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Gmail was revolutionary at the start, but stopped innovating 10 years ago - why don’t we still have a good search engine within it? MapReduce would be invented

Gmail was revolutionary at the start, but stopped innovating 10 years ago - why don’t we still have a good search engine within it? MapReduce would be invented anyway (I implemented it from scratch before learning of it’s existence). Chrome is just a slightly upgraded Firefox (and novadays Safari is just as good if not better with ai) PageRank was what gave Google monopoly, it’s not a result of monopoly. Go - I can give you that. ProtoBuf - not my field, but isn’t it just a format that someone else would develop to fill a niche? (unlike say mp3 that had new compression algorithms baked in) Maps - I can give you that. Some people might argue that it was an acquisition, but without Google’s muscle, Street View would not be feasible.

nine_k 2y ago
> Chrome is just a slightly upgraded Firefox Wat. It's like saying that an apple is a slightly upgraded orange. I would understand if you mentioned KHTML and Safari as relatives, but "slightly upgraded" does not fit anyway. > PageRank was what gave Google monopoly I don't think so. PageRank has been successfully implemented elsewhere, and outmatched. What helped Google build a monopoly was the first mover advantage, the network effects, and the incessant streams of money from AdWords (invented by Google), DoubleClick (acquired) and a bunch of other advertisement tools. > Maps - I can give you that. Don't :) Google Maps is an acquisition from 20 years ago. (As is Android, AdSense, and many other core flagship products of the Google brand.) If you want a relatively recent, successful Google service for general public, it's Google Photos.
- whitehexagon 2y ago
  >If you want a relatively recent, successful Google service for general public, it's Google Photos. I seem to recall that followed the acquisition of Picasa.
  - nine_k 2y ago
    Picasa was rather different: it had a desktop client, had tags, did not have a dedicated view mode, etc. It ran as a separate product, and then was shut down, not integrated. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picasa https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picasa
- kernal 2y ago
  >Google Maps is an acquisition from 20 years ago. (As is Android) This is comical. When Google acquired Android, it was nothing more than a 3000 line JavaScript demo. The Android OS was created entirely at Google.
  - shiroiushi 2y ago
    It's the same for Google Maps. It was just a C++ demo when acquired, nothing at all like what we see today.
omoikane 2y ago
> Gmail was revolutionary at the start, but stopped innovating 10 years ago - why don't we still have a good search engine within it? Not sure about your experience, but I used to subscribe to a lot of mailing lists just so that I can search for mailing list content using gmail, because the search function implemented by those mailing lists were generally worse.

nine_k 2y ago

> Chrome is just a slightly upgraded Firefox Wat. It's like saying that an apple is a slightly upgraded orange. I would understand if you mentioned KHTML and Safari as relatives, but "slightly upgraded" does not fit anyway. > PageRank was what gave Google monopoly I don't think so. PageRank has been successfully implemented elsewhere, and outmatched. What helped Google build a monopoly was the first mover advantage, the network effects, and the incessant streams of money from AdWords (invented by Google), DoubleClick (acquired) and a bunch of other advertisement tools. > Maps - I can give you that. Don't :) Google Maps is an acquisition from 20 years ago. (As is Android, AdSense, and many other core flagship products of the Google brand.) If you want a relatively recent, successful Google service for general public, it's Google Photos.

whitehexagon 2y ago
>If you want a relatively recent, successful Google service for general public, it's Google Photos. I seem to recall that followed the acquisition of Picasa.
- nine_k 2y ago
  Picasa was rather different: it had a desktop client, had tags, did not have a dedicated view mode, etc. It ran as a separate product, and then was shut down, not integrated. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picasa https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picasa
kernal 2y ago
>Google Maps is an acquisition from 20 years ago. (As is Android) This is comical. When Google acquired Android, it was nothing more than a 3000 line JavaScript demo. The Android OS was created entirely at Google.
- shiroiushi 2y ago
  It's the same for Google Maps. It was just a C++ demo when acquired, nothing at all like what we see today.

omoikane 2y ago

> Gmail was revolutionary at the start, but stopped innovating 10 years ago - why don't we still have a good search engine within it? Not sure about your experience, but I used to subscribe to a lot of mailing lists just so that I can search for mailing list content using gmail, because the search function implemented by those mailing lists were generally worse.