Tim O’Reilly: Google’s got problems • Hacker News Board

Re: Tim O’Reilly: Google’s got problems

#11

Post by freehunter » Fri, Jul 06, 2012, 5:47 PM UTC

SoftwareMaven wrote: post #4

alttab wrote: post #3

I agree with this as well. When Google+ came out I was thinking "Why are they afraid of Facebook?" Generally, the utility of Google will always far surpass the utility of Facebook. They may "compete", but only in the sense that both of their users spend time on the internet, and they both make money from online advertising. It is a huge strategic mistake for Google to look at Facebook think that Facebook makes money…

If FB figures out social searching (combining intent-based, search driven advertising with social qualification), Google will be in trouble if they don't have a matching strategy. That if is a really big one. In the meantime, Google has lost its way. I'm using it less and less as it tries to be more and more. The other big problem is I've lost faith in them to be good with all my data they hold. Once upon a time, "Do…

The part I hate most about their search interface is the default behavior where it pops up an image of the page when you hover over the arrow thing. I always move the mouse to the side of the page so I'm not covering the search results, and when it pops out... grrr. Why is this necessary or even helpful as a default?

Re: Tim O’Reilly: Google’s got problems

#12

Post by pselbert » Fri, Jul 06, 2012, 6:18 PM UTC

harryf wrote: post #8

debacle wrote: post #2

The actual Tim O'Reilly post: https://plus.google.com/107033731246200681024/posts/jP4g9KKT...

Reading that reminds me: we need to stop calling wasting people's time "social". In fact it's astounding how many of the outcomes for users of "social" are in fact anti-social; too much time online, ego-centrism, attention deficit etc

Anti-social is much more precise. It is primarily a tool to specifically target marketing, experimenting with extra-relational flirtation, and maintain that high school sense of social competition that we were all so happy to depart from.

When developing I cringe any time a "social" feature gets involved. Rarely are people's lives enriched from it.

Re: Tim O’Reilly: Google’s got problems

#13

Post by spiralpolitik » Fri, Jul 06, 2012, 6:38 PM UTC

vmanju wrote: post #9

Tim doesn't make a case for his statement here. While Google has grown large not only as a company but also in terms of businesses (it is no longer just a search company), it is extremely hard to still remain focussed and innovative as they are right now. Hard to see how this compares with Yahoo! at all...

As you grow as a company (especially if you grow quickly or through acquisitions), the more integration points between parts of the company to have.

You eventually reach a point where you are spending more time on integration parts of the company than innovating to keep ahead of competitors. At this point you are dead in the water while your competitors start to catch up.

Yahoo hit exactly this point. If Google is not careful they will also hit this point.

Re: Tim O’Reilly: Google’s got problems

#14

Post by SoftwareMaven » Fri, Jul 06, 2012, 7:42 PM UTC

myko wrote: post #10

SoftwareMaven wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If FB figures out social searching (combining intent-based, search driven advertising with social qualification), Google will be in trouble if they don't have a matching strategy. That if is a really big one. In the meantime, Google has lost its way. I'm using it less and less as it tries to be more and more. The other big problem is I've lost faith in them to be good with all my data they hold. Once upon a time, "Do…

What's not simple about the current interface? Just because you can use extra features provided by Google+ doesn't mean you have to! > I no longer really understand who Google is and what it is trying to accomplish. The same as it ever was - organize the world's information.

It's distracting, cluttered, and inundated with results that attempt to drive you to Google's own properties. It's the last one that bugs me the most. Valuable real estate and attention is being used in an attempt not to give me the best information for me, but rather the best information for Google to have me look at.

> The same as it ever was - organize the world's information.

But too often lately, they seem to be forsaking the world's information for their own.