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How on earth does google manage to still be one of the most valuable (in $$$) companies in the world with this kind of behavior. I just can't imagine treating m

How on earth does google manage to still be one of the most valuable (in $$$) companies in the world with this kind of behavior. I just can't imagine treating my customers half as bad as the way google does and still continue to be in business. Abruptly dropping support for products[1], violating their user's privacy [2] , working with organizations accused of human rights violations. Each passing year it seems google is trying to unlock all the badges under the "be as evil as possible" campaign mode. Funny bit is how you can replace the words "ads" and "android app" in the title with any two other names of google products and this same situation would still apply. [1]https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://killedbygoogle.com/ [2]https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/google-sued-u-s-tracking-users-private-internet-browsing-n1222676 https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/google-sued-u-s-tracki...

iagovar 5y ago
Because of scale, and because they own almost the entire ad space. But yeah, IMO the reputational damage in the prosumer POV is already reaching a tipping point. It's too early for them to notice anything but it looks that it has enough momentum. Google was cool, but we shouldn't cling to it too much because of nostalgia. For me, it was most of my internet life with it. But now Google represents values and has behaviors that don't really go with me.
nextlevelwizard 5y ago
Are you serious with your question or is this hyperbole? When you hear about something like this you are seeing the one in a million false positive or more likely there was some fuckery going on. Obviously there is no upside for the banned devs to admit that they tried to abuse click rate on their ads, so unless Google comes forward admitting they made a mistake we will never know whose on right here. This still leaves millions of happy consumers using Google's products without any issue and ban of some Android IDE is hardly going to be moving any needle anywhere.
- antihipocrat 5y ago
  That argument could be, and has been, used to justify some terrible actions by governments and corporations. While we may never know the full story in this specific case. What we do know for certain is that Google has a history of pulling the pin on services and products used by customers. Google's lack of customer support is also a well known feature of the company. These two facts suggest that the situation described in the article is likely to happen, and may actually happen fairly often.
  - nextlevelwizard 5y ago
    Are you actually a customer? Are you paying for the services?
    - ImPostingOnHN 5y ago
      That question, and it's answer, have no bearing on the post it is replying to.
- ImPostingOnHN 5y ago
  The defendant (Google) was asked to defend their actions, on multiple occasions, and could not. That amounts to a default judgement against then in our eyes, is all. It'd be pretty silly to withhold judgement until the defendant admits to wrongdoing, which would explain why few other people in this thread are doing that.
josefx 5y ago
Abuse of its market position, violating anti trust laws left and right. It is sad how even the "open" handset alliance it created to manage android is just a thin wrapper around licensing agreements that have been found inherently anti competitive and illegal all over the world. There is an army of lawyers waiting to jump any of the large Android manufacturers if they tried to move away from Google services for even a single Android based device.
iczero 5y ago
Remember "don't be evil"? I bet Google doesn't.
- bogwog 5y ago
  Relevant: https://time.com/4060575/alphabet-google-dont-be-evil/ https://time.com/4060575/alphabet-google-dont-be-evil/
emmelaich 5y ago
Well, their ads service is probably legit as in not corrupted by click-fraud. It's not as if there's no upside. They're not idiots.
- orhmeh09 5y ago
  How can you be sure about the click fraud issue? Their hands aren’t exactly clean, having paid $90 million in a settlement for click fraud in 2006. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/google-settles-fraud-case-for-90m/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/google-settles-fraud-case-for-9...
sidcool 5y ago
I think it's because a single account for all. Email, drive, docs, calendar, photos, YT, Android etc. Having said that, it does not justify their unruly behavior.

iagovar 5y ago

Because of scale, and because they own almost the entire ad space. But yeah, IMO the reputational damage in the prosumer POV is already reaching a tipping point. It's too early for them to notice anything but it looks that it has enough momentum. Google was cool, but we shouldn't cling to it too much because of nostalgia. For me, it was most of my internet life with it. But now Google represents values and has behaviors that don't really go with me.

nextlevelwizard 5y ago

Are you serious with your question or is this hyperbole? When you hear about something like this you are seeing the one in a million false positive or more likely there was some fuckery going on. Obviously there is no upside for the banned devs to admit that they tried to abuse click rate on their ads, so unless Google comes forward admitting they made a mistake we will never know whose on right here. This still leaves millions of happy consumers using Google's products without any issue and ban of some Android IDE is hardly going to be moving any needle anywhere.

antihipocrat 5y ago
That argument could be, and has been, used to justify some terrible actions by governments and corporations. While we may never know the full story in this specific case. What we do know for certain is that Google has a history of pulling the pin on services and products used by customers. Google's lack of customer support is also a well known feature of the company. These two facts suggest that the situation described in the article is likely to happen, and may actually happen fairly often.
- nextlevelwizard 5y ago
  Are you actually a customer? Are you paying for the services?
  - ImPostingOnHN 5y ago
    That question, and it's answer, have no bearing on the post it is replying to.
ImPostingOnHN 5y ago
The defendant (Google) was asked to defend their actions, on multiple occasions, and could not. That amounts to a default judgement against then in our eyes, is all. It'd be pretty silly to withhold judgement until the defendant admits to wrongdoing, which would explain why few other people in this thread are doing that.

josefx 5y ago

Abuse of its market position, violating anti trust laws left and right. It is sad how even the "open" handset alliance it created to manage android is just a thin wrapper around licensing agreements that have been found inherently anti competitive and illegal all over the world. There is an army of lawyers waiting to jump any of the large Android manufacturers if they tried to move away from Google services for even a single Android based device.

iczero 5y ago

Remember "don't be evil"? I bet Google doesn't.

bogwog 5y ago
Relevant: https://time.com/4060575/alphabet-google-dont-be-evil/ https://time.com/4060575/alphabet-google-dont-be-evil/

emmelaich 5y ago

Well, their ads service is probably legit as in not corrupted by click-fraud. It's not as if there's no upside. They're not idiots.

orhmeh09 5y ago
How can you be sure about the click fraud issue? Their hands aren’t exactly clean, having paid $90 million in a settlement for click fraud in 2006. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/google-settles-fraud-case-for-90m/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/google-settles-fraud-case-for-9...

sidcool 5y ago

I think it's because a single account for all. Email, drive, docs, calendar, photos, YT, Android etc. Having said that, it does not justify their unruly behavior.