5 ms·

I buried this in the post, but of all the things Google's done this month the promotion of Google Search Plus Your World (aka Search+) is what concerns me the m

I buried this in the post, but of all the things Google's done this month the promotion of Google Search Plus Your World (aka Search+) is what concerns me the most. The other negative stories are less significant, I only mentioned them because they're part of the trend I'm feeling. I think it's interesting that anti-Google posts are reflexively upvoted. Ten years ago that would have been Microsoft.

fpgeek 15y ago
I'd say Search Plus Your World is a cause for concern, but not for the reasons most people think. I'd say SPYW isn't evil, it is an admission of failure. In particular, I think it is an admission that Google believes that without new kinds of input (i.e. social signals) it will not be able to stay ahead of SEO spam and the like over the long haul.
- landhar 15y ago
  > Google believes that without new kinds of input (i.e. social signals) it will not be able to stay ahead of SEO spam and the like over the long haul Assuming you're right, I am very curious as to what research led them to believe that social signals would be that much more beneficial for search results. My own experience with what's on my social dashboards (facebook, google+, and the like) is that it's at best useful for discovery (HN is really good at it and sometimes there are a few gems in the others) but most of the time it's noisy and mediocre content, and more to the point: it's an ecosystem that values popularity above everything else. I'm not trying to sound like a hipster here, and I understand that SEO is also about having your content show as popular in the search engine rankings. But except for communities like HN, most social streams are not regulated by any means. My main concern with SPYW is that I don't want to start having to curate my social graph in order to avoid getting articles from theOnion when I make a query about foreign politics.
pg 15y ago
I agree that's the most worrying sign. In the past Google won by making what people needed. But it seems clear that was not their primary motivation for SPYW. Their primary motivation was clearly fear of Facebook. That hasn't made Google evil yet. It's just the first step down the road to mediocrity. Which may lead to evil in the long term, because to make lots of money despite being mediocre, you generally have to do evil things. I don't think it's that interesting that anti-Google posts get reflexively upvoted though. The cause is one of the more common and least discriminating aspects of human nature: whenever any person or organization is successful, there are a lot of people who want to see them cut down to size.
- ry0ohki 15y ago
  I don't believe Google is intentionally being evil, but they are definitely behaving a lot like the company they coined the phrase because of. In the 90s Microsoft was using it's huge installed user base advantage to push it's less popular and new-to-the-game browser on a group of people, while also keeping out the competition with some unfair ways. This seems identical to how Google is using it's position as leader of search to push it's late to the game and less popular social network onto it's users, while keeping out the competition.
  - nostromo 15y ago
    Changing your search engine is easy. Changing your OS is not.
    - waqf 15y ago
      How about changing your webmail provider, your mobile OS and the cloud services integrated with it?
      - nostromo 15y ago
        http://www.dataliberation.org/ http://www.dataliberation.org/ I'm not saying Google is perfect, but they seem to take customer choice seriously. That's the exact opposite of Microsoft 10 years ago.
    - hrktb 15y ago
      That's where the android strategy Is paying
      - jrockway 15y ago
        That Verizon can change the default search engine to Bing? Let's see a Windows Phone phone ship with Google as the default search engine...
- joebadmo 15y ago
cooldeal 15y ago
>I think it's interesting that anti-Google posts are reflexively upvoted. Ten years ago that would have been Microsoft. Ten years ago? How about now? The hate for Microsoft around here is so bad that winsupersite.com (the premier inside and latest Microsoft related news site) is completely banned from even submitting to HN, probably because of excessive flagging by haters [1]. Google hate is nothing compared to that. [1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3408883 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3408883
- spazcat 15y ago
  Observe the cognitive dissonance of people accusing Google of Big Company Badness and then going on to recommend Bing in the same breath.
ZeroGravitas 15y ago
Regarding your last line: reading some of the anti-Google stories going around (e.g. anything John Gruber or MG Siegler produce) actually made me stop and think whether I needed to go back and re-evaluate Microsoft as I may have just been swept along by the Apple cult attacking its strongest perceived competitors.

fpgeek 15y ago

I'd say Search Plus Your World is a cause for concern, but not for the reasons most people think. I'd say SPYW isn't evil, it is an admission of failure. In particular, I think it is an admission that Google believes that without new kinds of input (i.e. social signals) it will not be able to stay ahead of SEO spam and the like over the long haul.

landhar 15y ago
> Google believes that without new kinds of input (i.e. social signals) it will not be able to stay ahead of SEO spam and the like over the long haul Assuming you're right, I am very curious as to what research led them to believe that social signals would be that much more beneficial for search results. My own experience with what's on my social dashboards (facebook, google+, and the like) is that it's at best useful for discovery (HN is really good at it and sometimes there are a few gems in the others) but most of the time it's noisy and mediocre content, and more to the point: it's an ecosystem that values popularity above everything else. I'm not trying to sound like a hipster here, and I understand that SEO is also about having your content show as popular in the search engine rankings. But except for communities like HN, most social streams are not regulated by any means. My main concern with SPYW is that I don't want to start having to curate my social graph in order to avoid getting articles from theOnion when I make a query about foreign politics.

pg 15y ago

I agree that's the most worrying sign. In the past Google won by making what people needed. But it seems clear that was not their primary motivation for SPYW. Their primary motivation was clearly fear of Facebook. That hasn't made Google evil yet. It's just the first step down the road to mediocrity. Which may lead to evil in the long term, because to make lots of money despite being mediocre, you generally have to do evil things. I don't think it's that interesting that anti-Google posts get reflexively upvoted though. The cause is one of the more common and least discriminating aspects of human nature: whenever any person or organization is successful, there are a lot of people who want to see them cut down to size.

ry0ohki 15y ago
I don't believe Google is intentionally being evil, but they are definitely behaving a lot like the company they coined the phrase because of. In the 90s Microsoft was using it's huge installed user base advantage to push it's less popular and new-to-the-game browser on a group of people, while also keeping out the competition with some unfair ways. This seems identical to how Google is using it's position as leader of search to push it's late to the game and less popular social network onto it's users, while keeping out the competition.
- nostromo 15y ago
  Changing your search engine is easy. Changing your OS is not.
  - waqf 15y ago
    How about changing your webmail provider, your mobile OS and the cloud services integrated with it?
    - nostromo 15y ago
      http://www.dataliberation.org/ http://www.dataliberation.org/ I'm not saying Google is perfect, but they seem to take customer choice seriously. That's the exact opposite of Microsoft 10 years ago.
  - hrktb 15y ago
    That's where the android strategy Is paying
    - jrockway 15y ago
      That Verizon can change the default search engine to Bing? Let's see a Windows Phone phone ship with Google as the default search engine...
joebadmo 15y ago

cooldeal 15y ago

>I think it's interesting that anti-Google posts are reflexively upvoted. Ten years ago that would have been Microsoft. Ten years ago? How about now? The hate for Microsoft around here is so bad that winsupersite.com (the premier inside and latest Microsoft related news site) is completely banned from even submitting to HN, probably because of excessive flagging by haters [1]. Google hate is nothing compared to that. [1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3408883 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3408883

spazcat 15y ago
Observe the cognitive dissonance of people accusing Google of Big Company Badness and then going on to recommend Bing in the same breath.

ZeroGravitas 15y ago

Regarding your last line: reading some of the anti-Google stories going around (e.g. anything John Gruber or MG Siegler produce) actually made me stop and think whether I needed to go back and re-evaluate Microsoft as I may have just been swept along by the Apple cult attacking its strongest perceived competitors.