5 ms·

If many people hated their products, they wouldn't use them. If they didn't use them they would not be financially successful. Google is not dying just because

by jxcole 1mo ago

If many people hated their products, they wouldn't use them. If they didn't use them they would not be financially successful. Google is not dying just because you personally have a feeling the results are worse than before and there is no definition of dying that would be consistent with Google's current state. If Google were to die they would die the way Yahoo did, because a competitor was demonstrably better than them and everyone switched off. There is no realistic evidence that this might occur in the near future.

taurath 1mo ago
> If many people hated their products, they wouldn't use them You do understand how drugs work right?
j2kun 1mo ago
You must not talk to a lot of retired people, for whom every tech product is a bewildering nightmare.
- Zetaphor 1mo ago
  They're the ones who are dying. Gen Z grew up on the cloud
  - owebmaster 1mo ago
    > Gen Z grew up on the cloud That's why many are tech illiterates and don't know what folders and files are.
    - tancop 1mo ago
      I would say that's a rich country and gen alpha thing. People who had to download games from a pirate site on the family computer know what a folder is.
  - customguy 1mo ago
    What does "the cloud" have to do with anything in this context? That is so utterly orthogonal to how good a UI/UX is.
    - amoss 1mo ago
      Cloud services expose their UI/UX through a web-browser will all of the pain points of running a stateful blob of javascript on the client, talking through a mostly stateless protocol to a "mess of stuff" that aims for eventual consistency in the backend. The old folks, who are retired and dying according to this thread, mostly grew up using local applications with direct control between UI/UX and action.
      - oblio 1mo ago
        Ummm... GenZ have mostly grown with mobile apps, which are generally not JS.
  - agsgf 1mo ago
    And they hate the Internet more than Gen-X.
  - j2kun 1mo ago
    They're also the ones making up all the MAUs of Facebook. /shrug
layoric 1mo ago
> If many people hated their products, they wouldn't use them. If they didn't use them they would not be financially successful. I think this incorrect diminishes the success of product lock-in and also doesn't consider that the world is moving more and more into concentrated wealth where consumers have less and less to offer. Google's financial success could be sustained or even continue to grow with fewer ad buyers targeting fewer people. > Google is not dying just because you personally have a feeling the results are worse than before and there is no definition of dying that would be consistent with Google's current state. Again, "dying" is being used as a proxy for financial success. I don't disagree that Google/Microsoft/Meta will continue to grow their revenue or even profit, but I do argue that their products are becoming worse for consumers. That may or may not lead to real competitors, but that is a whole other regulatory capture discussion. > If Google were to die they would die the way Yahoo did, because a competitor was demonstrably better than them and everyone switched off. I think you mean "die" here in a product/usage sense, which I think their current path seems to be going that way, but I think it will matter FAR less to Google/Alphabet than it did too Yahoo.
agentultra 1mo ago
> If many people hated their products, they wouldn't use them This might be true in a true, free market without monopolistic collusion and the abandonment of antitrust regulation and enforcement in the US. In many cases people don’t switch to something else because there isn’t an alternative. Or because they don’t know how to change the defaults that come installed on their computer. Or they get a big scary warning if they figure it out and try. I would have a hard time believing anyone who said Google was competing fairly and not juicing their numbers with Gemini. Like with search and ads, they have a lot of vested interest in profits and little regard for much else. There’s no reason to. Almost all safeguards on corporate behaviour have been taken off in the last bunch of years. Google jumped at renaming Lake Ontario. Of course they’re going to shove AI mode as the default on search and claim every user loves it.
- repeekad 1mo ago
  The top people at these companies don't spend all day building useful products, they have entire teams of people working strategy and looking at numbers to ensure their foothold in the various markets stays air tight and free of any real competition. The simplest example of this is the "switch your search engine back to Google" pop-up that effectively encourages users to switch back to Google if their default search engine changed via installing an extension.
  - Poacher5 1mo ago
    Yup, sitting here on a work-issued laptop that's locked down tighter than a walnut - I couldn't install chrome if I wanted to, and yet every time I have to actually go to google for something I get the "would you like to install chrome" begging.
- chii 1mo ago
  > In many cases people don’t switch to something else because there isn’t an alternative. no, they have an alternative - abstinence. And yet, large majority overwhelmingly chooses not to abstain. Therefore, it does not matter what they say, because actions are the truth.
pixelatedindex 1mo ago
> If Google were to die they would die the way Yahoo did This might be true 20 years ago where Google had one true product, Search. Since then, they have diversified and got their fingers a million pies. I don’t think you can get true competition with the way MS,GOOG,AMZ have grown. You’ll get a duopoly, or maybe a triopoly.
- talideon 1mo ago
  The term "cartel" might be useful here.
zelphirkalt 1mo ago
GP said Google Search is dead, in a way, not Google itself. Google is just to an overwhelmingly part an ad business at this point. And people hate their annoying ads. So people hate Google search, and Google ads. Basically, the majority of what Google is.

by jxcole 1mo ago

taurath 1mo ago

> If many people hated their products, they wouldn't use them You do understand how drugs work right?

j2kun 1mo ago

You must not talk to a lot of retired people, for whom every tech product is a bewildering nightmare.

