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Google Blindness

marco.org

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Re: Google Blindness

#61

Post by null_ptr »

varelse wrote: post #19

GMail and Google Maps were my go to apps on Android for years (since 2009 in fact). They both suck now. Combine that with the brick-like interactivity of my less than 2 year-old Galaxy Nexus and I'm abandoning Android for iOS as soon as my contract expires despite the fact I actually prefer a lot of Android's look and feel. To be fair, my Nexus 7 hasn't quite given up the ghost yet, but now that its successor has bee…

I have a Galaxy Nexus with 4.3, and it's been getting progressively laggier with each update. Changing screen orientation, doing text input or moving the cursor inside a body of text, and opening the running apps list are all mildly frustrating.

It's as close to a stock install as you can get, too. It's so disappointing to see perfectly good hardware be so incompetently misused. This phone should fly. So I wonder if this is on purpose to force people to buy new hardware every few years, or if the people working on Android are either understaffed or just not very good developers.

Re: Google Blindness

#63

Post by Oletros »

runjake wrote: post #43

Marco's article is so poorly-written, so poorly thought-out, I don't know where to begin. It's really more an article about hating Google as a whole. Google blindness? Or blind hatred for Apple's competitors? Some gems, though: I think it’s unwise to use many proprietary, hard-to-replace services in such important roles, and I think it’s downright foolish to tie that much of your data and functionality into proprieta…

"The leading Apple pundits (Gruber, Marco, Dalrymple) are getting more and more hateful towards Apple's competitors"

Exactly this, they are more defensive each month it pass

Re: Google Blindness

#64

Post by vondur »

runjake wrote: post #43

Marco's article is so poorly-written, so poorly thought-out, I don't know where to begin. It's really more an article about hating Google as a whole. Google blindness? Or blind hatred for Apple's competitors? Some gems, though: I think it’s unwise to use many proprietary, hard-to-replace services in such important roles, and I think it’s downright foolish to tie that much of your data and functionality into proprieta…

I don't see anything wrong with the writing or thought process behind it. He's listing points on why he does not want to depend on Google's services. They may not mean anything to you. I have so much of my daily online activities wrapped up with a Google account, that I sometimes worry about if I lost access to them. Finding alternatives it possible, but not nearly as tidy as using Google apps.

Re: Google Blindness

#65

Post by anxious »

acqq wrote: post #53
anxious wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll avoid making a comment of how NSA talk is hijacking every thread, but I'll attempt to correct your misgivings: Google's primary business is advertising , meaning that like the publishers of yore they sell "space", now with the advent of technology that "space" gets populated with what the algos determine to be the best suitable ad according to data about the would be viewer of said ad. They don't 'sell their use…

The point is, Google isn't just "selling space." They collect the data about you, admitting themselves that they prefer to never delete anything. The key word is "targeting," remember? In process, they still know more about you than your mother or partner. Somewhere in their guts, there is a collection of data about you, the depth of it not even imaginable before. How we got here: Moxie Marlinspike, 2010: http://www.…

That is a pretty big downgrade in rhetoric on your side: first you were claiming that their business is "surveillance", and that they "sell their users to advertisers" and now that you know better you try to shift the argument to data collection?!

The bottom line is that more data makes better apps, and yes, better ads. I doubt they know you better than "your mother or partner" because I don't know how to measure that (it's an anecdotal, and a fear mongering thing to say).

They collect whatever you allow them to, and they provide ample means of transparency and control. Not to mention the usefulness of their services.

Re: Google Blindness

#66

Post by bane »

runjake wrote: post #43

Marco's article is so poorly-written, so poorly thought-out, I don't know where to begin. It's really more an article about hating Google as a whole. Google blindness? Or blind hatred for Apple's competitors? Some gems, though: I think it’s unwise to use many proprietary, hard-to-replace services in such important roles, and I think it’s downright foolish to tie that much of your data and functionality into proprieta…

Marco is not quite the shill for Apple the Gruber is, but he's pretty close to it.

