21–30 of 33 posts
It must be fashionable now to hate on Google, but they are still miles ahead of other guys. They may no longer "not be evil" but to me they're still the least evil option compared to other companies. Besides, Google has done many wonderful things for our generation. We've been taking things for granted, imagine a world without Google search. Remember Yahoo!?
Facebook has apparently grossly mishandled how it engages users; providing a platform for the proliferation of false information (like idiots on Geocities) but now in the form of "news". Facebook has also grossly mishandled it's users information; providing dubious 3rd parties with information that's been used to, among other things, target specific demographics to influence ELECTIONS.
Because of the ire Facebook is drawing from the entire world, Google is being group with them because of their business model. Google's big fault here is in it's likely emulation of Facebook's engagement model (likely same tech, same time) in steering users towards more extreme content in an effort to maintain engagement- mostly on YouTube.
I think the average HN user can understand how and why this happens. It's 1.0 of the engagement game. Ad-tech that analyze the content of a video and attempts to match it with similar content. Only apparent problem is, it's not that smart and it tends to direct towards the extreme - or likely the easiest content match- more extreme content likely repeats similar phrases more often, idk, someone with more insight can jump in here.
It's easy. In their hubris, Google pissed on some of the most intelligent and spiritually powerful people on the planet. Now they get their comeuppance. It's that simple.
It's Facebook. Facebook is the reason for the uproar. Facebook has drawn a lot of attention to ad-based revenue companies like Google. Facebook is the modern day version of Geocities, except, now it employs modern advertising technology to harvest information and engage users. Facebook has apparently grossly mishandled how it engages users; providing a platform for the proliferation of false information (like idiots…
It's been happening for years. A few last straws lately? Google did a lot to gain the trust of it's users over a decade ago. What it did and said as an organization was that they were the good guys and could be trusted, and that everyone else was evil. Google were the stewards of the internet. Maybe it was after they took the company public but it slowly started to ratchet in the other direction. Products became incr…
I've said this before but Google is neither the 'good guy' or the 'bad guy'. They aren't there to look out for your best interests and we'd all be much better if we stop ascribing human qualities to gigantic corporations. And they have never been 'stewards of the internet'.
As for the recent uproar, well better late than never. The attitude of the tech community is incredibly hypocritical on matters of privacy.
Google has always tracked users on an industrial scale. That tracking now extends to schools where ChromeOS is in widespread use. Tracking school kids online behaviour even if that data is detached from individual accounts and aggregated in some way is simply indefensible in my view. The amount of pupil data stored on Google's servers must be simply staggering. But barely a peep from developers on this issue.
Next time developers rush to Google's defence, they should ask themselves: does a gigantic multi-billion corporation that tracks people on an industrial scale need to be defended?
From 2012 to 2014, Microsoft (under Ballmer) had launched a program called "Scroogled" - an attempt to in effect destroy the google brand. The budget? 1 billion dollars. It was run like a presidential election campaign, with Mark Penn hired to run it. It feels very similar to this. I am guessing that the goal is to trigger anti-trust action against Google, by creating this buzz around it.
It must be fashionable now to hate on Google, but they are still miles ahead of other guys. They may no longer "not be evil" but to me they're still the least evil option compared to other companies. Besides, Google has done many wonderful things for our generation. We've been taking things for granted, imagine a world without Google search. Remember Yahoo!?
However, past good deeds don't excuse current bad deeds. Even if they are the "least evil option", that doesn't mean they shouldn't be criticised.
It's been happening for years. A few last straws lately? Google did a lot to gain the trust of it's users over a decade ago. What it did and said as an organization was that they were the good guys and could be trusted, and that everyone else was evil. Google were the stewards of the internet. Maybe it was after they took the company public but it slowly started to ratchet in the other direction. Products became incr…
"...they were the good guys and could be trusted " I've said this before but Google is neither the 'good guy' or the 'bad guy'. They aren't there to look out for your best interests and we'd all be much better if we stop ascribing human qualities to gigantic corporations. And they have never been 'stewards of the internet'. As for the recent uproar, well better late than never. The attitude of the tech community is i…
I should change my question to what company has zero tracking or spying on their users? Do you guys know how many tracking and analytic companies out there help businesses to gather user data and do analytics, ai analytics and so on? Last month I just met a friend who worked in speedtest.net, visit my country and sell their user data to one of the largest ISP here.(kudos to who have account at their service).
Seriously, i am just wondering why just google? I ask so because I saw many title about the same topic just focus on two companies, google and facebook. Just wondering...By the way, kudos for duckduckgo, i really like that search engine. !g, !gh,...its so versatile.
From 2012 to 2014, Microsoft (under Ballmer) had launched a program called "Scroogled" - an attempt to in effect destroy the google brand. The budget? 1 billion dollars. It was run like a presidential election campaign, with Mark Penn hired to run it. It feels very similar to this. I am guessing that the goal is to trigger anti-trust action against Google, by creating this buzz around it.
The Scroogled campaign was simply about the cost differences for businesses to advertise on Bing vs. Google. So, in other words, just like any other ad campaign you see between competitors...
I should add that i have not seen Google itself run such attack ads.
What I have always found strange is that the companies that seem to attack google on privacy are not so hot themselves. Microsoft's rifling through hotmail emails to catch a leaker, and Apple's handing over of iCloud data for Chinese users are examples of things Google has never done.
Microsoft : https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/03/28/microsof...
Apple : https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/18/17587304/apple-icloud-chi...