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Is Google’s 20-year search dominance about to end?

economist.com

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Re: Is Google’s 20-year search dominance about to end?

#411

Post by manuelmoreale »

scarmig wrote: post #211
likeabbas wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happened to the Waymo hype? If Waymo manages to break through and become a sufficient AI taxi, then car ownership becomes optional for a majority of Americans (unlike today).

Waymo has always been just a year or two from breaking through. Google's gotten through the first 95% of the work, but the remaining 95% is gonna take awhile.

That maths sure make it a very hard problem to solve. But jokes aside I see your point. Isn’t that always the case with this kind of issues? Doing the first big chunk is relatively easy and then the final details are very hard?

Re: Is Google’s 20-year search dominance about to end?

#412

Post by water-your-self »

Dalewyn wrote: post #396
Bhilai wrote: post #199

Sorry to break it to you folks but if you hated your data being with Google, you are in for a surprise on how atrociously bad Microsoft is at privacy and security. Multiple close friends who have worked at Microsoft tell me that search history data - who is searching what, is basically sitting in systems with ACLs so bad that 20-30K employees have access through transitive membership of groups. To access a customer's…

I hate Big Data(tm) as the next guy in line, but if I have to choose between Google and Microsoft nomming my data I'll happily pick Microsoft every time. Why? For one, I've had a Microsoft account for over 20 years now (anyone remember Hotmail?). It's long past due for me to be complaining, and Microsoft hasn't wronged me in that time anyway. By comparison, my oldest Google account only goes back just over 10 years,…

Your entire argument is based on nostalgia.

These are companies, not family friends.

Re: Is Google’s 20-year search dominance about to end?

#413

Post by emodendroket »

bloblaw wrote: post #160
lvl102 wrote: post #74

ChatGPT is still a novelty. People will kick tires etc but utility is just not there yet.

Similar statements have been made about most dominant technology when it was in its infancy. You are not wrong, but it can quickly go from novelty to necessity once folks start to rely on it.

People said Galileo was a crank, supposedly. But they also said that about the crank raving at the bus station. That people have been wrong about how transformative or not a technology would be in the past really tells us nothing.

Re: Is Google’s 20-year search dominance about to end?

#414

Post by pkulak »

iamgopal wrote: post #338
Someone1234 wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Workspaces originally released in 2006 (inc. Sheets, Docs, Drive was 2012, Calendar was 2009, etc), it was rebranded "G Suite" in 2016 then rebranded "Google Workspaces" in 2020. Rebranding an existing product isn't innovation. Google Cloud is a worse clone of AWS, is that innovative? Redmond-style photocopying? I'll give you TensorFlow, but we're talking about that being their death knell, so congratulations…

GCP is definitely much better if not best cloud offering.

But it’s not innovative.

Re: Is Google’s 20-year search dominance about to end?

#415

Post by emodendroket »

siva7 wrote: post #104

So i tried Bing again after almost a decade for their ChatGTP integration. I can't be the only one who thought this is Yahoo/AltaVista/Lycos/etc. revisited. It's a fucking portal spamming me with news coverage, not a search engine

Can you even use it? I thought you had to be admitted first.

Re: Is Google’s 20-year search dominance about to end?

#416

Post by midoridensha »

trilobyte wrote: post #382
midoridensha wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It has been many years since Google has launched an innovative new product. I can say the exact same thing about countless other large companies: Facebook, Intel, Microsoft, Boeing, AMD, AT&T, I could go on and on. At some point, launching innovative new products isn't really that important for a company, when many people on the services that company provides.

It is if you don't want to wind up like IBM, i.e. - a company that could have been so much more, knew it had to change at the leadership level, and yet still couldn't get out of their own way. Apple's renaissance came because they started releasing innovative products and cannibalizing their own business. Disrupt yourself before someone else does.

Most large companies would just destroy themselves if they tried this. IBM is still there, decades later. Why is it not good enough to just continue to exist and generate profits, even if you aren't the highest-market-cap company on the planet?

Re: Is Google’s 20-year search dominance about to end?

#417

Post by Dalewyn »

water-your-self wrote: post #412
Dalewyn wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate Big Data(tm) as the next guy in line, but if I have to choose between Google and Microsoft nomming my data I'll happily pick Microsoft every time. Why? For one, I've had a Microsoft account for over 20 years now (anyone remember Hotmail?). It's long past due for me to be complaining, and Microsoft hasn't wronged me in that time anyway. By comparison, my oldest Google account only goes back just over 10 years,…

Your entire argument is based on nostalgia. These are companies, not family friends.

Part of it is, but I wouldn't happily pick Microsoft even today if they were as horrible as Google. As far as I'm concerned, Microsoft is the lesser (and more familiar) of two evils so I'll happily pick them.

Re: Is Google’s 20-year search dominance about to end?

#419

Post by Euphorbium »

Someone1234 wrote: post #259
marcopicentini wrote: post #15

It's been a while since they stopped innovating. Although Google, Maps, Youtube are of daily use they are monetized exclusively by advertising which is annoying and hated by many. It has been many years since Google has launched an innovative new product. I don't think ChatGPT will gain daily traction after this hype. Anyway we could say that MSFT and AMZN have demostrated more power to innovate with different busine…

Google stopped being innovative the second their "20% Time" got gutted: > Employees were encouraged to spend up to twenty-percent of their paid work time pursuing personal projects. The objective of the program was to inspire innovation in participating employees and ultimately increase company potential. For Google's part, Gmail and AdSense both arose out of side projects. In 2013, Google discontinued 20 percent tim…

Alphafold. They should pivot to biomedical company.

Re: Is Google’s 20-year search dominance about to end?

#420

Post by oblio »

victor106 wrote: post #341
Bhilai wrote: post #199

Sorry to break it to you folks but if you hated your data being with Google, you are in for a surprise on how atrociously bad Microsoft is at privacy and security. Multiple close friends who have worked at Microsoft tell me that search history data - who is searching what, is basically sitting in systems with ACLs so bad that 20-30K employees have access through transitive membership of groups. To access a customer's…

Both are evil but I agree that Google is less evil than Microsoft. Just like the OP I have first hand info on how atrocious Microsoft’s internal privacy controls are. The later versions of Windows are just ad space for Microsoft to advertise. Azure is the worst of the 3 cloud providers. Horrible developer experience and documentation and reliability. That said, I would still take Satya’s Microsoft over Balmers any da…

> Both are evil but I agree that Google is less evil than Microsoft.

Microsoft is evil v1. Google and everyone post 2000 is evil v2.

They are just as evil as Microsoft but they've learned that amongst other things, you need to a) seem nicer and b) lobby politicians.

I'd argue that made them more evil.

Though it has to be said that Microsoft has learned, too, so at this point they're pretty much the same thing.

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