I've noticed a significant decrease in Daring Fireball posts hitting the front page in recent months, is Gruber now the new Apple shill^H^H^H^H^Hevangelist we have to deal with on HN now?

The only interesting point he makes here is that users shouldn't monoculture their services -- which I think is a good point. Then he proceeds to undermine his own argument.

I bet there are millions of Android users who'd love to use iTunes on their latest Android phone, or some other company's service, but Apple itself is responsible for not rolling these services out beyond their hardware ecosystem (acknowledging the incredibly shitty Windows ports of iTunes), thus preventing non-Apple users from become users of components of Apple's services.

But as it stands, Apple is not a good supporter of Marco's own arguments. In fact, if I don't want to use either company's services, I bet I can use more on my Android device. Hell I can even run my own mail server on my Android phone with half a dozen screen presses if I want to.

Re: Google Blindness

#67

Post by jjindev »

greedo wrote: post #35
jmduke wrote: post #21

So I think there are two points that Paul makes: hardware and services. On the hardware front: I don't really buy the notion that Android hardware is up to par with Apple. I realize this is an inherently subjective argument: I've played with my friends' Android phones and I just don't like the way they look or feel compared to the iPhone. On the services front: I think the argument that "Google is an advertising comp…

It'd be interesting to conduct a blind test, where all the logos/branding were removed from the devices.

It would be interesting to live in a world where you couldn't show off your logo at ... I was about to say "Starbucks" but I should say ... the coffee shop.

This isn't to indict any particular brand, but when a brand is strong enough consumers of that brand use it to self-brand themselves. They wear the halo effect. And as I read Paul's essay I get some undercurrent that he's "hey, it's ok" to self-brand differently.

Re: Google Blindness

#68

Post by bane »

Oletros wrote: post #63
runjake wrote: post #43

Marco's article is so poorly-written, so poorly thought-out, I don't know where to begin. It's really more an article about hating Google as a whole. Google blindness? Or blind hatred for Apple's competitors? Some gems, though: I think it’s unwise to use many proprietary, hard-to-replace services in such important roles, and I think it’s downright foolish to tie that much of your data and functionality into proprieta…

"The leading Apple pundits (Gruber, Marco, Dalrymple) are getting more and more hateful towards Apple's competitors" Exactly this, they are more defensive each month it pass

They're finally running out of places to move their goal posts to.

Re: Google Blindness

#69

Post by Oletros »

seiji wrote: post #12

A lot of people are Children of The Church of Google. They're happy with a 100% data tithing to Google. That's Google's entire business: get data from users then make money from it for the furtherment of Google itself, not the users. A lot of people are Children of The Church of Apple. They're happy with letting Apple carry buckets of data across devices, but the buckets of data remain in the person's control. That's…

I didn't knew that Apple has closed iAds

Re: Google Blindness

#70

Post by dictum »

casca wrote: post #11

We're currently in the stage of the Internet where we can choose our feudal masters[1]. Want Google? Fine. Prefer Apple. No problem. Microsoft? Why not. For me, the issue is that people are becoming more entrenched as time progresses. The cost of preparing to switch can be relatively low - pay $8/year for your own domain and it's possible to keep using the same systems you choose today. Yet if the technological elite…

>The cost of preparing to switch can be relatively low - pay $8/year for your own domain and it's possible to keep using the same systems you choose today.

Domains are not the only thing you need to take into account. There is hosting, deployment, and keeping things up to date and secure.

Take email for example. Google no longer offer free Google Apps accounts, so you have to spend at least $50/year for a single user to use Google Apps Mail with your domain while you prepare to switch to your own server.

To run your own server, you may wish to use a VPS. You can find a cheap provider on LowEndBox, but for additional safety and reliability, you decide to sign up for a DigitalOcean VPS for $5/month.

Then you have to install it, keep it updated, etc.

It's not expensive, but it's not $8/year, and it's not as easy as just having a Gmail account.

This is just email; other services introduce other complications. I really don't want to spread FUD, and I wish more people would break away from the Apple/Google/Microsoft cage.

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