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Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

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Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#21

Post by dexterdog »

michaelvoz wrote: post #8
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, it's amazing how profitable vacuuming up users' private data without their informed consent and monetizing it can be.

You must be a joy at parties. How is any of the data private when you willingly use their tools, sites, servers, etc? You open up google.com and type things in, what privacy do you expect? Or am I missing something you are referring to?

So you would have no problems with your cell service provider keeping records of all of your calls and locations and recording conversations in the room even when not on a call? Most people don't know what data google is keeping and monetizing.

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#22

Post by furyofantares »

Periodic wrote: post #11

So many companies try to emulate how Google works. There are multiple books, hundreds or thousands of articles. People speculate on the perks, the review structure, the hierarchy, the autonomy. However, when other companies try to imitate Google they always fail because they're missing a crucial piece: Billions of dollars in ad revenue Google doesn't work the way it does to be successful. It works that way because it…

> Google doesn't do what it does to be successful. It does it because it is successful.

Those things aren't mutually exclusive and almost certainly are both true

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#23

Post by Naritai »

gph wrote: post #18
mahyarm wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of that stuff although is cheaper for the corporation to provide than for the employee to pay for themselves in money and time. The corp has a tax advantage and a bulk purchase advantage. Not having a payment infra probably adds a little bit of efficiency too.

Which does seem like sort of a loophole. Don't companies have to add perks over a certain amount to the employees pay so that it gets taxed? Wouldn't feeding an employee every day qualify? It would be sort of weird if we turn back into having sort of 'company towns' where your employer provides a lot of what you need except they pay for it. It's not just Google this would be beneficial for, even if you run a factory…

I one spoke with a woman from the Netherlands who was surprised that these perks are not taxable. According to her, in the Netherlands perks like shuttles to work or company-provide food are taxable.

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#24

Post by yuhong »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #16
michaelvoz wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You must be a joy at parties. How is any of the data private when you willingly use their tools, sites, servers, etc? You open up google.com and type things in, what privacy do you expect? Or am I missing something you are referring to?

The problem is that Google's target market is largely people who are unaware of what the risks are, unaware of the extent of what Google does with their data. It's up to us in the tech community to protect people from companies that use dark pattern behavior like Google. yuhong: Responding to your question as an edit to my own comment since two -4 comments is probably enough for one day. Silently implementing opt-out…

What dark patterns are you referring to?

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#25

Post by smallnamespace »

__derek__ wrote: post #15
Periodic wrote: post #11

So many companies try to emulate how Google works. There are multiple books, hundreds or thousands of articles. People speculate on the perks, the review structure, the hierarchy, the autonomy. However, when other companies try to imitate Google they always fail because they're missing a crucial piece: Billions of dollars in ad revenue Google doesn't work the way it does to be successful. It works that way because it…

We humans have a hard time reasoning about correlation and causation. Superstition comes so naturally.

That's because causation is really hard to reason about. Often times it's not that A causes B or B causes A, but C causes both, or A and B causes each other at the same time.

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#26

Post by zigzigzag »

The robotics effort sounds like an absolute disaster. How shareholders haven't been demanding answers there is beyond me. Acquiring 11 companies to, apparently, satisfy Rubin's obsession with robots (it's named Android for a reason) and then trying to shut them all down or flog them off ... but nobody wants them? Yikes. How did they get so starry-eyed about Rubin that keeping him (also failed) was apparently worth such a huge effort? Yes, he ran a successful operating systems project and fully demands enormous praise for Android's wild success. But where are the limits to retention efforts?

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#27

Post by nunez »

Yup. There was SOOOOOOOOO much bullshit work being done there that could ONLY be done because Google can afford so much top-notch talent to work on research, even if it reinvents the wheel. It was a big part of the reason why I left.

That being said, at least they didn't invest their dollars on loads of red tape, though to be fair it isn't like all of Google is incredibly regulated unlike many other multi-billion dollar companies

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#28

Post by puzzle »

Except in 2008, during a developing worldwide financial crisis, when the new CFO Patrick Pichette started figuring how much was actually getting spent on things such as cafeterias and childcare subsidies (for the onsite service).

So, yeah, never.

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#29

Post by muninn_ »

Periodic wrote: post #11

So many companies try to emulate how Google works. There are multiple books, hundreds or thousands of articles. People speculate on the perks, the review structure, the hierarchy, the autonomy. However, when other companies try to imitate Google they always fail because they're missing a crucial piece: Billions of dollars in ad revenue Google doesn't work the way it does to be successful. It works that way because it…

I don't buy it. Many companies are able to get the perks, culture, and autonomy right without being a multi-billion dollar company. It does enable Google to do certain things (like moonshot projects) that smaller companies can't do, but a lot of the perks I've seen are replicated in other companies.

In fact, I think your comment "Google doesn't do what it does to be successful, it does it because it is successful" is completely ignoring how Google came to be successful in the first place, which was doing what you're saying it does because it's successful. Reading something like "How Google Works" goes over this exact thing in detail.

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#30

Post by compiler-guy »

zigzigzag wrote: post #26

The robotics effort sounds like an absolute disaster. How shareholders haven't been demanding answers there is beyond me. Acquiring 11 companies to, apparently, satisfy Rubin's obsession with robots (it's named Android for a reason) and then trying to shut them all down or flog them off ... but nobody wants them? Yikes. How did they get so starry-eyed about Rubin that keeping him (also failed) was apparently worth su…

Shareholders can demand answers, but it won't get them anywhere. For better or for worse, Larry, Sergey and Eric own Google and can do whatever they want.
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