The man who killed Google Search? • Hacker News Board

Re: The man who killed Google Search?

#101

Post by dang » Tue, Apr 23, 2024, 6:29 PM UTC

Anybody have a better title? 'Better' here means (1) less baity; (2) more accurate and neutral; and (3) preferably a representative phrase from the article itself.

"The man who killed Google Search" is too baity. See the 'unless' in https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html: "Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait"

Edit (since there are objections): I'm not taking a position for or against the article; I haven't read it. This is just bog-standard HN moderation regarding titles. I skimmed the article looking for a representative phrase and couldn't find one on first pass. That is rather unusual and when it happens I sometimes ask the community for help.

Edit 2: since there's no consensus on this I'm just going to reify that fact via the trailing-question-mark trick and call it a day.

Re: The man who killed Google Search?

#102

Post by nbittich » Tue, Apr 23, 2024, 6:29 PM UTC

Everytime I need to make a search on Google, I start to feel anxious, already convinced I'm not going to find anything useful about the problem I'm trying to solve. This often means I already tried everything else. It's a sad situation.a product shouldn't make you feel anxious.

Re: The man who killed Google Search?

#103

Post by leephillips » Tue, Apr 23, 2024, 6:30 PM UTC

arromatic wrote: post #22

Question : Why larry and brin not caring about it ? They built one of world's best and biggest company and it's dying . Even if they did not care about that , their money is still tied to google stock right ? That should raise some concern from them.

And they know exactly what’s happening. In 2006 they said,

“we expect that advertising funded search engines will be inherently biased towards the advertisers and away from the needs of the consumers.”

http://www.zdnet.com/article/google-advertising-and-search-e...

Re: The man who killed Google Search?

#104

Post by rrrix1 » Tue, Apr 23, 2024, 6:30 PM UTC

It's April 23rd, 2024, and I am still looking for a good, reliable, honest and simple search engine.

All I want to do is search.

No AI.

No ads.

No shopping.

Please don't "Answer my question." I enjoy doing my own original research, thanks.

I'm entirely willing - wanting even - to pay for it.

Currently Kagi has my $, but I'm saddened and frustrated that they're not even focused on Search, they're focused on AI[1] and t-shirts.

Amazingly, in 2024, there is still a market opportunity for a good search engine.

It can't really just be me, can it?

[1]: https://hn.algolia.com/?query=%22kagi%22+%22ai%22

Re: The man who killed Google Search?

#105

Post by shadowgovt » Tue, Apr 23, 2024, 6:31 PM UTC

arromatic wrote: post #90

morphentropic wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man they used to drop some awesome stuff: Google Maps, GMail (remember the hype over Gmail invites?), Google Earth... then they just stopped improving stuff and started releasing multiple versions of things and abandoned them all, over and over again. Very strange.

They could at least open source all the stuff on google graveyard which will give us so many awesome softwares . Sadly they are now now sitting on some random hard drives.

Not really. The relevant parts of those programs are basically buildable based on a list of their features.

The technology that one would get in an open source situation isn't very usable outside of Google's ecosystem because Google builds software on top of Google's stack. Like, without the monitoring infrastructure they've built or the Borg scaling infrastructure, their software is actually kind of fragile because the ethos is " If it starts to malfunction break it quickly so it can cause a monitoring event and to get replaced by auto restart."

The Google way of doing things is actually not a great way to architect most software that isn't running on a giant data center structure.

Re: The man who killed Google Search?

#106

Post by deanCommie » Tue, Apr 23, 2024, 6:31 PM UTC

arromatic wrote: post #97

hinkley wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I knew Google had jumped the shark when Larry and Sergey started trying to convert a Boeing jet into a corporate jet. That was a couple of years before the rest of us started smelling smoke coming out.

I am unable to understand your comment . Can you please explain a little bit more ?

Their passion and energy used to go into organizing the world's information and presenting it to google users at an unprecedented cost.

Their passion and energy now goes into designing the most comfortable super jet for their free time.

[is OP's implication, i have no idea if it's true]

Re: The man who killed Google Search?

#107

Post by xjay » Tue, Apr 23, 2024, 6:32 PM UTC

arromatic wrote: post #22

Question : Why larry and brin not caring about it ? They built one of world's best and biggest company and it's dying . Even if they did not care about that , their money is still tied to google stock right ? That should raise some concern from them.

I can imagine this happening in many places: 1) Idealist phase. 2) Hype phase. 3) Novelty wears off = Leave. 4) Bean counter phase. 5) ???

Re: The man who killed Google Search?

#108

Post by riku_iki » Tue, Apr 23, 2024, 6:32 PM UTC

arromatic wrote: post #94

riku_iki wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

they have much more money than they really need for everyday happiness.

100 billion (round figured) isn't a lot when you are going to create a new large company or invent fusion or fix climate .

I have impression they just enjoy their billioners lives, and do not have ambitions anymore. Also Larry has some sickness, so, maybe he has other life issues depending on his current condition.

Re: The man who killed Google Search?

#109

Post by guardiangod » Tue, Apr 23, 2024, 6:32 PM UTC

dang wrote: post #101

Anybody have a better title? 'Better' here means (1) less baity; (2) more accurate and neutral; and (3) preferably a representative phrase from the article itself. "The man who killed Google Search" is too baity. See the 'unless' in https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html : " Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait " Edit (since there are objections): I'm not taking a position for…

That's what the article is arguing though. That a certain individual is 'killing' (not killed yet) Google Search. A different title would be misleading.

Re: The man who killed Google Search?

#110

Post by ethbr1 » Tue, Apr 23, 2024, 6:32 PM UTC

akaij wrote: post #96

romanhn wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. I struggled to keep going after "computer scientist class traitor". A very juvenile take that reflects poorly on the author, IMO.

I thought it was a very good description. The person mentioned is responsible for turning one of the most important pieces of software used by billions, into user-hostile experiences that's better for only a few, including himself, just for profits.

As context, I offer the engineer oath used by some countries for certified engineers:

>> I am an Engineer. In my profession, I take deep pride. To it, I owe solemn obligations.

>> As an engineer, I pledge to practice integrity and fair dealing, tolerance and respect, and to uphold devotion to the standards and dignity of my profession. I will always be conscious that my skill carries with it the obligation to serve humanity by making the best use of the Earth's precious wealth.

>> As an engineer, I shall participate in none but honest enterprises. When needed, my skill and knowledge shall be given, without reservation, for the public good. In the performance of duty, and in fidelity to my profession, I shall give my utmost.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Engineer#Oath