Zetaphor 1mo ago
They're the ones who are dying. Gen Z grew up on the cloud
- owebmaster 1mo ago
  > Gen Z grew up on the cloud That's why many are tech illiterates and don't know what folders and files are.
  - tancop 1mo ago
    I would say that's a rich country and gen alpha thing. People who had to download games from a pirate site on the family computer know what a folder is.
- customguy 1mo ago
  What does "the cloud" have to do with anything in this context? That is so utterly orthogonal to how good a UI/UX is.
  - amoss 1mo ago
    Cloud services expose their UI/UX through a web-browser will all of the pain points of running a stateful blob of javascript on the client, talking through a mostly stateless protocol to a "mess of stuff" that aims for eventual consistency in the backend. The old folks, who are retired and dying according to this thread, mostly grew up using local applications with direct control between UI/UX and action.
    - oblio 1mo ago
      Ummm... GenZ have mostly grown with mobile apps, which are generally not JS.
- agsgf 1mo ago
  And they hate the Internet more than Gen-X.
- j2kun 1mo ago
  They're also the ones making up all the MAUs of Facebook. /shrug

layoric 1mo ago

> If many people hated their products, they wouldn't use them. If they didn't use them they would not be financially successful. I think this incorrect diminishes the success of product lock-in and also doesn't consider that the world is moving more and more into concentrated wealth where consumers have less and less to offer. Google's financial success could be sustained or even continue to grow with fewer ad buyers targeting fewer people. > Google is not dying just because you personally have a feeling the results are worse than before and there is no definition of dying that would be consistent with Google's current state. Again, "dying" is being used as a proxy for financial success. I don't disagree that Google/Microsoft/Meta will continue to grow their revenue or even profit, but I do argue that their products are becoming worse for consumers. That may or may not lead to real competitors, but that is a whole other regulatory capture discussion. > If Google were to die they would die the way Yahoo did, because a competitor was demonstrably better than them and everyone switched off. I think you mean "die" here in a product/usage sense, which I think their current path seems to be going that way, but I think it will matter FAR less to Google/Alphabet than it did too Yahoo.

agentultra 1mo ago

> If many people hated their products, they wouldn't use them This might be true in a true, free market without monopolistic collusion and the abandonment of antitrust regulation and enforcement in the US. In many cases people don’t switch to something else because there isn’t an alternative. Or because they don’t know how to change the defaults that come installed on their computer. Or they get a big scary warning if they figure it out and try. I would have a hard time believing anyone who said Google was competing fairly and not juicing their numbers with Gemini. Like with search and ads, they have a lot of vested interest in profits and little regard for much else. There’s no reason to. Almost all safeguards on corporate behaviour have been taken off in the last bunch of years. Google jumped at renaming Lake Ontario. Of course they’re going to shove AI mode as the default on search and claim every user loves it.

repeekad 1mo ago
The top people at these companies don't spend all day building useful products, they have entire teams of people working strategy and looking at numbers to ensure their foothold in the various markets stays air tight and free of any real competition. The simplest example of this is the "switch your search engine back to Google" pop-up that effectively encourages users to switch back to Google if their default search engine changed via installing an extension.
- Poacher5 1mo ago
  Yup, sitting here on a work-issued laptop that's locked down tighter than a walnut - I couldn't install chrome if I wanted to, and yet every time I have to actually go to google for something I get the "would you like to install chrome" begging.
chii 1mo ago
> In many cases people don’t switch to something else because there isn’t an alternative. no, they have an alternative - abstinence. And yet, large majority overwhelmingly chooses not to abstain. Therefore, it does not matter what they say, because actions are the truth.

pixelatedindex 1mo ago

> If Google were to die they would die the way Yahoo did This might be true 20 years ago where Google had one true product, Search. Since then, they have diversified and got their fingers a million pies. I don’t think you can get true competition with the way MS,GOOG,AMZ have grown. You’ll get a duopoly, or maybe a triopoly.

talideon 1mo ago
The term "cartel" might be useful here.

zelphirkalt 1mo ago

GP said Google Search is dead, in a way, not Google itself. Google is just to an overwhelmingly part an ad business at this point. And people hate their annoying ads. So people hate Google search, and Google ads. Basically, the majority of what Google is.