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Alphabet tops $100B quarterly revenue for first time, cloud grows 34%

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Re: Alphabet tops $100B quarterly revenue for first time, cloud grows 34%

#151

Post by _DeadFred_ »

seattleeng wrote: post #138
raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All reports are that Apple isn’t really focusing on building their own server side models and is mostly just going to be a platform for other companies to fight over just like they said they don’t pay OpenAI anything for the current integration and Google pays them $20B+ a year to be the default search engine. It makes no sense for Apple to waste money on having their own LLM when they are becoming commoditized - jus…

So they’ll just die when Google has a seamless AI-first mobile experience where consumers just ask their Pixel to do X and it happens. Disruption comes for everyone, hardware isnt a moat

Google broke my ability to set timers via voice (a core thing my phone used to do forever) for like a year. I no longer use that functionality on my phone (I can't trust Google not to break it, if it can't routinely work, it can't be part of my routine, and I personally don't enjoy cooking dinner twice after a long day).

Google replaced 'Google play the news' from playing news clips from sources I chose and trust, to an AI generated news feed that I have zero faith isn't hallucinated and from sources I have no idea about. Another multiple times daily function I used my phone for, broken by 'Google AI' because 'I should be happy with whatever they give me, it's a free product'.

Google's Youtube/Music algorithm punishes me if I flag AI slop in my feeds by removing those genres/topics, trying to force AI slop into my feed. This one I actually (well until it runs out the end of the month because I canceled) pay for.

Google has trained their users not to use Pixel's voice/AI capabilities, and to resent them (in the typical Google way, be damned with the old it's been replaced with our new half baked product that will itself be replaced shortly after the bugs are gone and it starts to work kind of OK (still really bad, but Google justifies bad is OK because it's 'FREE').

No one is integrating anything new from Google into their routine. No one is integrating Google's broken AI stuff into their daily routine, because it's friggen BROKEN. Google just one day removed me from setting voice timers with my phone, a core use case, for a year, because they could. My routine is not going back to using Google for things I count on just working because Google will arbitrarily break it and I will get the impact (maybe a burnt dinner, maybe faulty news reporting that causes me a heart attack, maybe who knows, maybe a missed important appointment tomorrow?).

Google doesn't care that I'm hit because 'it's good enough for a free product' to them. Everyone I know with a Pixel hates the ecosystem right now. Removing sideloading might fix that and improve good will I guess though? God Google doesn't know and hates their users/advocates/supporters. Google has moved themselves from 'a good solution' to 'good enough for a cheap device and free tools', and made damn sure I know it (via burnt dinners, having to move to my podcast app for (less current) news, by degrading my music/youtube feeds).

Google is a zombie company, they are dead, they just don't know it yet. Coming soon... Alphabet, a Bending Spoons company.

Re: Alphabet tops $100B quarterly revenue for first time, cloud grows 34%

#153

Post by senordevnyc »

UncleMeat wrote: post #35
lazyfanatic42 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Simple math proves that wrong. You don't make billions doing nothing.

Google is definitely not doing nothing. A lot of smart people are there who work very hard. But, as a Google employee for about a decade at this point, I really do think that the company is trash when it comes to planning and coordination and is getting worse at it over time. I think that there are a lot of things it never really needed to learn how to do because the ads money is just so outrageous.

Like the resource curse for companies that stumble on a cash spigot. Still, maybe that's fine, because they wouldn't exist otherwise. Just don't expect too much from them outside that?

I wish they'd just spin out more companies so they could rise or fall on their own.

Re: Alphabet tops $100B quarterly revenue for first time, cloud grows 34%

#154

Post by overfeed »

acdha wrote: post #141
overfeed wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The chances of Alphabet losing interest in AI are vanishingly small. Google (pre-Alphabet remaming) was the AI company before AI companies were called that.

They didn’t lose interest in messaging when they cycled through half a dozen different apps but the problem was they were building products they wanted to exist rather than what users wanted. I’d worry about AI getting similar churn if PMs make their name by launching a new product rather than improving an existing one.

The root comment was investor-centric, i.e. if you want to divert some investment towards AI, Alphabet is a smart bet.

Investors got great returns as Google churned messaging platforms, and this will likely be the case ad Google churns through AI products, or even entire architectures.

