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Google management shuffle points to retreat from Alphabet experiment

wsj.com

121–130 of 219 posts

Re: Google management shuffle points to retreat from Alphabet experiment

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that Alphabet was basically Larry and Seigei's personal pet projects and the goal was for Google to fund these projects, it's easier to funnel money up instead of out.

Wasn't YouTube a separate entity under Alphabet, and not a part of Google? That alone would be a $100B company

It would be. But it doesn’t make money. Someone has to pay for it still.

Re: Google management shuffle points to retreat from Alphabet experiment

#122
post #4

If you're having trouble reading it: https://outline.com/pGLZ6U

I dont know how what you did is legal. From https://www.outline.com/dmca.html Notice to Users If someone else might own the copyright to it, don't submit it. Outline is for reading pages that: you own the rights to, is in the public domain, constitutes fair use, or you have consent of the copyright holder. If we find you repeatedly submitting content that does not meet the above criteria, we will block you from using…

We have different views on this topic. Surely Outline is capable of taking a reasonable sample of what they are serving up, and seeing that the vast majority of it violates their terms. Throwing up a disclaimer page doesn't change that. Their policy is also contradicted by the "about" blurb on the bottom of the page "Outline is a free service for reading and annotating news articles." As far as I know, most news articles have a copyright.

Also, sites that want paywalls are technically capable of doing that in a way that archive.is, outline.com, etc, can't scrape them. They don't, though, because they want the best of both worlds. Want to charge for your content? Fine, do that, but you lose exposure from search engines, HN, Facebook, etc.

Curious how they are going to "block me" though. I don't have an account with Outline.

Re: Google management shuffle points to retreat from Alphabet experiment

#123
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Apple Watch came out under Cook. That is more than an “accessory.” It’s a new platform, new OS variant, etc. It’s dominating smart watches. The Apple Watch is literally designed to be an accessory to the iPhone - you can't use most of its features without an iPhone. I wanted one for my Android phone but tough shit for me. If you like it as a product that's fine, but it is absolutely an accessory to an iPhone be…

Right now it requires an iphone. They've been slowly reducing the need to have one until pretty soon, maybe v5, won't require one

It’s at S5 already, which is actually v6 since there’s an S0. So maybe v7.

Re: Google management shuffle points to retreat from Alphabet experiment

#124
post #109
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this case, AMP doesn't help much...it's still downloading a ton of crap. 464 requests and 12MB of garbage for an AMP hosted article. https://imgur.com/tPHaHIO

That's because you are running in a simulator and not doing ad-blocking. Here is the real deal, 1.9MB and took 12 seconds to load completely: https://imgur.com/a/XcsNEsp The actual Bloomberg page was 5.3Mbytes and took 30 seconds to load completely: https://imgur.com/a/zBaOzeD If 3X improvement in loading time and data transfer is not much of a help, I don't know what it is. USERS like AMP because it is an actual imp…

The article itself consists of 20 kB of text. Going from 270x the payload size to 95x the payload size, while impressive, still misses the mark.

Re: Google management shuffle points to retreat from Alphabet experiment

#125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn't YouTube a separate entity under Alphabet, and not a part of Google? That alone would be a $100B company

It would be. But it doesn’t make money. Someone has to pay for it still.

Do you have a source for that?

All I can find is that, as of 2019, nobody knows [1]. (Unfortunately I can't read the full paywalled content.)

Also, it might not be profitable but could still be break-even.

[1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/ok-google-hows-youtube-doing-11...

Re: Google management shuffle points to retreat from Alphabet experiment

#126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be. But it doesn’t make money. Someone has to pay for it still.

Do you have a source for that? All I can find is that, as of 2019, nobody knows [1]. (Unfortunately I can't read the full paywalled content.) Also, it might not be profitable but could still be break-even. [1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/ok-google-hows-youtube-doing-11...

Nope no source. I’ve tried looking as well. I assume since it costs so much in infrastructure that Google lends for free to YouTube, and that they have never been able to announce nice numbers for YouTube, ever, that it likely doesn’t make a profit or break even. Especially after accounting for all the freebies Google provides YouTube.

