2 ms·

Yeah it seems like enshitification during the long tail is the point of the VC model across all industries. Give product away for free, figure out how to screw

Yeah it seems like enshitification during the long tail is the point of the VC model across all industries. Give product away for free, figure out how to screw the install base later on. Can't blame the VCs for trying this model, but they've played society for suckers. We let them get away with this for too long, becoming dependent on their "free" offerings. At this point I'd be willing to get rid of my free stuff altogether and pay a subscription for products I like/use as it would incentivize the companies to add features that benefit me. For example, search on the web is dying. I would absolutely pay money to replace Google with a search engine I trust and that works for me.

delusional 3y ago
Try kagi.com. I'm a very happy customer myself.
- phmqk76 3y ago
  Maybe I’m an outlier, but I blow right past their limits on any reasonably-priced tier. I use my search bar for all sorts of inquiries, serious and frivolous, including basic addition and subtraction. I tried it for a month and found that my usage far exceeded what I was willing to pay, which was about $10 a month. If they can get the costs down, I’d happily subscribe, I think the results were very good. Google’s results have become terrible over the years, it’s hard to fathom how it’s still their cash cow when the product is practically unusable.
  - lordfrito 3y ago
    Search is dying. The quality of search I mean, which doesn't bode well as civilization pretty much runs based on our ability to search the web for commercial/ government / political work. It's a problem. Whoever control search will control what we see hear and read. Dangerous times. Hoping that somebody can build a subscription search that works and returns real competitive-ness to the information marketplace
aleph_minus_one 3y ago
> Yeah it seems like enshitification during the long tail is the point of the VC model across all industries. Give product away for free, figure out how to screw the install base later on. It needs two sides for this to work: 1. a company attempting to "fish" customers with this approach 2. customers who fall for this trap, and did not create an emergency/backup plan when the respective company becomes "evil"/untenable. Every company sooner or later becomes "evil" (and be it because of ownership changes because the original founders die or want to retire). Having made no "backup plan" for such a situation to happen is in my opinion gross negligence.

delusional 3y ago

Try kagi.com. I'm a very happy customer myself.

phmqk76 3y ago
Maybe I’m an outlier, but I blow right past their limits on any reasonably-priced tier. I use my search bar for all sorts of inquiries, serious and frivolous, including basic addition and subtraction. I tried it for a month and found that my usage far exceeded what I was willing to pay, which was about $10 a month. If they can get the costs down, I’d happily subscribe, I think the results were very good. Google’s results have become terrible over the years, it’s hard to fathom how it’s still their cash cow when the product is practically unusable.
- lordfrito 3y ago
  Search is dying. The quality of search I mean, which doesn't bode well as civilization pretty much runs based on our ability to search the web for commercial/ government / political work. It's a problem. Whoever control search will control what we see hear and read. Dangerous times. Hoping that somebody can build a subscription search that works and returns real competitive-ness to the information marketplace

aleph_minus_one 3y ago

> Yeah it seems like enshitification during the long tail is the point of the VC model across all industries. Give product away for free, figure out how to screw the install base later on. It needs two sides for this to work: 1. a company attempting to "fish" customers with this approach 2. customers who fall for this trap, and did not create an emergency/backup plan when the respective company becomes "evil"/untenable. Every company sooner or later becomes "evil" (and be it because of ownership changes because the original founders die or want to retire). Having made no "backup plan" for such a situation to happen is in my opinion gross negligence.