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Google to reduce workforce by 12k

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Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#981

Post by eitland »

talleyrand wrote: post #954
michaelgrosner2 wrote: post #792

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I literally only hear that Google search is bad from HN. No one else in my daily life - my family, friends, people out at my gym or grocery store - ever complain that Google search is bad. In fact, Google is still the default for looking up information anywhere. It's sentiments like this that make you realize how much of a bubble HN exists in. OTOH, people have trouble using GMail, google home, or ban YouTube in thei…

I've heard this over and over on HN in recent years and I simply don't understand it. Almost any Google search I run has just what I am looking for as the first or second choice. Google frequently knows what I am looking for after I type in the first few words of the search! Are HN people not logged in when they search?

For me it is not a problem with ordinary searches: directions, recipes etc, no problem.

But try to find a specific error message from an npm package!

First you get useless results because Google found something it rather wanted to show you.

Then you add doublequotes and realize the Google results are full of utterly irrelevant pages lacking half my keywords.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#982

Post by eitland »

swarnie wrote: post #817
michaelgrosner2 wrote: post #792

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I literally only hear that Google search is bad from HN. No one else in my daily life - my family, friends, people out at my gym or grocery store - ever complain that Google search is bad. In fact, Google is still the default for looking up information anywhere. It's sentiments like this that make you realize how much of a bubble HN exists in. OTOH, people have trouble using GMail, google home, or ban YouTube in thei…

To expand on this how often do you have a conversation with someone where you evaluate or recommend search engines? I'm going to assume never because that would be both weird and boring.

I work in an environment where this might come up once a month or something on slack or in meetings etc.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#983

Post by eitland »

nvrspyx wrote: post #794
deadmutex wrote: post #777

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Does he really believe this? Google Translate, Google Photos, YouTube Recommendations, etc. and many many more are powered by AI. It is included also sprinkled in features such as gmail smart reply, etc.

Google Translate and Google Photos are good examples, but YouTube Recommendations is absolute garbage in my experience. Heck, I'm not even sure it's using any sort of AI because it seems to mostly want to funnel me to the currently most popular videos, not anything similar to the things I actually watch. I mean, it'll recommend new videos from the channels I'm subscribed to, but almost everything else is music videos…

Same as with ads:

There's always another pay-to-win "strategy" game, another "revolutionary Japanese chefs knife", some brilliant genius that has made a device that heats your house for free

... not a single remotely useful ad.

I too have tried to click them away as not relevant, but I think Google now sell ads by impression, not by clicks so they don't care at all.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#984

Post by andsoitis »

jbirer wrote: post #700
xiphias2 wrote: post #584

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google of 2008 didn't do this, I was there. The difference is that current Google is full of non-tech non-sales people who fight with eachother to reorganize tech people who are trying to build things. Other tech people change the API for no reason and give work to 1000 more people to ,,upgrade to the newer system'' and stop maintaining the old system. Also the new CEO is not a software engineer, so he doesn't unders…

It's really unfair that the incompetent have so much power over the competent and block their potential.

> over the competent and block their potential

“I’m competent but I can’t reach my potential because others are blocking me.”

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#985

Post by gilbetron »

dec0dedab0de wrote: post #406

Are all of these layoffs essentially collusion to reduce wages? If they all end up with the same headcount but with a reduced wage in the next year, there should be a class action. Not that those help anyone but lawyers, but it's nice to have an official punishment on record.

While I don't know if it is the sole reason, it certainly is a nice side benefit. I think all the major tech firms figure they can all do a layoff and then hire each other's talent as needed at reduced compensation.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#986

Post by kaczordon »

andromeduck wrote: post #973
kaczordon wrote: post #938

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hindsight is 20/20(pun). Did you sell all your stocks at the top in Jan 2022? No one can predict a recession otherwise they’d be billionaires. How would you expect other people to predict that there would be a recession? IMO google tried to stave off layoffs for as long as possible.

The bar for onsite got rediculoisly low at on point. It varied quite a bit by org but many new hires were clearly not the same caliber as previous years.

THe BaR wAS HiGHeR WhEN i jOiNeD.

Just kidding(a little bit). So many smart people at google though in general the average caliber IME was always really high compared to other places.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#987

Post by jacquesm »

bastardoperator wrote: post #745
jacquesm wrote: post #99

This 'I take full responsibility' thing is getting really tiresome. Of course you take full responsibility, you're the f'ing CEO, and in case on account of this someone loses their house I'm sure you'll make good on it, because it's your responsibility, right?

It's the opposite of taking responsibility though, they're not displaying any actions that can be quantified as them actually being responsible. If a company is doing mass layoffs it's because the executives fucked up, not the employees. The lack of corporate/executive responsibility is off the charts. They make big mistakes and everyone except them pays. I wouldn't be surprised if the executive team have to vacation…

Agreed. This is the rough equivalent of saying 'I take responsibility' while laughing all the way to the bank over the backs of those that made the money in the first place. Absolutely revolting.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#988

Post by karmakurtisaani »

nullhash wrote: post #421

I got accepted at Google back in October for New Grad and my job was to start in May 2023. I am still in “Team Matching” and they told me that I should hear from them by January. I have yet to hear from them, so I take that this is not very ideal.

I passed hiring committee in July. Never got the actual offer, don't think it's happening while these interview results are valid. The money is good so maybe I'll try again in a few years, but it is very demoralizing.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#989

Post by ummonk »

michaelgrosner2 wrote: post #792
ifyoubuildit wrote: post #699

> Pivoting the company to be AI-first years ago led to groundbreaking advances across our businesses and the whole industry. > Thanks to those early investments, Google’s products are better than ever. Does he really believe this? Maybe I'm just biased towards the parts that are annoying and I end up missing the good parts, but search seems worse every day. I worry about using google products for anything essential d…

I literally only hear that Google search is bad from HN. No one else in my daily life - my family, friends, people out at my gym or grocery store - ever complain that Google search is bad. In fact, Google is still the default for looking up information anywhere. It's sentiments like this that make you realize how much of a bubble HN exists in. OTOH, people have trouble using GMail, google home, or ban YouTube in thei…

My mother (quite the opposite of a techie) complains about how hard it is to find stuff on Google - especially unbiased stuff that isn't being promoted by a company or individual with a promotional / commercial agenda.

I don't think the issue for this is with changes Google has made, but rather with the increasing extent to which it's targeted by SEO spam.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#990

Post by ma2rten »

jonp888 wrote: post #140

I work for a company about twice as big as Google. Getting permission to hire anyone is very difficult, and everyone is always 100% busy just to meet customer deadlines(which we often don't). I guess Google and other FAANG-type companies must work in a different way that I can't comprehend if they can just randomly decide to fire 10% of their workforce. If 10% of the people on my project were fired, our customers wou…

a) It's only about 6%

b) Google grew by 30k last year.

c) Google is such a profitable company, because their revenue is not directly tied to number of employees.

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