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Google cites 'durable cost savings' as CEO Sundar Pichai warns of more layoffs

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Re: Google cites 'durable cost savings' as CEO Sundar Pichai warns of more layoffs

#41

Google search has gotten so bad I’m genuinely considering trying bing

I switched to Bing (and some smaller engines) after Google failed to find exact ASCII matches on sites I care about.

Bing is not yet superior, but it's mostly good enough and abandoning Google felt like a big relief somehow...

Re: Google cites 'durable cost savings' as CEO Sundar Pichai warns of more layoffs

#42
post #25

Can anyone name one thing of value this dude has actually done in his time in charge. Feel in a few years he's gonna have a worse reputation than Ballmer in terms of squandering potential.

growing chrome from nothing to monopoly-level browser?

I think OP is referring to Sundar's time as a CEO which started in October 2015. Crome's rise had already flattened out by then: https://www.statista.com/statistics/545520/market-share-of-i...

Re: Google cites 'durable cost savings' as CEO Sundar Pichai warns of more layoffs

#43

Sundar should have been let go years ago, but I guess the pandemic money explosion made it easy for him to show big returns. But look between the margins and it's clear google is rotting on the inside. Search sucks. Gemini a year behind (despite google inventing transformers). Canceling products left and right leaving no consumer faith in new offerings. Cloud platform being an absolute terrible experience, even if yo…

Unless you look at things with the money lense.

Seems to me Search must be yielding like crazy. Android is too. User trust is high. Youtube is booming even though tiktok.

I think the man is doing great. At least he is printing real money.

Re: Google cites 'durable cost savings' as CEO Sundar Pichai warns of more layoffs

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think ChatGPT will stay free of ads, SEO-spam, tracking, profiling, all the stuff that's wrong with traditional search?

I think SEO-spam would be much harder to implemented in an LLM vs. a traditional search engine. The harder part is figuring out an economic model where sources get any traffic in the first place.

In fact LLMs are precisely what is helping SEO spam destroy Google (and all other) search. That may be why MS loves ChatGPT so much.

Re: Google cites 'durable cost savings' as CEO Sundar Pichai warns of more layoffs

#46
post #37

Sundar should have been let go years ago, but I guess the pandemic money explosion made it easy for him to show big returns. But look between the margins and it's clear google is rotting on the inside. Search sucks. Gemini a year behind (despite google inventing transformers). Canceling products left and right leaving no consumer faith in new offerings. Cloud platform being an absolute terrible experience, even if yo…

Idk man Bard has been better than ChatGPT imho. It has reduced my time spent on Google Search or watching long youtube videos (which is where most of their Ad revenue comes from). Not sure if thats already showing up in quarterly results but it's a hard job keeping those numbers up while this big transition is happening. Doesn't matter who the CEO is.

Not working for me.

And, I'd like to add, "Hey Google" has also effectively stopped working, despite me having a Pixel phone (I used to use it to dial hands-free. That's no longer possible). And it's literally every feature, even the "hey, Google" recognition has become a crapshoot.

Re: Google cites 'durable cost savings' as CEO Sundar Pichai warns of more layoffs

#47

Google is still a juggernaut BUT... I don't think anyone here would claim competitor's "AI" isn't going to take a chunk of their search market, would they? Search quality was diminishing for the past few years as it is, but there was no real alternative. Now I'm using ChatGPT as much (or more) than Google. Almost everything about Google Search is mediocre.

Superior technology is not enough to win. For the most part, people are happy with Google, it integrates well into all that various surfaces folks use, etc. ChatGPT had a lot of hype and seemed the closest to getting mind share to the point where it would affect search usage, but from what I can tell, it's not made a dent. Anecdotes from the bubble of technologists don't really speak to the wider trends anymore. Thin…

Those of us Of A Certain Age™ would add VHS to that list in your second paragraph. BetaMax was better in almost every way and even had the Sony name behind it, but in the end it didn’t matter.

Re: Google cites 'durable cost savings' as CEO Sundar Pichai warns of more layoffs

#49
post #19

Can anyone name one thing of value this dude has actually done in his time in charge. Feel in a few years he's gonna have a worse reputation than Ballmer in terms of squandering potential.

At least Ballmer was funny and charismatic.

funny: ok. charismatic: this is too much!

Re: Google cites 'durable cost savings' as CEO Sundar Pichai warns of more layoffs

#50

Google search has gotten so bad I’m genuinely considering trying bing

I've switched to Kagi a year ago and haven't looked back. I've tried Bing and DDG before and went back to Google immediately. Not so with Kagi, since switching over to it I've googled less than a handful of times. Seriously, try it.
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