Google shares hit $1,000 after strong earnings • Hacker News Board

Re: Google shares hit $1,000 after strong earnings

#61

Post by iamhungry » Fri, Oct 18, 2013, 4:11 PM UTC

agilord wrote: post #58

fear91 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess since Google got a court verdict stating that their search results are their "opinion" and thus "free speech", they cannot be really attacked from this point. Add to that the fact that their algorithm is top-secret and probably heavily compartmentalized and it becomes even harder. I am not arguing whether Google breaks a law or not, I simply say that they hurt the smaller players. Getting rankings is getting…

You do realize, that because of the increase of content publishers, getting ranking becomes harder anyway (independent to Google).

This is true but when Google's ad clicks increase by 20+% a quarter what you said is irrelevant, Google is keeping almost all the clicks for Adwords. So you're competing with Google's Youtube, Google Local, Google Images, and the whole shebang. Guess who's winning?

Re: Google shares hit $1,000 after strong earnings

#62

Post by mikeash » Fri, Oct 18, 2013, 4:14 PM UTC

joelrunyon wrote: post #13

lawdawg wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is because Google has started optimizing for the 99% use case, which most HN'ers usually don't fall under. They originally optimized for what most Googlers like (who are generally the 1%) and have since learned that you can't run a business just pleasing the elite and whiny ones.

> They originally optimized for what most Googlers like (who are generally the 1%) and have since learned that you can't run a business just pleasing the elite and whiny ones. Well you can - you just can't offer the service for free.

I think you can even do that. What you can't do is build a $300 billion company that way.

Re: Google shares hit $1,000 after strong earnings

#63

Post by gabriele » Fri, Oct 18, 2013, 4:14 PM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #51

ChrisClark wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's all subjective but I love the new Gmail interfaces, Hangouts is much better than Talk and keeps getting better. Google+ photos is so much better than Picasa, I love how I can search for 'blue cars' in my photos and it returns them even though I've never tagged any of them. Android has seen enormous improvements, I love stock 4.3 and Google Now. Chrome's new 'native' apps wrapper-like thing is neat. Even Youtube…

The Hangouts experience on Android is an abomination. Its why I disabled (yes, fully disabled) Hangouts and switched to Whatsapp. Its that bad.

I double that. It's slow, clunky and unnecessarily heavy. That's why most of my contacts have already switched to other platforms. Talk for Android 4, that added support for multiple accounts, was just good enough.

Re: Google shares hit $1,000 after strong earnings

#64

Post by fersho311 » Fri, Oct 18, 2013, 4:16 PM UTC

Chipotle hit $500 for the first time ever: https://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE%3ACMG&ei=R15hUrCcG6i2i...

As we head towards a strong earnings season, I feel that we might see many companies hitting their highest ever stock price, especially now that the government shutdown has been resolved (sort of)

Re: Google shares hit $1,000 after strong earnings

#65

Post by patrickk » Fri, Oct 18, 2013, 4:18 PM UTC

ChrisClark wrote: post #31

wtvanhest wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which products specifically have gotten better?

It's all subjective but I love the new Gmail interfaces, Hangouts is much better than Talk and keeps getting better. Google+ photos is so much better than Picasa, I love how I can search for 'blue cars' in my photos and it returns them even though I've never tagged any of them. Android has seen enormous improvements, I love stock 4.3 and Google Now. Chrome's new 'native' apps wrapper-like thing is neat. Even Youtube…

I'm using a poor internet connection (because of geography) and my experience is that the usability of Youtube has gone down dramatically.

They made a change a while back where the video will only buffer a few seconds beyond where you've paused it. Previously, you could go a few seconds into the video, pause it, and let it buffer 100% in whatever quality you needed, now I find myself having to constantly pause the video to let it load. One workaround I was forced to use is TaperMonkey Chrome addon with a script that adds a download link underneath the Youtube video in Chrome. I download the video and watch it offline in perfect quality.