Re: Google management shuffle points to retreat from Alphabet experiment

#127
post #34
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems way more idealistic somehow. More likely, with a more standard corporate governance Google will begin to rot from within. Apple certainly made more profits under Cook than Jobs, but innovation has slowed to a crawl and he has failed to diversify Apple away from having one product (instead he just added a bunch of accessory products and services). The last thing Google needs is to double down on ads, it tak…

> innovation has slowed to a crawl This is so typical of Apple criticism. They did do well with the iPhone and Mac that now any new innovations seem boring in comparison. It’s wrong. The Apple Watch came out under Cook. That is more than an “accessory.” It’s a new platform, new OS variant, etc. It’s dominating smart watches. The AirPods are pretty innovative in terms of the fine grained details that have made them su…

You forgot Apple Pay. That's a whole new market for Apple — and seems to be doing well?

Re: Google management shuffle points to retreat from Alphabet experiment

#128
post #115
post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's because you are running in a simulator and not doing ad-blocking. Here is the real deal, 1.9MB and took 12 seconds to load completely: https://imgur.com/a/XcsNEsp The actual Bloomberg page was 5.3Mbytes and took 30 seconds to load completely: https://imgur.com/a/zBaOzeD If 3X improvement in loading time and data transfer is not much of a help, I don't know what it is. USERS like AMP because it is an actual imp…

12 seconds and 1.9MB isn't anything to brag about either, especially considering you needed an ad-blocker to get there.

1.9MB in 12 seconds says about my internet connection but 3X improvement says about AMP.

Fight AMP as hard as you like, start a Kickstarter for anti-AMP explaining to the public the evils of AMP but when my search results return an AMP site and non-AMP site I am clicking the AMP.

Web tech people can revolt all they want or they can actually find a way to display a few kb of text and image quickly. You can be the music industry trying to protect their CD business or you can own the Napster/iTunes/Spotify and make your money from there.

Web publishing becomes garbage, AMP is fast loading garbage. The fast-loading garbage wins.

Re: Google management shuffle points to retreat from Alphabet experiment

#129
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> innovation has slowed to a crawl This is so typical of Apple criticism. They did do well with the iPhone and Mac that now any new innovations seem boring in comparison. It’s wrong. The Apple Watch came out under Cook. That is more than an “accessory.” It’s a new platform, new OS variant, etc. It’s dominating smart watches. The AirPods are pretty innovative in terms of the fine grained details that have made them su…

Correct. People think that stuff like iPhone can just be created, if there is enough will and innovation. The iPhone is the most successful consumer electronics product of all time, and might also be the most profitable product on an yearly average basis. Failure to recreate that is not bad. Expecting any company to keep churning out things like the iPhone would be too harsh.

It's more nuanced than that — things like smart phones require the serendipity of any number of both technological and even cultural events before they are born.

The Newton is an interesting foil.

Why wasn't the Newton the first smart phone? Early internet, barely a high-speed cellular infrastructure, silicon not quite small and efficient enough, no lithium batteries, cost....

Saying the Newton was "ahead of its time" is really a way of saying all the right bits and pieces weren't there yet.

We'll know what the next "big thing" is after it happens. You can't force it though regardless of the dollars you have for R&D.

Just MHO.

Re: Google management shuffle points to retreat from Alphabet experiment

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The selling point of AMP is that it's a mobile-friendly web component framework. If someone uses AMP for their website, and as a result you get a better mobile experience, it's hard to see how that's not inherent to AMP.

I turn on the faucet and fill a glass of water. Taking a drink from the glass, I feel less thirsty. If someone turns on a faucet, and as a result feels less thirsty, then that that thirst-removal must be inherent to turning on a faucet, right? This is obviously silly, but follows the same reasoning that you have stated. Drinking water reduces thirst, not running water from a faucet. Redesigning a website to be less b…

I think it's fair to say that thirst-removal is inherent to turning on a faucet. It's true that there are other ways to reduce your thirst, and it's true that turning on the faucet has other effects (such as increasing your water bill) that have nothing to do with how thirsty you are. It's even true that the water company behind your faucet might be doing bad things that it ought to stop.

But it doesn't seem helpful to analyze faucets as being a monopolistic plot by Big Water rather than a technology for letting you drink when you're thirsty.

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