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Because they punish experimentation as it eats into their bottom line. AI is a tool for ads in the mind of executives at Google. Ads and monetization of human p

Because they punish experimentation as it eats into their bottom line. AI is a tool for ads in the mind of executives at Google. Ads and monetization of human productivity, not an agent of productivity on its own.

khazhoux 2y ago
C'mon, Google doesn't "punish" experimentation. Google X, Google Glass, Daydream, Fuschia, moonshots, the lab spinoff (whose name I can't remember)... hell, even all the abandoned products everyone here always complains about. The experiments often/usually fail, but they do experiment.
- Koffiepoeder 2y ago
  If you prune all the branches, where will the fruits grow?
  - khazhoux 2y ago
    The branches were dead and could bear no fruit. New branches will sprout next season.
    - saalweachter 2y ago
      For grapes, the conventional wisdom is to prune all the old branches at the end of each season.
lolinder 2y ago
"Laser-focused on the bottom line at the expense of all else" is not how I'd describe Google, now or at any point in the past. They have a lot of dysfunction, but if anything that dysfunction stems from too much experimentation and autonomy at the leaf nodes of the organization. That's how they get into these crazy places where they have to pick between 5 chat apps or whatever. If Google were as focused on ads as you seem to think we'd at least see some sort of coherent org-wide strategy instead of a complete lack of direction.
- criddell 2y ago
  I'd describe Google as focused on the bottom line after they put the ads guy in charge of search. I'm referring to this article that was posted here recently: https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-killed-google/ https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-killed-google/
  - khazhoux 2y ago
    The person now in charge of Search is Elizabeth Hamon Reid, a long-time googler who came up through the ranks from engineer (in Google Maps) to VP over 20 years. She's legit.
    - criddell 2y ago
      Is Wikipedia out of date then? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prabhakar_Raghavan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prabhakar_Raghavan
      - khazhoux 2y ago
        Ah, according to this, she’s head of Search but reports to Prabhakar. I thought from recent reports that she’d taken search over from him. Nonetheless, she was a good engineer and a good manager, back when we crossed path many moons ago. https://searchengineland.com/liz-reid-google-new-head-of-search-438519 https://searchengineland.com/liz-reid-google-new-head-of-sea...
  - lolinder 2y ago
    That was a decision that prioritized the bottom line over other things. But saying that Google is "focused" on the bottom line implies that there's a pattern of them putting the bottom line first, which is simply not true if you look at Google as a whole. Search specifically, maybe, but not Alphabet.

khazhoux 2y ago

C'mon, Google doesn't "punish" experimentation. Google X, Google Glass, Daydream, Fuschia, moonshots, the lab spinoff (whose name I can't remember)... hell, even all the abandoned products everyone here always complains about. The experiments often/usually fail, but they do experiment.

Koffiepoeder 2y ago
If you prune all the branches, where will the fruits grow?
- khazhoux 2y ago
  The branches were dead and could bear no fruit. New branches will sprout next season.
  - saalweachter 2y ago
    For grapes, the conventional wisdom is to prune all the old branches at the end of each season.

lolinder 2y ago

"Laser-focused on the bottom line at the expense of all else" is not how I'd describe Google, now or at any point in the past. They have a lot of dysfunction, but if anything that dysfunction stems from too much experimentation and autonomy at the leaf nodes of the organization. That's how they get into these crazy places where they have to pick between 5 chat apps or whatever. If Google were as focused on ads as you seem to think we'd at least see some sort of coherent org-wide strategy instead of a complete lack of direction.

criddell 2y ago
I'd describe Google as focused on the bottom line after they put the ads guy in charge of search. I'm referring to this article that was posted here recently: https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-killed-google/ https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-killed-google/
- khazhoux 2y ago
  The person now in charge of Search is Elizabeth Hamon Reid, a long-time googler who came up through the ranks from engineer (in Google Maps) to VP over 20 years. She's legit.
  - criddell 2y ago
    Is Wikipedia out of date then? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prabhakar_Raghavan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prabhakar_Raghavan
    - khazhoux 2y ago
      Ah, according to this, she’s head of Search but reports to Prabhakar. I thought from recent reports that she’d taken search over from him. Nonetheless, she was a good engineer and a good manager, back when we crossed path many moons ago. https://searchengineland.com/liz-reid-google-new-head-of-search-438519 https://searchengineland.com/liz-reid-google-new-head-of-sea...
- lolinder 2y ago
  That was a decision that prioritized the bottom line over other things. But saying that Google is "focused" on the bottom line implies that there's a pattern of them putting the bottom line first, which is simply not true if you look at Google as a whole. Search specifically, maybe, but not Alphabet.