6 ms·

wait... your saying that because they are discontinuing a product? I'm not suggesting that google is/isn't evil these days, but I would suggest that there is a

by giblfiz 14y ago

wait... your saying that because they are discontinuing a product? I'm not suggesting that google is/isn't evil these days, but I would suggest that there is absolutely no moral aspect to discontinuing a feed reader.

yuhong 14y ago
Yea, looking at OGinparadise's comment history, OGinparadise is the one who posted that Expedia has lowest prices, despite it's problems (I basically just ignore him now): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4965868 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4965868
- OGinparadise 14y ago
  I used search twice and couldn't find I said that, point me to that comment. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4965868 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4965868 Not that there is anything wrong on that, it could have been an opinion on anecdotal evidence. No one expects someone to check prices for 4-5 years first.
  - yuhong 14y ago
    http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5186387 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5186387
    - OGinparadise 14y ago
      You accused me of saying "Expedia has lowest prices, despite it's problems" when I actually said "In case you didn't know, aggregators like Expedia often have the lowest price" and it's 100% true. What's false about it? Booking directly is in many cases more expensive than booking through a third party that has special pricing power. You either post the full quote next time or drop it, you're wasting time and not achieving your goal, other than irritating people.
- codesuela 14y ago
  ad hominem much?
tikhonj 14y ago
I think it's more a reaction to their general recent policy of doing far less away from their core business. They used to have a ton of projects with a very relaxed attitude about making money from any given project. Now that they've given up on focusing on that much beyond their bottom line, they're acting much more like other large companies which is not necessarily a good thing.
- IgorPartola 14y ago
  Like self driving cars and Google Glass? Or the cheap/free fiber optic Internet access? Or free Wi-Fi in NYC? I do not think you know what evil means...
  - guard-of-terra 14y ago
    Self driving cars are like Microsoft Hailstorm. It's all bombast for now and then somebody clever will steal their lunch. And it is a deviation from their Google core.
    - IgorPartola 14y ago
      And lack of deviation from the core tech that brings in no immediate profit is what tikhonj called "evil".
  - OGinparadise 14y ago
    Like self driving cars and Google Glass? Or the cheap/free fiber optic Internet access? Or free Wi-Fi in NYC? Self driving cars, like this http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57367893-71/a-self-driving-car-but-thankfully-a-bmw/ http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57367893-71/a-self-driving... or http://money.cnn.com/2013/01/04/autos/toyota-self-driving-cars/index.html http://money.cnn.com/2013/01/04/autos/toyota-self-driving-ca... or http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2416535,00.asp http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2416535,00.asp ? Tell me what's so amazing, never done before, about Glass? Google is seeing ads there. Fiber and WIFI, while extremely limited in geography* and are great, until Google pulls the plug. That's the point. *There's no "Free wifi in NYC from Google", just in a tiny neighborhood.
panacea 14y ago
"discontinuing a product" I guess you need to unpack what that product was. It was loss-leading free product that killed the ecosystem that proceeded it. That whole 'embrace, extend, extinguish' thing is what many people are decrying as a tad 'evil'.
- stcredzero 14y ago
  > That whole 'embrace, extend, extinguish, extinguish' thing
- OGinparadise 14y ago
  Google did that to websites too: first they penalized a slew of sites such as local search, travel, finance, shopping comparison for having "shallow content," and then they introduced the Google versions of said sites, on top of everyone else on search results.
  - cromwellian 14y ago
    Google's mission is to organize the world's information, to be a Search Engine, not specifically a "Web Search Engine". People come looking for answers, not just sites. When I search for "Samsung TV", I don't want a link to another vertical crawler as the top answer, I want links to where I can read reviews and buy it. Vertical search is getting rolled up into search, not just by Google, but by Microsoft too, because ultimately, search engines should be smart enough to understand the semantics of the search to an extern where a special curated vertical isn't needed anymore. When Jean Luc Picard asks the Enterprise computer for the nearest Starbase, it doesn't tell him to phone up StarBases.com and ask them for a list instead. When I ask "AAPL", I want the current price of AAPL. This has a direct, factual, answer, I am not looking to be sent to finance search engine or portal as the top answer. Even before Google built reader, the "RSS" market was mostly free. No one was making a killing selling RSS readers, anymore than commercial web browsers really succeeded. Is Mozilla evil because a free open source browser "killed the market" for commercial-for-pay browsers? That ship has already sailed. What's arguably evil is using a lossleader to kill another product, and then jack up the price once you have a monopoly. But releasing free services when the price was already zero is hardly anything to write home about. If you want to know who really killed RSS, ask Facebook.

