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Google isn't dead because it still has a massive user base, generating more money than ever. Many people think Google is the internet, and Android and Chrome us

Google isn't dead because it still has a massive user base, generating more money than ever. Many people think Google is the internet, and Android and Chrome users have Google as their default search engine. Google even pays Apple billions to be the default on their devices. So from a business perspective, Google is thriving and will continue to do so for years. However, the quality of Google's search results has declined, which is widely acknowledged by tech-savvy users and even the general public. As an SEO expert, I've observed that while Google has always battled spam, they've recently shifted their focus away from website content and towards other factors like brand recognition and user engagement metrics. This change likely stems from their anticipation of AI-generated content. Consequently, a poorly written article on a well-known site like Forbes can outrank a well-researched piece on a lesser-known blog. Google has also started using AI for ranking, despite previously stating they wouldn't. As a result, alternative search engines like Bing and DuckDuckGo have become viable options. However, Bing hasn't significantly improved; Google has simply gotten worse. People are likely to leave Google as soon as a clearly superior alternative emerges. An ideal Google alternative would be like ChatGPT but with less abstraction and more factual accuracy. While ChatGPT provides direct answers, it's a 50/50 chance whether the information is true or made up. A real competitor would offer ChatGPT-like functionality with a stronger emphasis on facts and sources, providing up-to-date knowledge on any topic.

rpastuszak 2y ago
> Google even pays Apple billions to be the default on their devices. ca 20 billions per year, just to keep their search engine as a default. https://untested.sonnet.io/Defaults+Matter%2C+Don't+Assume+Consent https://untested.sonnet.io/Defaults+Matter%2C+Don't+Assume+C...
kolinko 2y ago
> Google isn't dead because it still has a massive user base, generating more money than ever. Do you remember when iPhone was introduced and Nokia/Symbian was still the king? This is exactly the reasoning line that Symbian/Nokia devs kept repeating when iPhone was released. I remember arguing with them endlessly. It took around 4 years for the company to collapse completely.
- dahauns 2y ago
  Well, as long as Google doesn't do something similarly stupid (like, say, announcing discontinuation of their search and suite or whatever and that they will offer a great new Bing/O365 integration experience in a year), they will be fine.
  - kolinko 2y ago
    Nokia did the „stupid” things only when their business was already collapsing due to Symbian, not the other way around. Took them around 4 years from iPhone’s premiere to get to that point. And I remember people saying that Symbian’s user base is too big to fail even weeks before the WP announcements and later up until the burning rig memo. Ditto Blackberry, although blackberry had a shorter history at that time.
    - dahauns 2y ago
      We will never know how it would have played out (and yeah, there were no small amounts of stupid things beforehand), but the actual collapse was induced by pouring gasoline on the burning platform.
      - kolinko 2y ago
        What else could they have done? Their Symbian efforts failed on every front, and their software engineering seemed broken to the core (looking at it from an outside engineer who tried building apps for Symbian, but also as a device user). It was a company that understood hardware/firmware like no other, but the software part was not there - kind of like car producers and their infotainment systems nowadays.
- sliken 2y ago
  Nokia lacked vision. They had a widget much like the original iphone, with better resolution (800x480 vs 480x320), had an app store, and has a user friendly GUI. Rather ironically Nokia wouldn't add a WAN chip to their WIFI nokia 770/800/810 until it was too late. Nokia had an app store when apple was still pushing "weblets" or whatever they called the web based apps. Pretty surprising from a big phone company. Then a microsoft exec took over, forced a migration to windows mobile, sold a bunch of phone, orphaned those phones, and brought a new generation of incompatible windows phones. Not to mention the famous burning barn memo. Pretty much the entire market dropped windows mobile. Similarly Balmer's microsoft lacked vision and was doubling down on windows laptops+desktops running microsoft office at the cost of mobile, at the cost of cloud, and a late start on web based apps. They did of course turn things around and started playing nice with others, offering cloud services, supporting linux and android, etc.

rpastuszak 2y ago

> Google even pays Apple billions to be the default on their devices. ca 20 billions per year, just to keep their search engine as a default. https://untested.sonnet.io/Defaults+Matter%2C+Don't+Assume+Consent https://untested.sonnet.io/Defaults+Matter%2C+Don't+Assume+C...

kolinko 2y ago

> Google isn't dead because it still has a massive user base, generating more money than ever. Do you remember when iPhone was introduced and Nokia/Symbian was still the king? This is exactly the reasoning line that Symbian/Nokia devs kept repeating when iPhone was released. I remember arguing with them endlessly. It took around 4 years for the company to collapse completely.

dahauns 2y ago
Well, as long as Google doesn't do something similarly stupid (like, say, announcing discontinuation of their search and suite or whatever and that they will offer a great new Bing/O365 integration experience in a year), they will be fine.
- kolinko 2y ago
  Nokia did the „stupid” things only when their business was already collapsing due to Symbian, not the other way around. Took them around 4 years from iPhone’s premiere to get to that point. And I remember people saying that Symbian’s user base is too big to fail even weeks before the WP announcements and later up until the burning rig memo. Ditto Blackberry, although blackberry had a shorter history at that time.
  - dahauns 2y ago
    We will never know how it would have played out (and yeah, there were no small amounts of stupid things beforehand), but the actual collapse was induced by pouring gasoline on the burning platform.
    - kolinko 2y ago
      What else could they have done? Their Symbian efforts failed on every front, and their software engineering seemed broken to the core (looking at it from an outside engineer who tried building apps for Symbian, but also as a device user). It was a company that understood hardware/firmware like no other, but the software part was not there - kind of like car producers and their infotainment systems nowadays.
sliken 2y ago
Nokia lacked vision. They had a widget much like the original iphone, with better resolution (800x480 vs 480x320), had an app store, and has a user friendly GUI. Rather ironically Nokia wouldn't add a WAN chip to their WIFI nokia 770/800/810 until it was too late. Nokia had an app store when apple was still pushing "weblets" or whatever they called the web based apps. Pretty surprising from a big phone company. Then a microsoft exec took over, forced a migration to windows mobile, sold a bunch of phone, orphaned those phones, and brought a new generation of incompatible windows phones. Not to mention the famous burning barn memo. Pretty much the entire market dropped windows mobile. Similarly Balmer's microsoft lacked vision and was doubling down on windows laptops+desktops running microsoft office at the cost of mobile, at the cost of cloud, and a late start on web based apps. They did of course turn things around and started playing nice with others, offering cloud services, supporting linux and android, etc.