has ZERO results visible at first. I have to scroll past an ad to get to the results. (Often, there are multiple ads that must be scrolled past to get to the content). Maybe only dinosaurs like me actually use web search to search for web pages rather than to have a guided AI-driven experience, but that's the product I'm looking for. DDG delivers that, Google does not. This is all outside the greater issue of the web in general and searched-web especially becoming massively clogged with low-quality, overly ad-laden content. If anyone remembers the state of the web when Google first came onto the scene, the problems were similar. Most advertising was obnoxious, intrusive, and costly in an era when bandwidth was scarce. Google came on the scene offering (a) the best search product and (b) discreet, polite, often relevant ads that didn't trigger all sane people to install ad-blockers. The difference is that in 2000, the internet ad market was tiny compared to today. The audiences were different, also.