Web by Google (TM) • Hacker News Board

Re: Web by Google (TM)

#21

Post by tomschwiha » Sun, Aug 16, 2020, 12:59 PM UTC

eiWit7oo wrote: post #5

> Google’s capture of the Web is a fait accompli. Only legislation will keep the World Wide Web from finally becoming Web by Google (TM). I really hope it's not the case, because then Google will cancel it. /s Search is probably something where there could be creative use of the p2p decentralized technologies. If when performing a search I could ask my contacts to look in their history if they have something matching…

Wouldn't this cause filter bubbles? And could open up privacy abuse because all your history is available?

Re: Web by Google (TM)

#22

Post by alfonsodev » Sun, Aug 16, 2020, 12:59 PM UTC

eiWit7oo wrote: post #5

> Google’s capture of the Web is a fait accompli. Only legislation will keep the World Wide Web from finally becoming Web by Google (TM). I really hope it's not the case, because then Google will cancel it. /s Search is probably something where there could be creative use of the p2p decentralized technologies. If when performing a search I could ask my contacts to look in their history if they have something matching…

>Search is probably something where there could be creative use of the p2p decentralized technologies.

Has this been attempted before? does it have a name?

Re: Web by Google (TM)

#23

Post by cocktailpeanuts » Sun, Aug 16, 2020, 12:59 PM UTC

The issue is not the fact that Google owns the web. It is that the web itself has become decimated to the point where a company like Mozilla does not have a future.

Facebook, Uber, TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Whatsapp, etc. None of them are optimized for Google index.

Most top consumer internet applications don't take place in your browser.

Re: Web by Google (TM)

#24

Post by jstanley » Sun, Aug 16, 2020, 1:00 PM UTC

andai wrote: post #14

mattacular wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget that Amazon dominates a lot more than just retail on the internet. With AWS they effectively run large portions of it as well.

Isn't that kinda like saying that the electric companies do the same thing, though?

Electric companies can switch off your electricity, and not much else.

Amazon can read your secrets.

Re: Web by Google (TM)

#25

Post by texasbigdata » Sun, Aug 16, 2020, 1:00 PM UTC

eiWit7oo wrote: post #5

> Google’s capture of the Web is a fait accompli. Only legislation will keep the World Wide Web from finally becoming Web by Google (TM). I really hope it's not the case, because then Google will cancel it. /s Search is probably something where there could be creative use of the p2p decentralized technologies. If when performing a search I could ask my contacts to look in their history if they have something matching…

Re: fair acompli

Respectfully, not really. Arguably search is much worse now than in 2010.

What if someone could come up with a simple search that could easily understand “hey this is a paywall” or “hey this is a paywall but somehow securely and with privacy I checked and you have a login to this site in your password manager” or it could do time based searches better than “last day / last week / etc”.

Consumers have insatiable needs and are never satisfied. It’s not clear someone can’t create something unimagined yet that’s vastly technically superior based on solely focusing on customer experience. Even if you just assume NewEngine(tm) is venture backed and can lose money in the short run until it monetizes later it should still theoretically enable it to be closer to consumer desires than Google which has to post quarterly ad revenue figures to wall street and the SEC.

Re: Web by Google (TM)

#26

Post by andai » Sun, Aug 16, 2020, 1:00 PM UTC

eiWit7oo wrote: post #5

> Google’s capture of the Web is a fait accompli. Only legislation will keep the World Wide Web from finally becoming Web by Google (TM). I really hope it's not the case, because then Google will cancel it. /s Search is probably something where there could be creative use of the p2p decentralized technologies. If when performing a search I could ask my contacts to look in their history if they have something matching…

I've been thinking about this for a while. It's infeasible for any one person to run a Google-scale web crawler -- but if millions of people join in?

I've used file sharing software which has the same "tree style" query forwarding. I think latency would be the big issue though, we're used to getting a result instantly -- and the right result too (Google does a lot of extra work knowing what you actually mean, not just keyword search).

Re: Web by Google (TM)

#27

Post by FridgeSeal » Sun, Aug 16, 2020, 1:00 PM UTC

tomschwiha wrote: post #3

You can blame Google for a lot - however I believe if it wasn't about Google someone else would dictate the game. In the past it was Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, XFire, .. I mean those companys were so big (e. g. XFire for gaming streaming) but they failed to stay ahead of time - lets see whats up with Google or Facebook or Amazon in 15 years.

So what, we just sit around passively and wait for something to happen to Google and friends?

Doesn’t that strike you as a poor move?

I don’t see why we should be relegated to put up with another x-number of years of these companies behaving (arguably) badly, just so things can change and they can be replaced with another company that will do the same thing.

Re: Web by Google (TM)

#28

Post by alangibson » Sun, Aug 16, 2020, 1:01 PM UTC

tomschwiha wrote: post #3

You can blame Google for a lot - however I believe if it wasn't about Google someone else would dictate the game. In the past it was Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, XFire, .. I mean those companys were so big (e. g. XFire for gaming streaming) but they failed to stay ahead of time - lets see whats up with Google or Facebook or Amazon in 15 years.

> however I believe if it wasn't about Google someone else would dictate the game.

Always worth reading:

https://stratechery.com/concept/aggregation-theory/

Re: Web by Google (TM)

#29

Post by emteycz » Sun, Aug 16, 2020, 1:03 PM UTC

lol768 wrote: post #10

> And let’s not forget that most people now access the web via mobile devices, 75% of which run Google’s Android. Which is a good thing, because these devices can actually run different browser rendering engines. Perhaps the bigger problem is that devices ship with Chrome pre-installed instead of asking the user at device set-up time what browser they want to use. I imagine if you told the user they could have a brow…

No, they will be inclined to not use that device and use one that does not ask weird questions.

Re: Web by Google (TM)

#30

Post by mrweasel » Sun, Aug 16, 2020, 1:03 PM UTC

andai wrote: post #14

mattacular wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget that Amazon dominates a lot more than just retail on the internet. With AWS they effectively run large portions of it as well.

Isn't that kinda like saying that the electric companies do the same thing, though?

True, that’s why in some markets the electric companies have been split into transmission companies and delivery companies. You buy power from the delivery company and the transmission companies are paid to maintain power lines.