Re: Alphabet tops $100B quarterly revenue for first time, cloud grows 34%

#155

Post by Jcowell »

sjs382 wrote: post #145
overfeed wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The chances of Alphabet losing interest in AI are vanishingly small. Google (pre-Alphabet remaming) was the AI company before AI companies were called that.

> Google (pre-Alphabet renaming) was the AI company before AI companies were called that. I disagree. They're an advertising/attention company. The jury's still out on whether their AI offerings will compliment their existing business or will cannibalize it. And in the case that it cannibalizes the advertising business, will they undermine/kneecap it to protect that cash cow? It's been a while since they've been the…

A company can be multiple things. Just like Apple is a Phone, Tablet, & General Computing Company

Re: Alphabet tops $100B quarterly revenue for first time, cloud grows 34%

#156

Post by raw_anon_1111 »

_DeadFred_ wrote: post #151
seattleeng wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So they’ll just die when Google has a seamless AI-first mobile experience where consumers just ask their Pixel to do X and it happens. Disruption comes for everyone, hardware isnt a moat

Google broke my ability to set timers via voice (a core thing my phone used to do forever) for like a year. I no longer use that functionality on my phone (I can't trust Google not to break it, if it can't routinely work, it can't be part of my routine, and I personally don't enjoy cooking dinner twice after a long day). Google replaced 'Google play the news' from playing news clips from sources I chose and trust, to…

> Google is a zombie company, they are dead, they just don't know it yet. Coming soon... Alphabet, a Bending Spoons company

Google isn’t the next IBM. It’s the next Microsoft - boring, extremely profitable because of inertia. But crappy end user products.

Re: Alphabet tops $100B quarterly revenue for first time, cloud grows 34%

#157

Post by Fire-Dragon-DoL »

shubhamjain wrote: post #31

This is one of the reasons I believe Google will ultimately win the AI race once the VC funding tap runs dry. For all its breakthroughs, OpenAI lacks any fiscal discipline. Sam Altman seems convinced that as long as they’re delivering value and have a clear mission, the money will somehow take care of itself. That’s fine for now, but the music will stop playing one day. When it comes to software engineering at scale,…

Isn't Microsoft maybe waiting for that and grab OpenAI at a huge discount?

Re: Alphabet tops $100B quarterly revenue for first time, cloud grows 34%

#158

Post by Fire-Dragon-DoL »

shubhamjain wrote: post #31

This is one of the reasons I believe Google will ultimately win the AI race once the VC funding tap runs dry. For all its breakthroughs, OpenAI lacks any fiscal discipline. Sam Altman seems convinced that as long as they’re delivering value and have a clear mission, the money will somehow take care of itself. That’s fine for now, but the music will stop playing one day. When it comes to software engineering at scale,…

To be fair, Alphabet id REQUIRED to be strong in AI. Google as a search engine is losing clicks to its own AI summaries. If they didn't have that, they would risk the ad business in the future

Re: Alphabet tops $100B quarterly revenue for first time, cloud grows 34%

#159

Post by sjs382 »

Jcowell wrote: post #155
sjs382 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Google (pre-Alphabet renaming) was the AI company before AI companies were called that. I disagree. They're an advertising/attention company. The jury's still out on whether their AI offerings will compliment their existing business or will cannibalize it. And in the case that it cannibalizes the advertising business, will they undermine/kneecap it to protect that cash cow? It's been a while since they've been the…

A company can be multiple things. Just like Apple is a Phone, Tablet, & General Computing Company

Agreed, but there's no denying that selling advertising is Google/Alphabet's primary business. And it's not even close.

Re: Alphabet tops $100B quarterly revenue for first time, cloud grows 34%

#160

Post by sjs382 »

acdha wrote: post #141
overfeed wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The chances of Alphabet losing interest in AI are vanishingly small. Google (pre-Alphabet remaming) was the AI company before AI companies were called that.

They didn’t lose interest in messaging when they cycled through half a dozen different apps but the problem was they were building products they wanted to exist rather than what users wanted. I’d worry about AI getting similar churn if PMs make their name by launching a new product rather than improving an existing one.

That makes sense framing it as a skepticism about Google Gemini (a single product) rather than their interest in a category (AI).

I'm less worried about them genuinely losing interest then Google outlasting their AI competition and then kneecapping their AI product to protect their cash cow.

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