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The next Google

dkb.io

431–440 of 561 posts

Re: The next Google

#431
At the rate we're going, google will eventually be forced to open its index to competitors just like how telecom companies were forced to allow competition.

Re: The next Google

#432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a simple box where you put a question in and it gives you answers Google is very good at this, but this is exactly what I _don't_ want in the "Next Google". I want a _search engine_ for the web, not an answers engine that tries to know what I want better than I do. Search the web. Give me links to websites. This seems obvious to me, but everyone is trying to be like Google. I'm convinced the death of the web and in…

The death of the web is because most people don't want what you want. They don't mind walled gardens, so long as they are easy to use and have the content and connections that they want to see. The audience of HN is extremely skewed towards preferring systems that allow tinkering but that's not what the market wants.

Imagine a commenter in a walled garden complaining about the walled garden's audience. "Facebook's audience is extremely skewed toward..., but that's not what...." How long before some Facebook reader asks, "Then why are you using it?"

If one dislikes systems that allow tinkering then why read and comment on HN. I do not understand.

Re: The next Google

#433

I just went on a mini vacation to Vegas, and was thinking how nice it would be to just call up someone and ask for some simple advice. I did a bunch of online research before I booked things, but man was it painful. There are so many copy-cat blogs who just throw together a bunch of basic information with no real research done in order to get those clicks/adwords. For example: best hotel pool in vegas. Seems simple e…

I can empathize exactly. Trying to do a bit of research on an upcoming trip seems like something that should be fun or at least not feel like an overly burdensome exercise. But as you point out it's a giant time drain filled with frustration. Everything from the booking sites that create a high pressure experience("3 people are looking at this room right now!") to the influencer chum pages that seem to be more about marketing their brand than providing practical information. You can lose two hours trying to research a trip and still not got anywhere. A service where you could talk to local people would be great. That's a service would be worth paying for, like a travel advisor.

Re: The next Google

#435
post #425
post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t that called a travel agent?

Are travel agents particularly well travelled and well enough that they'd know specifics about hotel pools in Vegas?

Pre-Expedia, travel agents would be able to tell you these things (at least for popular destinations)

Re: The next Google

#436

I think 'more customization' which is a theme with a lot of these alternatives is a fundamental dead end. I don't know where this persistent myth comes from that people love choice and tinkering, because they clearly don't. There's a huge cost associated with having to make choices, and one feature of successful modern apps is that they're frictionless. That's why TikTok is so successful. There's no login, no user ch…

i think more customization can help you get power users to spread the word, as long as it doesn't get in the way of someone who just wants to do/read/understand as little as possible to get results

Re: The next Google

#437

I think 'more customization' which is a theme with a lot of these alternatives is a fundamental dead end. I don't know where this persistent myth comes from that people love choice and tinkering, because they clearly don't. There's a huge cost associated with having to make choices, and one feature of successful modern apps is that they're frictionless. That's why TikTok is so successful. There's no login, no user ch…

>I don't know where this persistent myth comes from that people love choice and tinkering, because they clearly don't.

I think it really depends on the product.

If it's something like Photoshop or Vim which are used by professionals for multiple hours a day and productivity is to be maximised, customisation is not just a nice-to-have but a necessity. Power users appreciate it too.

You're absolutely right in 90% of the cases, though I'm not sure which box web search would fall into.

Re: The next Google

#438
post #394

Know how you’ll find the next Google? Same way those of us over 45 found this one. A respected friend or colleague will tell you that the next Google just works better. That’s what made Google search win: it just worked better. It’s now I found out about it and probably how you did if you’re pushing 50. We didn’t care about pagerank or know what it is. That came after we used it and wanted to know why it worked bette…

I can still visualize a memory from my high school library, when my friend showed me Google search for the first time. I think I had been using Dogpile.

Same. No more paging through aggregate results from different search engines.

Re: The next Google

#439

I think 'more customization' which is a theme with a lot of these alternatives is a fundamental dead end. I don't know where this persistent myth comes from that people love choice and tinkering, because they clearly don't. There's a huge cost associated with having to make choices, and one feature of successful modern apps is that they're frictionless. That's why TikTok is so successful. There's no login, no user ch…

I still love one of the design stories of Steve Jobs in Isaacson's biography. I don't remember the exact phrasing, but essentially someone at Apple was showing Jobs the new DVD burner software the company wanted to distribute. It likely had a ton of options to it (like other dvd writer software of the time). Jobs' response was roughly "Hmm, ok. Here's what we're going to do. There's going to be a box, and you drag the files you want on the dvd into the box. Then we're going to have a button that says "Burn DVD" and when you press it, it burns the DVD"

Re: The next Google

#440

Know how you’ll find the next Google? Same way those of us over 45 found this one. A respected friend or colleague will tell you that the next Google just works better. That’s what made Google search win: it just worked better. It’s now I found out about it and probably how you did if you’re pushing 50. We didn’t care about pagerank or know what it is. That came after we used it and wanted to know why it worked bette…

That's going to be conversational/NLP search. Curious to see how Andi plays out.

The simplest explanation is the scene from from Wall-E with the captain of the ship discussing with the A.I. It will be fluently integrated in our everyday lives.

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