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Google used to be the benefactor of the old internet and open source. Then, as soon as we got hooked on those free services, Gizmo turns into a Gremlin that sma
by jart 5y ago
Google used to be the benefactor of the old internet and open source. Then, as soon as we got hooked on those free services, Gizmo turns into a Gremlin that smashes all our old toys so there can be no turning back.
- masklinn 5y ago> Google used to be the benefactor of the old internet and open source. Was it? I can remember when it was a good search engine which let me find these, but I don’t think I ever thought “thank god google took this service over”, even back when they were building free services worth using 15 years ago.
- rusk 5y ago> 15 years ago. Keep going ...
- amelius 5y agoGoogle's mission statement is to “organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Its vision statement is to “provide an important service to the world-instantly delivering relevant information on virtually any topic.”
- mannykannot 5y agoThis mission statement is just an example of what it actually does, which is advertising.
- james-skemp 5y agoEmail? Gmail's constantly increasing (at the time) mailbox size was a game changer back when it first came out. I at least still recall who sent me an invite to get access to the service, back when one was required.
- CRConrad 5y agoSo do I: A still active poster here on HN. (I think he was a Google employee at the time, which was why he had invites to dole out.) Around... 2004? Thereabouts.
- capableweb 5y agoWell, I guess it's up for interpretation, but for me "old internet" was when people ran their own email servers and their own domains. With that perspective, Gmail basically ruined being able to run your own email service as it's hard to get through the spam filter. Maybe it's better now but it used to be hard. And not sure what Gmail contributed to open source, I can think of 0 projects/libraries/protocols/specifications that comes from Gmail and is used elsewhere widely. I guess that you can export to mbox via Google Takeout is something, but has very little to do with open source.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- techrat 5y ago> but for me "old internet" was when people ran their own email servers and their own domains. For me 'old internet' was shitty ISP provided mailboxes that you lost once you moved away from your local dialup service. GMail is still a substantial improvement over that.
- rchaud 5y agoFor me, 'old internet' is when individuals hand-crafted sites on the internet for their hobbies and interests, and searching Google actually surfaced those sites. Now, no one makes a website except to try to make money somehow.
- masklinn 5y ago> Email? Gmail's constantly increasing (at the time) mailbox size was a game changer back when it first came out. Google created a new email service, they did not take over existing email infrastructure. At least initially anyway, these days it's become quite hard to run your own email and have your messages be received.
- npteljes 5y agoYeah the stuff was great when it existed _in addition_ to the existing stuff, not when it replaced them.
- MisterTea 5y agoWe all knew it would happen but free was too convenient. No such thing as a free lunch and all that.