If an effective search method was developed that wasn't based on pagerank and link volumes, but rather the internal quality of a page
Ask HN: What's the worst thing that could happen to Google?
81–90 of 103 posts
Re: Ask HN: What's the worst thing that could happen to Google?
#82Facebook use this to move into search. So when I search for 'cappucino book', FB knows I mean the web framework from the context of my discussions with FB/Twitter friends.
FB encourages users to make FB their first destination, users do this because it's search and their friends in one place, and why would you want anything else, when, in this scenario, FB's results are always better than Google's anyway?
Re: Ask HN: What's the worst thing that could happen to Google?
#83A scandal related to personal data large enough to spook your average consumer. We're talking serious stuff, like records being sold to criminals or given to the government without a warrant. The only thing that could cause a user to get over the large cost of migration is a massive breach of trust. It doesn't even have to be related to search. A scandal involving Gmail or Google Voice would have a large impact on se…
> given to the government without a warrant. It only barely registered with the general public when the telcos did it - why should Google be any different?
Re: Ask HN: What's the worst thing that could happen to Google?
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
Until recently, these were the exact reasons that I avoided GOOG stock. Nowadays, however, Google has a more immediate problem: Bing. What would happen if Microsoft starts doing search deals with ISPs, portals, & mobile companies? Why would any company integrate Google search if Microsoft was willing to pay them to use Bing? Isn't this already happening with the Microsoft-Facebook and Microsoft-Yahoo deals?
Forcing people to use bing isn't really going to work IMHO.
Re: Ask HN: What's the worst thing that could happen to Google?
#85The Semantic Web blossoms beyond the need to infer meaning from bodies of text. If the information on the web becomes more structured, structured beyond the need for Google. If web pages and web services were to all completely expose their information as RDF and embed rich metadata inside bodies of text the need for Google's fancy AI and Entity extraction would be none. Google's bread and butter is advertising. That…
May I have some of what you're smoking? The Semantic Web depends on having everyone who writes web pages also categorize them. Whenever you have 20 different people categorizing content you're going to get 20 different interpretations of what the semantics mean. The vision of a decent, consistent categorization emerging across the web is a pipe dream. Furthermore the fundamental problem that Google solves is not find…
I think a lot of the SW hype's overblown - and I've worked in the field - but you're attacking something which doesn't exist.
Re: Ask HN: What's the worst thing that could happen to Google?
#86Google is king of search as it's done now. I've personally seen a startup that can do a very new type of search. Who knows if this will be the "little computer that sits on your desk" but what we do know is that something is most certain to come along.
Disruption is never "if", it's always "when".
Re: Ask HN: What's the worst thing that could happen to Google?
#87Re: Ask HN: What's the worst thing that could happen to Google?
#88Re: Ask HN: What's the worst thing that could happen to Google?
#89How about Microsoft including an ad blocker in the next Windows Update.
Re: Ask HN: What's the worst thing that could happen to Google?
#90But we can never imagine what's next. When they said, "What's the worst that could happen to IBM?" No one would have been taken seriously if they said, "A tiny little computer that sits on your desk." Google is king of search as it's done now. I've personally seen a startup that can do a very new type of search. Who knows if this will be the "little computer that sits on your desk" but what we do know is that somethi…
What if they had said: "A change in the market that they fail to adequately forsee and plan for"? That's what will kill Google too.