>There already exists alternatives to every Google service. The only moat any of them have is that Google can give them away for free as a loss leader. The iro

>There already exists alternatives to every Google service. The only moat any of them have is that Google can give them away for free as a loss leader. The irony behind Google is that Google in the early days was the antonym for Yahoo; just a simple looking search engine with a search box, minimalistic UI and a better search ranking compared to Yahoo which was crammed internet portal which looked and felt messy. Nowadays Google still has minimalistic UI but lousy search and shit ton of web apps that try to capture as much attention as they can while sucking your data and doing God knows what with it. >There’s nothing special about Gmail in 2024. But Gmail is totally free which prevents anyone from investing in a significant competitor. Yea, Gmail is free and it somewhat feels OK to use so many people use it but I don't see how Gmail evolved substantially over the let's say last 10 years, there is still room for competition. And there are competitors, idk how "significant" they are but they do exist e.g. Proton Mail, Tuta, Fastmail, GMX Mail etc.