3 ms·

Arguably the most valuable pieces of Google are the YouTube content and GMail addresses.

by qwerty456127 6y ago

jerrygoyal 6y ago
what about google search& Android?
- wegs 6y ago
  Search can get eaten almost overnight. No stickiness. I switched to DDG when Google annoyed me. With Android, we're already seeing forks in China. A bit more stickiness, but not great stickiness. Ads is still a big two-sided market.
  - qwerty456127 6y ago
    > Search can get eaten almost overnight. No stickiness. I switched to DDG when Google annoyed me. And I've switched Runnaroo.com which has been presented here just some weeks ago. It already feels much better than Google. In rare cases when it fails me I fallback to DuckDuckGo. If DuckDuckGo doesn't manage either - only then I go to Google. In the majority of cases Runnaroo results are the best.
    - chris_f 6y ago
      Awesome, and thank you! I'm the creator of Runnaroo. I've actually been surprised at how willing people have been to switch default search engines. Right now I believe it is mostly early adopters and tech focused people (like here on HN) using the service, so I'm not sure if the general population will be as willing to switch to a new search engine. I personally believe they will if the service gets good enough.
      - qwerty456127 6y ago
        Thank you for a great job! Keep doing it! By the way, organic economy already starts growing around Runaroo. E.g. I'm already spending thousands dollars (and I'm going to spend much more over time, and this takes place in Europe where normal salaries are not as high as in the US) on things and services I order from local non-IT companies whose web sites I've found with Runnaroo. I hope we can break the Google's monopoly and sort of divert some cash flow from bullshit SEO and spyware marketers to real people.
      - ykevinator 6y ago
        Nice job on this, I'm going to try runnaroo for a week. (frank feedback, it's a terrible domain name, hope you take this constructively)
      - wegs 6y ago
        The search results are qualitatively different from Google or DDG. The first one I tried, for a very specific term was a lot better. The second one, for a generic question, was a bit worse. That's helpful! Minor UX quirk: I need to hit <enter> twice to search. That's probably enough friction to lose a lot of people.
      - taylodl 6y ago
        I'd like to check out Runnaroo but our enterprise site blocker blocks it due to its having the web category 'Uncategorized URLs' - so I can't get to it where I need it most! Right now I use DDG so whatever they're doing is good with our site blocker.
smitty1e 6y ago
I use Google Drive and apps quite a bit.
- qwerty456127 6y ago
  Unlike existing YouTube content (which has immense cultural value) and existing GMail addresses (which many people use as their main identity) Google Drive as well as the apps are very much replaceable. I.e. I didn't mean the services, I meant the content - YouTube itself (let alone GMail) are easy to replace also. Most of the Google drive content probably is private and easy to migrate, also and either backed-up already or not-needed by the owners.

Arguably the most valuable pieces of Google are the YouTube content and GMail addresses.

jerrygoyal 6y ago

what about google search& Android?

wegs 6y ago
Search can get eaten almost overnight. No stickiness. I switched to DDG when Google annoyed me. With Android, we're already seeing forks in China. A bit more stickiness, but not great stickiness. Ads is still a big two-sided market.
- qwerty456127 6y ago
  > Search can get eaten almost overnight. No stickiness. I switched to DDG when Google annoyed me. And I've switched Runnaroo.com which has been presented here just some weeks ago. It already feels much better than Google. In rare cases when it fails me I fallback to DuckDuckGo. If DuckDuckGo doesn't manage either - only then I go to Google. In the majority of cases Runnaroo results are the best.
  - chris_f 6y ago
    Awesome, and thank you! I'm the creator of Runnaroo. I've actually been surprised at how willing people have been to switch default search engines. Right now I believe it is mostly early adopters and tech focused people (like here on HN) using the service, so I'm not sure if the general population will be as willing to switch to a new search engine. I personally believe they will if the service gets good enough.
    - qwerty456127 6y ago
      Thank you for a great job! Keep doing it! By the way, organic economy already starts growing around Runaroo. E.g. I'm already spending thousands dollars (and I'm going to spend much more over time, and this takes place in Europe where normal salaries are not as high as in the US) on things and services I order from local non-IT companies whose web sites I've found with Runnaroo. I hope we can break the Google's monopoly and sort of divert some cash flow from bullshit SEO and spyware marketers to real people.
    - ykevinator 6y ago
      Nice job on this, I'm going to try runnaroo for a week. (frank feedback, it's a terrible domain name, hope you take this constructively)
    - wegs 6y ago
      The search results are qualitatively different from Google or DDG. The first one I tried, for a very specific term was a lot better. The second one, for a generic question, was a bit worse. That's helpful! Minor UX quirk: I need to hit <enter> twice to search. That's probably enough friction to lose a lot of people.
    - taylodl 6y ago
      I'd like to check out Runnaroo but our enterprise site blocker blocks it due to its having the web category 'Uncategorized URLs' - so I can't get to it where I need it most! Right now I use DDG so whatever they're doing is good with our site blocker.

smitty1e 6y ago

I use Google Drive and apps quite a bit.

qwerty456127 6y ago
Unlike existing YouTube content (which has immense cultural value) and existing GMail addresses (which many people use as their main identity) Google Drive as well as the apps are very much replaceable. I.e. I didn't mean the services, I meant the content - YouTube itself (let alone GMail) are easy to replace also. Most of the Google drive content probably is private and easy to migrate, also and either backed-up already or not-needed by the owners.