Microsoft is now worth more than Alphabet • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft is now worth more than Alphabet

#51

Post by kaspm » Thu, May 31, 2018, 4:28 PM UTC

jobu wrote: post #18

lkrubner wrote: post #3

I'm puzzled why "Proven"s comment is dead? What they wrote seems accurate. There is no reason why this comment should be downvoted, and certainly no reason why the comment should be dead. This is what they wrote: Simply speaking they actually make more products people like to use. Google essentially has just one, and it’s based on diminishing user privacy to the maximum extent possible. MS collects user data but so d…

While I agree with most of your points, this one seems arguable: > Microsoft Excel remains the default lingua franca of business. Google Docs and Spreadsheets has not replaced Office. Google Docs, Sheets and Slides have taken over the education market from elementary school through college, and for many businesses Google's offerings have become interchangeable with Microsoft's. Outlook and Excel still have a strong h…

I also think Hacker News lens might be focused on smaller companies and startups where Google Docs and G Suite have become much more prevalent.

Re: Microsoft is now worth more than Alphabet

#52

Post by fauigerzigerk » Thu, May 31, 2018, 4:28 PM UTC

TAForObvReasons wrote: post #29

golfer wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Give Google a little more credit. They have 7 separate products with over 1 billion users each [0]. Search, Gmail, Android, Chrome, Maps, Youtube and the Google Play Store. [0]: https://www.popsci.com/google-has-7-products-with-1-billion-...

Those have strong user counts because they are free or significantly less expensive than alternatives. Search is free -- if they decided to charge anything for search, people would switch to yahoo or bing in a heartbeat. If they charged for chrome, that would be a red letter day for Firefox. Android would see a hard fork.

But among all the free search engines people choose Google. That has to mean something. It's true after all that competitors are only a click away.

And I'm saying this in spite of being less and less happy with Google's search results lately. It has become very difficult to prevent Google from generalising queries beyond all recognition.

Re: Microsoft is now worth more than Alphabet

#53

Post by justicezyx » Thu, May 31, 2018, 4:29 PM UTC

outside1234 wrote: post #31

golfer wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Give Google a little more credit. They have 7 separate products with over 1 billion users each [0]. Search, Gmail, Android, Chrome, Maps, Youtube and the Google Play Store. [0]: https://www.popsci.com/google-has-7-products-with-1-billion-...

The stock market doesn't care about users, it cares about profits. Android and Chrome and Google Play are unprofitable.

This type of "cares about one thing, not the other" is close to be nonsensical:

Market is complex, there is not one thing or another can explain.

Re: Microsoft is now worth more than Alphabet

#54

Post by kingbirdy » Thu, May 31, 2018, 4:29 PM UTC

outside1234 wrote: post #31

golfer wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Give Google a little more credit. They have 7 separate products with over 1 billion users each [0]. Search, Gmail, Android, Chrome, Maps, Youtube and the Google Play Store. [0]: https://www.popsci.com/google-has-7-products-with-1-billion-...

The stock market doesn't care about users, it cares about profits. Android and Chrome and Google Play are unprofitable.

How is the app store unprofitable? Serving too many free apps?

Re: Microsoft is now worth more than Alphabet

#55

Post by colechristensen » Thu, May 31, 2018, 4:30 PM UTC

blanderman wrote: post #45

jobu wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree with most of your points, this one seems arguable: > Microsoft Excel remains the default lingua franca of business. Google Docs and Spreadsheets has not replaced Office. Google Docs, Sheets and Slides have taken over the education market from elementary school through college, and for many businesses Google's offerings have become interchangeable with Microsoft's. Outlook and Excel still have a strong h…

LibreOffice is now an excellent alternative for both business and home use.

Is it really?

I have occasionally tried open office and clones for a very long time and "adequate alternative" was the best impression I ever got and far from the worst.

Re: Microsoft is now worth more than Alphabet

#56

Post by philliphaydon » Thu, May 31, 2018, 4:30 PM UTC

paulie_a wrote: post #16

lkrubner wrote: post #3

I'm puzzled why "Proven"s comment is dead? What they wrote seems accurate. There is no reason why this comment should be downvoted, and certainly no reason why the comment should be dead. This is what they wrote: Simply speaking they actually make more products people like to use. Google essentially has just one, and it’s based on diminishing user privacy to the maximum extent possible. MS collects user data but so d…

While anecdotal, I only know one person that still uses Microsoft office, and that is just for Excel. Everyone else is libre office or Google docs. I grew up on office but once they introduced that stupid ribbon menu I ditched it. Apparently I was not the only one.

I recently made the switch to Budgie Ubuntu as my main desktop, god I hate libre, almost as much as I hate Google docs. Office 365 is much better. I’m forced to use Google docs at work :(

Re: Microsoft is now worth more than Alphabet

#57

Post by oculusthrift » Thu, May 31, 2018, 4:30 PM UTC

outside1234 wrote: post #23

jacksmith21006 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google owns five of the top ten apps used on all smartphones. Not aware of any for MS? Plus Google owns the top 2 web sites. http://www.businessinsider.com/most-used-smartphone-apps-201... The 10 most used smartphone apps - Business Insider

Microsoft owns five of the top ten platforms used by enterprises. These enterprises pay them tons of money to make these platforms run, some spending more than $100M each.

sometimes i think people can’t comprehend of products that aren’t in the consumer sphere.

Re: Microsoft is now worth more than Alphabet

#58

Post by cabalamat » Thu, May 31, 2018, 4:32 PM UTC

Proven wrote: post #2

Simply speaking they actually make more products people like to use. Google essentially has just one, and it’s based on diminishing user privacy to the maximum extent possible. MS collects user data but so do Ubuntu and CentOS... not to the extent Google and FB do it.

> Simply speaking they actually make more products people like to use.

They may make more products that people do use, but that doesn't mean that people like using them.

Re: Microsoft is now worth more than Alphabet

#59

Post by qop » Thu, May 31, 2018, 4:33 PM UTC

outside1234 wrote: post #31

golfer wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Give Google a little more credit. They have 7 separate products with over 1 billion users each [0]. Search, Gmail, Android, Chrome, Maps, Youtube and the Google Play Store. [0]: https://www.popsci.com/google-has-7-products-with-1-billion-...

The stock market doesn't care about users, it cares about profits. Android and Chrome and Google Play are unprofitable.

It costs like ten dollars sometimes to rent a movie that probably costs them $0.30 to stream to me, they gotta be making some money

Re: Microsoft is now worth more than Alphabet

#60

Post by is_true » Thu, May 31, 2018, 4:33 PM UTC

jobu wrote: post #18

lkrubner wrote: post #3

I'm puzzled why "Proven"s comment is dead? What they wrote seems accurate. There is no reason why this comment should be downvoted, and certainly no reason why the comment should be dead. This is what they wrote: Simply speaking they actually make more products people like to use. Google essentially has just one, and it’s based on diminishing user privacy to the maximum extent possible. MS collects user data but so d…

While I agree with most of your points, this one seems arguable: > Microsoft Excel remains the default lingua franca of business. Google Docs and Spreadsheets has not replaced Office. Google Docs, Sheets and Slides have taken over the education market from elementary school through college, and for many businesses Google's offerings have become interchangeable with Microsoft's. Outlook and Excel still have a strong h…

I'm in touch with lots of accountants and they wouldn't change Excel for anything.