Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet

Post by koheripbal » Wed, Dec 04, 2019, 1:02 PM UTC

dannypgh wrote: post #392

endorphone wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a way this seems like an admission of the failure of the "Alphabet" thing. The idea behind that originally was that all of these other projects were going to become so significant that it wouldn't make sense to have them or their management coupled with Google. But a half-decade later, it's still 99.9% Google, so just double-up the Google guy to lead both tiers. Same as it ever was.

I don't think it was mostly motivated by management separation, as much as it was desire to break out revenue and expenses by unit. And this is unchanged.

Post by Riverheart » Wed, Dec 04, 2019, 1:07 PM UTC

taneq wrote: post #440

Spoom wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's very likely that they wanted you to question the ethics there. I don't know what your interview was like though. Googler, opinions are my own.

The one Googler I know personally and have talked to about this stuff seems to have a weird blind spot around privacy and data collection. They're super friendly and happy to discuss products and features, but any questions about keeping data on your own device, limiting data access etc. just gets a blank stare, as if the very concept of "data which Google doesn't track" is nonsensical to them.

Post by jeremyfranco » Wed, Dec 04, 2019, 1:09 PM UTC

linza wrote: post #533

zaarn wrote: post #503

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except Google doesn't respect privacy.

I doubt think this is accurate. Google might not respect the desire for an open internet without ads and no single large player. But i believe they fully respect their users privacy, comply with most of the law around privacy already, and have the strong desire to fully comply with it in the future. Maybe I'm naive that way. But painting them as not respecting privacy at all is a bit blunt and not nuanced enough.

Post by chrischen » Wed, Dec 04, 2019, 1:16 PM UTC

kevingadd wrote: post #520

Godel_unicode wrote: post #483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if the answer there is "never", so what? Do we really need to set the bar at "replace all vehicles everywhere in all situations" for it to be a success?

It becomes much harder to justify buying a self-driving car if there are many parts of the country where I can't drive it. Even a mid-tier sedan can be driven all the way up the west coast from southern california to Seattle as long as you have chains and wait for the pass to be open. Waymo's cars are designed to not even have steering wheels, last time I checked...

Post by jeremyfranco » Wed, Dec 04, 2019, 1:19 PM UTC

kyrra wrote: post #324

gerdesj wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Weirdly this feels like a non-issue" It is. That page is awful with a hood that keeps flapping around up and down and text that is trying to be true to italics for quotes instead of lots of diacritics and ends up looking badly diseased. Then the letter sidesteps into a memo, which is equally odd and awkward. It's all a bit odd. S and B (in my very opinionated ... opinion) did create a great thing in Google. I can't…

About "don't be evil": It's still very much in there. From: https://abc.xyz/investor/other/google-code-of-conduct/ > And remember… don’t be evil, and if you see something that you think isn’t right – speak up! The problem was that it was moved from near the top to being near the bottom (though it's own paragraph). Sadly there were lots of very inaccurate headlines like this: > Google Removes 'Don't Be Evil' Clause Fr…