3 ms·

Does everyone hate Google now?

24 points by stalfosknight 2y ago

01HNNWZ0MV43FF 2y ago
Yeah
xyzzy4747 2y ago
People claim to hate Google but they don't want to use other search engines - Google has above 90% market share despite other options being a click away.
- saurik 2y ago
  So? "Google is the best search engine we have today" doesn't make them an entity we should deign to like :/... a majority of the things brought up in this article are people hating Google for dominating markets and thereby preventing competitors or abusing other companies in various ways, so, of course we're using them? and we hate them all the more for it?
- lern_too_spel 2y ago
  I can hate something even if there are no better options.
- pixodaros 2y ago
  The alternative search engines are powered by Bing, Yandex, or only index a small part of the web https://seirdy.one/posts/2021/03/10/search-engines-with-own-indexes/ https://seirdy.one/posts/2021/03/10/search-engines-with-own-...
- TexanFeller 2y ago
  Google search has been getting worse for years. Kagi.com is what Google would be if they had kept improving Google instead of optimizing search results for ad revenue.
- GuardianCaveman 2y ago
  You can use something and still hate it. Have you flown commercial?
move-on-by 2y ago
I’m not sure when I started to hate Google, but I remember the day I broke free of them. I was a hardcore Gmail fan- had everything organized in perfect folders. I used it since the invite-only days. I survived the migration from folders to tags and eventually decided tags were better. Then one day I read about inbox… it was just a new interface. It required no commitment or migration, why not try it out? It was amazing! It broke me free from the shackles of organizing and let me treat email like a todo list instead. I was hooked. I used inbox for a long time- long enough for me to hate Google, but I knew I was hooked with email. It looks like I used inbox for around 4 years. Then… Google killed inbox. Well, there was no chance I would ever go back to awful Gmail after experiencing the glory of inbox, so that was just what I needed. I have my own email domain now and can switch providers as I see fit- no more will I be hooked into a product via email. Thank you Google for killing inbox! I don’t search with Google. I don’t use chrome. I don’t use android. I block as much of Google as possible. I very rarely use YouTube. I NEVER say ‘Google it’. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not an Apple fanboy either, but I don’t hate them like I do Google.
- warkdarrior 2y ago
  "I am Google free" is the new "I don't own a TV"
- timlatim 2y ago
  Glad to see I'm not the only one missing Google Inbox! I don't believe it was widely popular, at the time I may have been the only one in my circle to use it, but for me its workflow was just perfect. It gave you a clutter-free mailbox that surfaced the right things at the right time with very little manual fiddling, something I never managed to replicate with Gmail since. The article might be overstating things, "hate" is strong word and not everyone outside the US shares the political reasons, but having a Google service you like end up axed is an experience more and more people can relate to. From Reader, to Inbox, to Play Music, to countless others, the company is oddly insistent on breaking things that just work and offering a subpar replacement (if one at all) that inevitably loses your data or requires manual transfer to fit how the other service is designed to work.
halJordan 2y ago
This is a joke right? Ars is the leader in shitting on Google. I will say this, Ars has absolutely mastered the Fox News/Tucker Carlson ersatz outrage generation and quick pivot to actively denying their part in what they spent months engendering.
spacedcowboy 2y ago
I mean, its not Facebook or Twitter levels of hate, but they're definitely tarnished
- beretguy 2y ago
  It’s about the same level for me.
StressedDev 2y ago
No - Seriously, an article with a title like this is unhelpful. First, hating Google seems unproductive because Google created many successful products people love, or like to use. Examples include Android, Google Search, GMail, Chrome Books, Google Cloud, etc. Second, I can understand why people prefer non-Google products, but I cannot see hating Google. Google is a business which has not killed or harmed anyone. At worst, Google has a few persistent problems. 1) It creates dossiers on people so it can show more relevant ads. This is not good but it is also not a reason to hate Google. 2) It tends to be somewhat dysfunctional. Examples include recent declines in search quality, and the refusal continue to invest in business which are not instant successes (the exception to this rule is Google Cloud). 3) It is very hard to get any customer support. The solution here is to go to a company which has more accessible customer support if you do not like Google's approach. I have not seen any reason to hate, or even dismiss Google. Google has created a lot of good products. We would not have modern search without Google. Hating Google seems like an unhelpful extreme behavior. Ars Technica should not publish articles like this.
- JohnFen 2y ago
  I don't hate Google, but I absolutely hate the effect they've had on the internet. I may not use Google services, but that in no way means that Google doesn't impact me.
  - thomassmith65 2y ago
    If the full consequences of Google's existence were magically made tangible, you probably would hate them. Google is bad in the same way the Universe is big: to an extent so great as to be unimaginable to the human mind.
- thomassmith65 2y ago
  AMP for starters. If I got going on a comprehensive list of why Google is from Hell, I'd be here for hours and go to bed tonight in a depressive funk.
b3ing 2y ago
No, otherwise Chrome usage would drop
wbsun 2y ago
I feel that eventually people will hate every commercial product and the company. The interests of users and the company have a fundamental conflict because one is trying to get as much money as possible from the other with the least possible cost. The only honeymoon time is when the company is still trying to win customers by sacrificing their profit. People probably should hate every mature company.
- JohnFen 2y ago
  Not all mature companies are trying to milk their customers for every possible dime. Ethical ones do exist, but they tend not to be megacorps for obvious reasons.
ViktorRay 2y ago
I feel like the quality of articles on Ars Technica has deteriorated. Back in 2011 when I first discovered Ars Technica it consistently had in depth high quality articles in a sensible tone of voice. Over the past several years its output has more and more seemed to be driven by clickbait titles like this and the tone of voice used in the article seems to be more about provoking rage regarding various subjects than the sensible even handed tone it used to have in articles back when I started reading it.

