Nice. Last still-good Google product that they will manage to kill.
Google appears to be scaling up the ads it shows to Gmail users
131–140 of 271 posts
Re: Google appears to be scaling up the ads it shows to Gmail users
#132I'm confused, I never see any ads in Gmail (using the web interface or the mobile app), and I don't pay for it. Is that really still a thing? If my email app was showing me ads I'd obviously switch and/or start paying for it.
I haven't seen an ad on Gmail since at least 2010. I remember it because how snappy the email interface was back then.
Re: Google appears to be scaling up the ads it shows to Gmail users
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
Am I naive to think that when you make $226 million in a year like Pichai that money should stop being your major driving force and that your reputation is more important? Like what else could he buy? But his reputation is taking severe hits. Maybe I just don't understand ultra rich people though. Maybe money is everything.
Wouldn’t half of that go to tax, though?
No. Just under 1/3 would go to taxes.
Re: Google appears to be scaling up the ads it shows to Gmail users
#134Only GMail? YouTube is almost unusable nowadays.
Yeah I caved in. Paying now. But I realized I watch more docs on YouTube than any other streaming video platform. More than Netflix, more than Prime, more than Disney+, more than HBO. So I cancelled Netflix and Disney+ and now just keep HBO and Prime. I don't love Prime but I still like the Prime delivery. So whatever, makes sense. I consume YouTube the most. Might as well not make my life hell and suffer through add…
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Re: Google appears to be scaling up the ads it shows to Gmail users
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
That analogy doesn't hold up. Because if consumers genuinely don't notice the sesame seeds are gone, that means they never cared in the first place, and this is a better outcome for everyone. Why were farmers growing useless sesame seeds in the first place? Now they can switch to blueberries or whatever and the world is better off. It's kind of like, thank god those nasty canned olive slices finally disappeared from…
If we replace 10% of food with sawdust and people keep buying it, that proves that consumers don't actually want to pay for the real thing and the company that sells it them is doing them a favor.
Yes it would, if that happened.
On the other hand, if consumers see that sawdust is one of the top four ingredients in the ingredients list, nobody's going to buy it.
So I don't know what your point is, because your hypothetical would never happen.
Whereas phasing olive slices out of salads is something that's happened. Or replacing fancy glossy plastic clamshell packaging with cheaper generic recyclable cardboard packaging when buying things online.
Re: Google appears to be scaling up the ads it shows to Gmail users
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
>We won't get anything other than this unless Google decides to do a huge round of buybacks and go private. The spice must flow because only growth makes money for the people who actually own Google. And after they go private why do you think they won't care about growth/money?
They will still care, but they have more freedom to take the longer view.
They have the freedom to take the longer view right now if they want. There's no law mandating they be driven by quarterly profits.
Re: Google appears to be scaling up the ads it shows to Gmail users
#137I guess I should have seen this coming. If Google is concerned enough about their bottom line to have layoffs, then presumably they're also looking for low-hanging fruit to (they hope) increase revenue. This reminds me of Microsoft's increased injection of ads into Windows 11. I'm curious if/when market dynamics will limit the extent to which Microsoft/Google do this.
> I'm curious if/when market dynamics will limit the extent to which Microsoft/Google do this.
Market dynamics in this case is just good ol' market failure. Google can 10x the number of pre-roll ads on Youtube, and lose maybe 1% of their audience. Where's every going to go, Peertube? Vimeo? Dailymotion?
Re: Google appears to be scaling up the ads it shows to Gmail users
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
That analogy doesn't hold up. Because if consumers genuinely don't notice the sesame seeds are gone, that means they never cared in the first place, and this is a better outcome for everyone. Why were farmers growing useless sesame seeds in the first place? Now they can switch to blueberries or whatever and the world is better off. It's kind of like, thank god those nasty canned olive slices finally disappeared from…
This is such a Hackernews comment. > The idea that a company can keep removing something consumers want to pay for, but they won't notice, just doesn't exist in the real world. Have you heard of shrinkflation?
...And yours is such a Hacker News response? I don't know why you're even saying that.
But yes, everybody's heard of shrinkflation, so I don't know what your point is.
When inflation is happening or product-specific input costs are increasing, companies can either raise prices or shrink quantities. They have to do one or the other if they want to stay in business.
Consumers are well aware of what's happening. Everybody knows a Haagen Dazs "pint" isn't a pint anymore.
But shrinkflation isn't bad and it isn't hidden. If someone doesn't want to pay more than $5 for a container of ice cream, then keeping the price $5 but reducing the quantity is better meeting consumer demand, than keeping the size but upping the price to $6. It's the better tradeoff.
In fact, shrinkflation is a perfect example of my argument -- 10 oz bags of potato chips haven't shrunk down to 1 oz. It happens in a narrow band, just like the number of sesame seeds might. Things don't shrink down until they just disappear, unless consumers want them to.
Re: Google appears to be scaling up the ads it shows to Gmail users
#139Google 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…
I agree. It's been quite a while that every decision they made was on the worse side of things. It surprises me how regular it is. Especially since they have access to history of big wealthy corps, and big pockets.. but apparently not what it takes to correct course.
Re: Google appears to be scaling up the ads it shows to Gmail users
#140Google 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 went public almost 2 decades ago, ads have always been their bread and butter. "MBA" on Hacker News at this point is just code for "Engineering leadership is greedy".