Re: Google shares hit $1,000 after strong earnings

#66

Post by Mikeb85 » Fri, Oct 18, 2013, 4:23 PM UTC

ChikkaChiChi wrote: post #45

Mikeb85 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True that. Too many people are obsessed with the stock price, when really it's just marketcap/outstanding shares...

If a person owns share of GOOG, then I think its allowable.

I trade stocks, it's a large part (majority?) of my income. The only metric I care about is the market value of my shares over the book value (ie. percent increase). It's the only thing that counts (since it directly reflects my profit).

Edit - milestones are nice, they're a bit of a psychological boost - but ultimately are worthless (except for said psychological boost they give to other traders, thus potentially driving up price).

Re: Google shares hit $1,000 after strong earnings

#67

Post by 90002 » Fri, Oct 18, 2013, 4:23 PM UTC

dragontamer wrote: post #27

The value of a company is not measured in its individual stock price, but instead measured in its market cap. The real headline should be: Google hits $330 Billion market cap, making it the 3rd most valuable company in the world.

Agreed.

Surprised to see so many financially-minded people fail to understand how the market cap is a better indicator value, not individual stock price.

Granted, this is still a great feat for $GOOG, and it appears they will continue to innovate and sustain such growth.

Re: Google shares hit $1,000 after strong earnings

#68

Post by hugofirth » Fri, Oct 18, 2013, 4:24 PM UTC

iamhungry wrote: post #61

agilord wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do realize, that because of the increase of content publishers, getting ranking becomes harder anyway (independent to Google).

This is true but when Google's ad clicks increase by 20+% a quarter what you said is irrelevant, Google is keeping almost all the clicks for Adwords. So you're competing with Google's Youtube, Google Local, Google Images, and the whole shebang. Guess who's winning?

As far as I see it there is something of a chicken and egg problem here. Google has often maintained, publicly, that its search algorithm is only interested in providing the most utility to end-users.

To an extent (and in some cases, I except that there are exceptions) this holds true:

If I google for a video streaming website I want Youtube to be at the top of the list. Semantically that is the correct answer to the "question" implied by the search.

So:

Are google services popular because they are highly represented in google's search results?

-OR-

Are google services highly represented in google's search results because they are popular.

I absolutely do not believe that google should feel pressured to artificially demote its own offerings over fears of anti-competition litigation/legislation. On the other hand I can see an argument for clearly marking a result that points to a google service as 'belonging' to google.

Re: Google shares hit $1,000 after strong earnings

#69

Post by robryan » Fri, Oct 18, 2013, 4:27 PM UTC

I think this is on the back of product listing ads which are now aggressively pushed, these combined with regular ads crowd out the organic results on ecommerce bases searches.

Unlike text based ads which require significant time/ tech investment to create a campaign across a large number of products, product listing ads just require a merchant to upload a feed.

Re: Google shares hit $1,000 after strong earnings

#70

Post by chill1 » Fri, Oct 18, 2013, 4:29 PM UTC

oellegaard wrote: post #26

JonSkeptic wrote: post #3

I think this is interesting because it matches my user experience with Google products in a very inverted way. Google search has gotten worse and worse lately, forcing me on to other search engines with worse UIs just so that I can get useful results. Youtube UI gets worse every time they update it. They cancelled the RSS reader. The email UI keeps getting worse and featuring more ads. But the stock value hit $1000.…

+1 Their new Google Apps control panel is impossible to use. It has icons that doesn't correspond to the function and no labels. It's like walking around in a nuclear control panel with no lights on. While I'm moving my e-mail away from Google, the last thing I still use is the search, which still feels light weight and easy to use.

> .. the last thing I still use is the search, which still feels light weight and easy to use.

If you haven't, you should really give DuckDuckGo [1] a shot. I used Google's search for the longest time, and finally just forced myself to switch to DDG this summer. It was rough for a while, but either I've gotten used to their search algorithm / results, or the results have gotten better. I hardly ever have to use Google's search to find anything anymore.

[1] https://duckduckgo.com/?q=duckduckgo