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This. As an interview question for my product managers, I often ask what Google search's product is. The ones who say ads move to the next round.

Squeeeez 1y ago
Are you aware what you are saying about yourself by writing such a sentence?
- ComplexSystems 1y ago
  This has got to be one of the most loaded question I have ever seen on here. Could you perhaps be clearer with what you want to ask? It sounds like you are insinuating that the guy is a bad person in some vague, nondescript way.
  - Zopieux 1y ago
    Trick questions like those have a terrible signal to noise ratio, you'd hope people with recruiting decision power would have gotten the memo by now.
  - waldopat 1y ago
    Agreed. And I added an update to give a more thoughtful response. I've been on the receiving side of trick questions, so I do understand. How you ask the question, which I didn't phrase here, is important. Google Search or Gmail are great case study style questions. Here's an oldie but a goodie about it from 2006: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=33707 https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=33707
  - Squeeeez 1y ago
    You clearly decided to interpret that question in a way that would make you feel better about yourself, and I am disappointed. Somehow this website is not what it used to be.
  - Squeeeez 1y ago
    To answer your question: I am insinuating nothing. There is a certain vibe to his comments which struck me from having noticed it in certain people, and the effects it has on their relationships with others. From his answer, I gather that he doesn't care. So, that's it for the free remote psychoanalysis by HN comments.
- waldopat 1y ago
  Yup, but my earlier comment was a bit flippant, so here’s a more in-depth response. It was an answer to the OP’s question about why Gmail search feels broken, and a nod to the previous comment pointing out Google’s core business is selling ads. In that context, Gmail isn’t optimized for superior search. It’s part of a data funnel that enables keyword targeting, ad placement, and behavioral profiling. For me, there’s a deeper product lesson here, but also a signal about how someone thinks. Whether a candidate answers “ads” or “search” or “email” isn’t what really matters. It’s the why behind the answer that matters most. At the end of the day, business models directly shape product decisions. That tension is something every product manager has to navigate because they sit between the business and technical sides of a company. Being able to see and articulate that tradeoff, especially when user needs diverge from monetization incentives, is key to both building effectively and being a successful product manager. More often the business model, like subscriptions, is more tightly connected to the product. User has X problem that product Y solves and the company receives Z dollars in exchange for access. However, there are many examples where the pricing or monetization strategy is not so clearly connected to the feature set, of which google search is a great example. For the record, I don't ask this question to junior PMs.
  - bigbuppo 1y ago
    You are doing your job well, and for that I salute you. However, you highlight the real problem with ad-supported tech. It creates perverse incentives that makes the world an objectively worse place for most just to sell another ad. It justifies actions and data collection that would be illegal if it were anything other than a large corporation peforming that activity. At some point in history the words, "just trying to make my quarterly numbers", will be looked at with the same level of horror and shame as a similar phrase was over 75 years ago.
voussoir 1y ago
If Google's customers are the advertisers, maybe the correct answer is "attention".
- waldopat 1y ago
  Totally valid response :-) And I think that's another great angle as well that you can bring to a conundrum like Gmail or Google Search, like Time to Value or Engagement, etc. As an extension, what we're seeing with OpenAi et al. is that they are capturing that attention and taking search with them. And so (as I referred to a couple comments down) OpenAI and the others are in the Google pre-2006 moment where the products are highly successfully engaging and grabbing our attention, but they haven't quite found the business model that prints money in the way Google Ads do. So we'll see. What do you think?
al_borland 1y ago
The product of Search is data and attention. They use this data and attention to sell their Ads product. The same can be said for almost everything they make.

Squeeeez 1y ago

Are you aware what you are saying about yourself by writing such a sentence?

ComplexSystems 1y ago
This has got to be one of the most loaded question I have ever seen on here. Could you perhaps be clearer with what you want to ask? It sounds like you are insinuating that the guy is a bad person in some vague, nondescript way.
- Zopieux 1y ago
  Trick questions like those have a terrible signal to noise ratio, you'd hope people with recruiting decision power would have gotten the memo by now.
- waldopat 1y ago
  Agreed. And I added an update to give a more thoughtful response. I've been on the receiving side of trick questions, so I do understand. How you ask the question, which I didn't phrase here, is important. Google Search or Gmail are great case study style questions. Here's an oldie but a goodie about it from 2006: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=33707 https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=33707
- Squeeeez 1y ago
  You clearly decided to interpret that question in a way that would make you feel better about yourself, and I am disappointed. Somehow this website is not what it used to be.
- Squeeeez 1y ago
  To answer your question: I am insinuating nothing. There is a certain vibe to his comments which struck me from having noticed it in certain people, and the effects it has on their relationships with others. From his answer, I gather that he doesn't care. So, that's it for the free remote psychoanalysis by HN comments.
waldopat 1y ago
Yup, but my earlier comment was a bit flippant, so here’s a more in-depth response. It was an answer to the OP’s question about why Gmail search feels broken, and a nod to the previous comment pointing out Google’s core business is selling ads. In that context, Gmail isn’t optimized for superior search. It’s part of a data funnel that enables keyword targeting, ad placement, and behavioral profiling. For me, there’s a deeper product lesson here, but also a signal about how someone thinks. Whether a candidate answers “ads” or “search” or “email” isn’t what really matters. It’s the why behind the answer that matters most. At the end of the day, business models directly shape product decisions. That tension is something every product manager has to navigate because they sit between the business and technical sides of a company. Being able to see and articulate that tradeoff, especially when user needs diverge from monetization incentives, is key to both building effectively and being a successful product manager. More often the business model, like subscriptions, is more tightly connected to the product. User has X problem that product Y solves and the company receives Z dollars in exchange for access. However, there are many examples where the pricing or monetization strategy is not so clearly connected to the feature set, of which google search is a great example. For the record, I don't ask this question to junior PMs.
- bigbuppo 1y ago
  You are doing your job well, and for that I salute you. However, you highlight the real problem with ad-supported tech. It creates perverse incentives that makes the world an objectively worse place for most just to sell another ad. It justifies actions and data collection that would be illegal if it were anything other than a large corporation peforming that activity. At some point in history the words, "just trying to make my quarterly numbers", will be looked at with the same level of horror and shame as a similar phrase was over 75 years ago.

voussoir 1y ago

If Google's customers are the advertisers, maybe the correct answer is "attention".

waldopat 1y ago
Totally valid response :-) And I think that's another great angle as well that you can bring to a conundrum like Gmail or Google Search, like Time to Value or Engagement, etc. As an extension, what we're seeing with OpenAi et al. is that they are capturing that attention and taking search with them. And so (as I referred to a couple comments down) OpenAI and the others are in the Google pre-2006 moment where the products are highly successfully engaging and grabbing our attention, but they haven't quite found the business model that prints money in the way Google Ads do. So we'll see. What do you think?

al_borland 1y ago

The product of Search is data and attention. They use this data and attention to sell their Ads product. The same can be said for almost everything they make.