24 points by stalfosknight 2y ago

Yeah

People claim to hate Google but they don't want to use other search engines - Google has above 90% market share despite other options being a click away.

saurik 2y ago
So? "Google is the best search engine we have today" doesn't make them an entity we should deign to like :/... a majority of the things brought up in this article are people hating Google for dominating markets and thereby preventing competitors or abusing other companies in various ways, so, of course we're using them? and we hate them all the more for it?
lern_too_spel 2y ago
I can hate something even if there are no better options.
pixodaros 2y ago
The alternative search engines are powered by Bing, Yandex, or only index a small part of the web https://seirdy.one/posts/2021/03/10/search-engines-with-own-indexes/ https://seirdy.one/posts/2021/03/10/search-engines-with-own-...
TexanFeller 2y ago
Google search has been getting worse for years. Kagi.com is what Google would be if they had kept improving Google instead of optimizing search results for ad revenue.
GuardianCaveman 2y ago
You can use something and still hate it. Have you flown commercial?

move-on-by 2y ago

I’m not sure when I started to hate Google, but I remember the day I broke free of them. I was a hardcore Gmail fan- had everything organized in perfect folders. I used it since the invite-only days. I survived the migration from folders to tags and eventually decided tags were better. Then one day I read about inbox… it was just a new interface. It required no commitment or migration, why not try it out? It was amazing! It broke me free from the shackles of organizing and let me treat email like a todo list instead. I was hooked. I used inbox for a long time- long enough for me to hate Google, but I knew I was hooked with email. It looks like I used inbox for around 4 years. Then… Google killed inbox. Well, there was no chance I would ever go back to awful Gmail after experiencing the glory of inbox, so that was just what I needed. I have my own email domain now and can switch providers as I see fit- no more will I be hooked into a product via email. Thank you Google for killing inbox! I don’t search with Google. I don’t use chrome. I don’t use android. I block as much of Google as possible. I very rarely use YouTube. I NEVER say ‘Google it’. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not an Apple fanboy either, but I don’t hate them like I do Google.

warkdarrior 2y ago
"I am Google free" is the new "I don't own a TV"
timlatim 2y ago
Glad to see I'm not the only one missing Google Inbox! I don't believe it was widely popular, at the time I may have been the only one in my circle to use it, but for me its workflow was just perfect. It gave you a clutter-free mailbox that surfaced the right things at the right time with very little manual fiddling, something I never managed to replicate with Gmail since. The article might be overstating things, "hate" is strong word and not everyone outside the US shares the political reasons, but having a Google service you like end up axed is an experience more and more people can relate to. From Reader, to Inbox, to Play Music, to countless others, the company is oddly insistent on breaking things that just work and offering a subpar replacement (if one at all) that inevitably loses your data or requires manual transfer to fit how the other service is designed to work.

halJordan 2y ago

This is a joke right? Ars is the leader in shitting on Google. I will say this, Ars has absolutely mastered the Fox News/Tucker Carlson ersatz outrage generation and quick pivot to actively denying their part in what they spent months engendering.

spacedcowboy 2y ago

I mean, its not Facebook or Twitter levels of hate, but they're definitely tarnished

beretguy 2y ago
It’s about the same level for me.

StressedDev 2y ago

No - Seriously, an article with a title like this is unhelpful. First, hating Google seems unproductive because Google created many successful products people love, or like to use. Examples include Android, Google Search, GMail, Chrome Books, Google Cloud, etc. Second, I can understand why people prefer non-Google products, but I cannot see hating Google. Google is a business which has not killed or harmed anyone. At worst, Google has a few persistent problems. 1) It creates dossiers on people so it can show more relevant ads. This is not good but it is also not a reason to hate Google. 2) It tends to be somewhat dysfunctional. Examples include recent declines in search quality, and the refusal continue to invest in business which are not instant successes (the exception to this rule is Google Cloud). 3) It is very hard to get any customer support. The solution here is to go to a company which has more accessible customer support if you do not like Google's approach. I have not seen any reason to hate, or even dismiss Google. Google has created a lot of good products. We would not have modern search without Google. Hating Google seems like an unhelpful extreme behavior. Ars Technica should not publish articles like this.

JohnFen 2y ago
I don't hate Google, but I absolutely hate the effect they've had on the internet. I may not use Google services, but that in no way means that Google doesn't impact me.
- thomassmith65 2y ago
  If the full consequences of Google's existence were magically made tangible, you probably would hate them. Google is bad in the same way the Universe is big: to an extent so great as to be unimaginable to the human mind.
thomassmith65 2y ago
AMP for starters. If I got going on a comprehensive list of why Google is from Hell, I'd be here for hours and go to bed tonight in a depressive funk.

b3ing 2y ago

No, otherwise Chrome usage would drop

wbsun 2y ago

I feel that eventually people will hate every commercial product and the company. The interests of users and the company have a fundamental conflict because one is trying to get as much money as possible from the other with the least possible cost. The only honeymoon time is when the company is still trying to win customers by sacrificing their profit. People probably should hate every mature company.

JohnFen 2y ago
Not all mature companies are trying to milk their customers for every possible dime. Ethical ones do exist, but they tend not to be megacorps for obvious reasons.

ViktorRay 2y ago

I feel like the quality of articles on Ars Technica has deteriorated. Back in 2011 when I first discovered Ars Technica it consistently had in depth high quality articles in a sensible tone of voice. Over the past several years its output has more and more seemed to be driven by clickbait titles like this and the tone of voice used in the article seems to be more about provoking rage regarding various subjects than the sensible even handed tone it used to have in articles back when I started reading it.