by giblfiz 14y ago

yuhong 14y ago

Yea, looking at OGinparadise's comment history, OGinparadise is the one who posted that Expedia has lowest prices, despite it's problems (I basically just ignore him now): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4965868 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4965868

OGinparadise 14y ago
I used search twice and couldn't find I said that, point me to that comment. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4965868 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4965868 Not that there is anything wrong on that, it could have been an opinion on anecdotal evidence. No one expects someone to check prices for 4-5 years first.
- yuhong 14y ago
  http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5186387 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5186387
  - OGinparadise 14y ago
    You accused me of saying "Expedia has lowest prices, despite it's problems" when I actually said "In case you didn't know, aggregators like Expedia often have the lowest price" and it's 100% true. What's false about it? Booking directly is in many cases more expensive than booking through a third party that has special pricing power. You either post the full quote next time or drop it, you're wasting time and not achieving your goal, other than irritating people.
codesuela 14y ago
ad hominem much?

tikhonj 14y ago

I think it's more a reaction to their general recent policy of doing far less away from their core business. They used to have a ton of projects with a very relaxed attitude about making money from any given project. Now that they've given up on focusing on that much beyond their bottom line, they're acting much more like other large companies which is not necessarily a good thing.

IgorPartola 14y ago
Like self driving cars and Google Glass? Or the cheap/free fiber optic Internet access? Or free Wi-Fi in NYC? I do not think you know what evil means...
- guard-of-terra 14y ago
  Self driving cars are like Microsoft Hailstorm. It's all bombast for now and then somebody clever will steal their lunch. And it is a deviation from their Google core.
  - IgorPartola 14y ago
    And lack of deviation from the core tech that brings in no immediate profit is what tikhonj called "evil".
- OGinparadise 14y ago
  Like self driving cars and Google Glass? Or the cheap/free fiber optic Internet access? Or free Wi-Fi in NYC? Self driving cars, like this http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57367893-71/a-self-driving-car-but-thankfully-a-bmw/ http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57367893-71/a-self-driving... or http://money.cnn.com/2013/01/04/autos/toyota-self-driving-cars/index.html http://money.cnn.com/2013/01/04/autos/toyota-self-driving-ca... or http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2416535,00.asp http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2416535,00.asp ? Tell me what's so amazing, never done before, about Glass? Google is seeing ads there. Fiber and WIFI, while extremely limited in geography* and are great, until Google pulls the plug. That's the point. *There's no "Free wifi in NYC from Google", just in a tiny neighborhood.

panacea 14y ago

"discontinuing a product" I guess you need to unpack what that product was. It was loss-leading free product that killed the ecosystem that proceeded it. That whole 'embrace, extend, extinguish' thing is what many people are decrying as a tad 'evil'.

stcredzero 14y ago
> That whole 'embrace, extend, extinguish, extinguish' thing
OGinparadise 14y ago
Google did that to websites too: first they penalized a slew of sites such as local search, travel, finance, shopping comparison for having "shallow content," and then they introduced the Google versions of said sites, on top of everyone else on search results.
- cromwellian 14y ago
  Google's mission is to organize the world's information, to be a Search Engine, not specifically a "Web Search Engine". People come looking for answers, not just sites. When I search for "Samsung TV", I don't want a link to another vertical crawler as the top answer, I want links to where I can read reviews and buy it. Vertical search is getting rolled up into search, not just by Google, but by Microsoft too, because ultimately, search engines should be smart enough to understand the semantics of the search to an extern where a special curated vertical isn't needed anymore. When Jean Luc Picard asks the Enterprise computer for the nearest Starbase, it doesn't tell him to phone up StarBases.com and ask them for a list instead. When I ask "AAPL", I want the current price of AAPL. This has a direct, factual, answer, I am not looking to be sent to finance search engine or portal as the top answer. Even before Google built reader, the "RSS" market was mostly free. No one was making a killing selling RSS readers, anymore than commercial web browsers really succeeded. Is Mozilla evil because a free open source browser "killed the market" for commercial-for-pay browsers? That ship has already sailed. What's arguably evil is using a lossleader to kill another product, and then jack up the price once you have a monopoly. But releasing free services when the price was already zero is hardly anything to write home about. If you want to know who really killed RSS, ask Facebook.