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For me, Google Search was always nothing more than a 'hook' device that feeds into their AD business. Is it useful? Yes. Has it gained enormous traction and eve

For me, Google Search was always nothing more than a 'hook' device that feeds into their AD business. Is it useful? Yes. Has it gained enormous traction and even sneaked into the Oxford dictionary?[0] Yes. But it's clear the main ulterior motive was to feed into their ADs business. And the main search engine is not the only data-point. Google is so entangled with the web that they have countless other data-points to gather data. They're even in your web-font libraries and monitoring you with Google Analytics, not to mention YouTube, and all the other endpoints they can use to feed their ADs business. They're a parasite of the web. [0] https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/google https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/englis...

SoftTalker 4y ago
It's an interesting case study in how much power financial incentives have. Google didn't start as an ad platform, at least not that I ever heard. It started as a legimate attempt at building better search. Do you remember how bad web search was before Google? However once it had some success and advertising revenue started coming in, that changed the entire focus and culture of the company. Now everything is about ads. Search is just a means to serve ads. Google phones and Android? Ads. Chrome browser? Ads. Gmail? Ads.
- spfzero 4y ago
  To me, when it arrived Google was attractive because it had a simple, clean home page. Big search field, the work "Google" and not much else. At the time the other search engines plastered the home page with ads. Also at the time, I didn't perceive Google's search as vastly superior, though it may have been. The clean interface and lack of home page clutter was good enough to win me over. It's interesting that for all of these years they have kept the home page relatively clear (Or so I imagine, been DDG exclusively for about 8 years now).
  - mrkramer 4y ago
    Others were Web Portals that had search, Google was only search engine but ironically enough as they grew larger and more ambitious they became Web Portal(the concept that they once feared). But I admit Google's UI is still nice and clean.
  - bitwize 4y ago
    Back in 1998, Google was indeed the upstart: a limited index compared to the giant of the time, AltaVista. But they ran Linux. That was Slashdot-worthy!
- blaser-waffle 4y ago
  > It's an interesting case study in how much power financial incentives have. Publicly traded companies gonna behave like a publicly traded company -- badly. Gotta keep that share price up up up, and woe be to the executive that does not.
permo-w 4y ago
I think “always” is a bit extreme. google was created to be a useful search engine. adwords came later
- GeekyBear 4y ago
  Even after ads appeared, there was a period in which the ads you saw were based on the search keywords you typed in and not on relentless spying on every facet of your life.
  - permo-w 4y ago
    yeah I remember watching a fairly congratulatory documentary on British TV about how they did it. they put a lot of thought into making sure it wasn’t intrusive or inappropriate. that was obviously back in the Don’t be Evil days. it’s all gone to shit now
Melatonic 4y ago
I think it can be both. Mainly it is just getting attention now because the advertisement part has started to become more obvious given that the search engine part is less useful. Google also captures a ton of credit card swipe transactions which is crazy to me - that does not involve the web at all!

SoftTalker 4y ago

It's an interesting case study in how much power financial incentives have. Google didn't start as an ad platform, at least not that I ever heard. It started as a legimate attempt at building better search. Do you remember how bad web search was before Google? However once it had some success and advertising revenue started coming in, that changed the entire focus and culture of the company. Now everything is about ads. Search is just a means to serve ads. Google phones and Android? Ads. Chrome browser? Ads. Gmail? Ads.

spfzero 4y ago
To me, when it arrived Google was attractive because it had a simple, clean home page. Big search field, the work "Google" and not much else. At the time the other search engines plastered the home page with ads. Also at the time, I didn't perceive Google's search as vastly superior, though it may have been. The clean interface and lack of home page clutter was good enough to win me over. It's interesting that for all of these years they have kept the home page relatively clear (Or so I imagine, been DDG exclusively for about 8 years now).
- mrkramer 4y ago
  Others were Web Portals that had search, Google was only search engine but ironically enough as they grew larger and more ambitious they became Web Portal(the concept that they once feared). But I admit Google's UI is still nice and clean.
- bitwize 4y ago
  Back in 1998, Google was indeed the upstart: a limited index compared to the giant of the time, AltaVista. But they ran Linux. That was Slashdot-worthy!
blaser-waffle 4y ago
> It's an interesting case study in how much power financial incentives have. Publicly traded companies gonna behave like a publicly traded company -- badly. Gotta keep that share price up up up, and woe be to the executive that does not.

permo-w 4y ago

I think “always” is a bit extreme. google was created to be a useful search engine. adwords came later

GeekyBear 4y ago
Even after ads appeared, there was a period in which the ads you saw were based on the search keywords you typed in and not on relentless spying on every facet of your life.
- permo-w 4y ago
  yeah I remember watching a fairly congratulatory documentary on British TV about how they did it. they put a lot of thought into making sure it wasn’t intrusive or inappropriate. that was obviously back in the Don’t be Evil days. it’s all gone to shit now

Melatonic 4y ago

I think it can be both. Mainly it is just getting attention now because the advertisement part has started to become more obvious given that the search engine part is less useful. Google also captures a ton of credit card swipe transactions which is crazy to me - that does not involve the web at all!