Google is run by MBAs now. This is all they know: how to maximize for next quarter's profits, or profits until their RSUs vest.
Google appears to be scaling up the ads it shows to Gmail users
81–90 of 271 posts
Re: Google appears to be scaling up the ads it shows to Gmail users
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
A lot of people like to give you a hard time for using an “old” email address like yahoo, hotmail, or aol.
A few years back I was told I almost wasn't considered for an interview because I was, at the time, using a Yahoo email address.
Wouldn't that be illegal? Like discriminating a candidate because them having an address in a (perceived) bad neighborhood.
Re: Google appears to be scaling up the ads it shows to Gmail users
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
Customer-friendly? Maybe if you've never required support or human engagement for any issue. If you have, Google is by far the worst among the big tech companies.
If you have Google Fi, it's surprising how good support it. Create a request and a real person calls you within 5 minutes to help out. They are actually helpful as well. The best part is you don't go through 15 minutes of robo voice assistance debugging hell.
I have Google Fi and I believe your information is out of date. When it turned from Project Fi to Google Fi there were other changes made, and support turned to absolute crap. Not only that but buying phones from Google Fi is super risky now, as the phones keep getting stolen in transit and then Google refuses to do anything. Even more of an issue is that they've outsourced their phone insurance to another company that denies all claims.
Google Fi is a perfect example of how horrible Google is at customer service. They start new projects with reasonable CS but they simply can not scale it as the service takes on more users- or they drop it on purpose to improve their margins.
Re: Google appears to be scaling up the ads it shows to Gmail users
#84Google's products do seem to be getting progressively shittier, in profound and confusing ways. take their home assistant, which used to be able to find information online and compose an answer to your natural langauges queries. Now she just says "I don't know, but I found this online..." Google Search seems to be getting truly terrible. Results completely unrelated to what I'm looking for are placing in the first pa…
It’s becoming equally shitty on the the apple side of the fence as well. To the point where I barely see daylight between iOS and pixel. Which is a huge drop for apple.
Re: Google appears to be scaling up the ads it shows to Gmail users
#85Just to be clear: Gmail is displaying ads for free use of Gmail. If you pay for Gmail (Google Workspaces, previously known as G-Suite) then they do not serve ads.
Also not for those using the free (soon to be killed off over and over again story) legacy version. Almost switched since they were going to kill it but was too lazy to do it straight away and they didn't do it in the end, so lucky me.
Re: Google appears to be scaling up the ads it shows to Gmail users
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you're public you must grow, if you're private you can choose when and how to grow based on what makes sense for the business. The only thing really pushing you is competitors and inflation. There are no shareholders/investors breathing down your neck for returns. When you're private you can actually say, "you know what, I'm content where we are being filthy rich."
I understand your sentiment but human history has shown us that "being content being filthy rich" is short lived at best. It is a way of keeping score and even people who no longer need to work at all don't just want more money, they want a LOT more money.
Perhaps only the famous/notorious people you read about. The industry drives CEO behavior, not individuals or even one class of individuals.
Re: Google appears to be scaling up the ads it shows to Gmail users
#87Just to be clear: Gmail is displaying ads for free use of Gmail. If you pay for Gmail (Google Workspaces, previously known as G-Suite) then they do not serve ads.
Is it worth paying for workspace? If I'm a single person? I'm open to paying $100 for Google products. I already paid for Google one
Re: Google appears to be scaling up the ads it shows to Gmail users
#88I afraid at this point, this topic being so old now, that anyone still using google products is a bit of a laggard. People have been going google-free for ages because of the ever worsening experience - search this site, you don't need me to provide refs.
Re: Google appears to be scaling up the ads it shows to Gmail users
#89[deleted]
Re: Google appears to be scaling up the ads it shows to Gmail users
#90Google now seems deep into the enshittification [1] process. Of all the big tech companies, they seemed the most customer-friendly, the least constrained by the need to optimize their money hose. But I guess the economic logic of tying executive compensation to short-term share price simply overwhelmed other considerations. The stock must go up, so revenues must grow, so Google must monetize everything to the maximum…
Customer-friendly? Maybe if you've never required support or human engagement for any issue. If you have, Google is by far the worst among the big tech companies.
"Seemed" is the operative word here. Past tense, and indefinite.