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Google's Decline Really Bugs Me

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Re: Google's Decline Really Bugs Me

#71

Post by jdreaver »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #59
jdreaver wrote: post #19

> Larry Page worshiped Steve Jobs, who gave him a bunch of bad advice centered around maximizing profit. What is so bad about maximizing profit? If you make a profit, it means people are willingly giving you money for the service you provide. You make more profit when people feel they benefit more from your service. People can complain about Google until the end of time, but as long as the cash keeps flowing then Goo…

> You make more profit when people feel they benefit more from your service. // That's clearly not the only way to make more profit. If for example one has entrenched users and cuts the level of service markedly, or increases the cost, then profit increases. There is no need for anyone to benefit more other than the shareholders. You can also improve a service without charging more. Again profit and benefit will not…

Excellent point. I was implicitly assuming that your costs were unchanged, but of course there are more ways to make a profit than more revenue.

Re: Google's Decline Really Bugs Me

#72

Post by ttunguz »

The main argument in the article is that as Google has gotten bigger, its profit motive has become more important to the company, which is negatively impacting new and old products. While Google may have to continue to generate more revenue growth from AdWords and AdSense and YouTube in order to keep the stock going up and generate more cash, the majority of Google products aren't at all impacted by profit motive. In fact, most of the product initiatives at Google sap profit.

Android is a multi-billion dollar bet on mobile OS Calico is a billion dollar bet on extending life ChromeOS is a multi-billion dollar bet on laptop/TV ChromeBrowser is a hundred-million dollar bet on browsing Google Glass is a multi-billion dollar bet on next gen devices Self driving cars are a multi-billion dollar bet on, well, self driving cars.

None of these, save perhaps Android, has any chance of driving material revenue to the business in the next five years. Most of the hardware bets Google makes are money losers because they routinely subsidize hardware.

When I was there, I launched two product features that each cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars and were visible on the earnings-per-share number in the quarterly revenues we reported to Wall Street.

The argument might stand on Google.com, where the number of ads has increased. But for the majority of products (Gmail, Drive, Spreadsheets, Docs, Keep, Maps, Calendar, Books, Finance, Music, etc), it's hard to justify a profit motive argument.

Re: Google's Decline Really Bugs Me

#73

Post by dchichkov »

brosco45 wrote: post #58

Yeah, I noticed Google interviewers are no longer showing enthusiasm during the interview, it's a very worrying sign.

Shouldn't be a problem. Just start a rumor that you like interviewees that are showing their enthusiasm a lot. They would start showing it.

Re: Google's Decline Really Bugs Me

#74

Post by [deleted] »

kailuowang wrote: post #61

I agree that Google is becoming a lot more intrusive towards her end users and the incentive behind it is probably profit. But at lease for software developers, from my experience, we as a group benefit from Google MORE than 5 years ago. Chrome AngularJS Go Selenium Webdriver dart Even Google Hangout with screen share helped our distributed team a lot. 5 years ago, what did Google offer? GWT? And, of course, the sear…

[deleted]

Re: Google's Decline Really Bugs Me

#75

Post by shmerl »

> They founded the company with the motto "Don't Be Evil", and the unspoken question was, how long would this last? The answer, oddly enough, was "until Larry Page took over".

This is probably very to the point. "Don't be evil" was Sergey Brin's push, and Larry Page doesn't seem to share it.

Re: Google's Decline Really Bugs Me

#76

Post by wpietri »

mempko wrote: post #40

Only reason to be disappointed is if you expected something else out of capitalists....

I expected them to retain some of their academic ethos. My problem isn't that I expected too much out of capitalists; I just expected them not to become pure capitalists.

And here by "capitalist" I mean the current American zeitgeist's version of that term, mainly as defined by MBAs. I think there are other versions of capitalism that are much more interesting.

Re: Google's Decline Really Bugs Me

#77

Post by slyv »

ttunguz wrote: post #72

The main argument in the article is that as Google has gotten bigger, its profit motive has become more important to the company, which is negatively impacting new and old products. While Google may have to continue to generate more revenue growth from AdWords and AdSense and YouTube in order to keep the stock going up and generate more cash, the majority of Google products aren't at all impacted by profit motive. In…

I think people are seeing the products that Google has to maximize profit on (Youtube, AdSense, G+, etc...) and using those as the basis for the entire ecosystem that is Google. Google, as you pointed out, is much more than just the products that make money. I find it incredibly shortsighted to fault a company that tries to make money in order to pay for these great research projects.

I really don't mind ads. Its a free service to use, I can live with some ads, I still get my search that I like, I still get the experience that I like, and I patronize the company that provides this without any dime out of my pocket. Plus, Google is using these funds to research these multi-billion dollar initiatives like self-driving cars that I couldn't fathom to undertake on my own.

Re: Google's Decline Really Bugs Me

#78

Post by wpietri »

SloughFeg wrote: post #28

I stopped reading at "I'm not female, so I don't have to worry about getting thousands of rape threats every month". Inserting unsubstantiated claims for shock value into an argument just detracts from any other points he is trying to make.

That hardly needs substantiation if you pay even modest attention to the experience of outspoken women on the Internet. Just off the top of my head:

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/internet/2012/06/dear-inte...

http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2013/03/adria-richards-receiv...

http://www.cosmopolitan.com/advice/work-money/lindy-west-bul...

Re: Google's Decline Really Bugs Me

#79

Post by psbp »

IBM wrote: post #10

They are the new Microsoft but they're trying to avoid the same fate of companies like Yahoo and Microsoft; i.e viewed as stodgy old companies that aren't great places to work. The perception about Google needs to be "innovative" which is why there is lots of PR about their X Labs initiatives. But if you think about all of the high profile ones, they aren't really attractive businesses. Driverless cars? It's technolo…

If rumors are correct, their emerging business model has very much to do with projects like Glass, driverless cars, and google fiber. In fact, anything that makes commercial activity more efficient using a Google designed interface is going to help them in the near future.

Re: Google's Decline Really Bugs Me

#80

Post by teddyroo »

dmak wrote: post #48
gilgoomesh wrote: post #45

The paragraph involving Steve Jobs is a misquote at best or a completely wrong at worst. If you read the article that paragraph links, it doesn't mention "maximizing profit" or money at all. I think this paragraphs reflects badly on the entire article – it makes the article appear to be a struggle to create a connect-the-dots conspiracy behind Google's actions (evil Steve Jobs told Larry Page to be evil and now Googl…

After reading the Steve Jobs book, the biggest emphasis was focus on making a great product. He was never in it for the money; He was making $1 a year at one point.

Jobs made way more money off Pixar than Apple
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