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Who is going to replace Google for us?

michaeldehaan.substack.com

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Re: Who is going to replace Google for us?

#191

Post by Yizahi »

Zak wrote: post #101
guerrilla wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do people miss the Google of old, or the Web of old? Yeah, I wish I knew how to get back to it, but I think that's impossible without a big enough movement. Yes, I know about tildeverse and some other things but the countervailing network effect is just too big for it to be sustaining right now. The closest is Mastadon but it's not really that great.

What would make Mastodon more appealing for you or the hypothetical user for whom you think it's not that great? The main thing that comes to mind for me would be more people I know in person using it.

Nothing really. The core concept is let's say "wrong" (for my personal case). Mastodon is a stream of very short posts.

Problem a - shortness, means no longform texts there, so they are posted in different sites, externally. Short posts aren't very informative usually.

Problem b - stream. Currently almost all of the social media are structured like this and it is a bad format. It is not engaging, it is not possible to find something which flew by ten minutes ago. It's like a bad version of Facebook, if you didn't happen to see some post "in time" then it might as well don't exist.

Problem c - engagement, discovery, popularity and other similar issues. This is a common problem for all media, but for Mastodon it is even worse because of the fragmentation. It's broken even at the registration stage, e.g. just where should I register to find what I want? Impossible to find.

I've tried using it twice due to hype on HN, and abandoned it quickly.

Re: Who is going to replace Google for us?

#192

Post by maigret »

cudgy wrote: post #106
andi999 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Na, just introduce a social safety net, like most of europe had for some time.

So, put “those people” in the Matrix, so they won’t be a problem instead of addressing the real problem of a lopsided economic system is the answer?

No, the European system allows you to use that for studying for little money, learning a new job etc as well. It’s not perfect but (western) Europe hasn’t seen this huge inequality growth in the last decades AFAIK

Re: Who is going to replace Google for us?

#193

Post by zivkovicp »

The internet itself has changed vastly over the last 25 years, so it is expected that the biggest internet companies have adapted as well.

There is no doubt that Google et al. are better than ever in terms of technology and operational excellence; and ever further from their original mission statements... but isn't that normal?

I don't like Google. I was wary when they entered the blogsphere ~2004 with "Blogger", but for me it was the DoubleClick acquisition that solidified my mistrust of them, and everything else since has only added to that opinion.

None of it matters though, they are in business to make money, not win our hearts. If you don't like them, don't use their products, that is the only way to make a difference. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re: Who is going to replace Google for us?

#194

Post by frozencell »

jmyeet wrote: post #28

The fallacy of youth is that one of extremes. Things are never as bad as they seem. Likewise they're never really as good as they seem. The latter I think explains a lot of nostalgia and holding onto the first "past" we lived through. At the very least it's easy to view that as our baseline. What's "normal", if you will. I say this because as hard as can be to imagine how something like Google will cease to be domina…

> In 100 years the descendants of Bezos won't be the ruling class in the same way the Vanderbilts, Astors, Rockefellers, Carnegies and Morgans aren't.

Who told you they are not funding and ruling U.S. institutions anymore?

Re: Who is going to replace Google for us?

#195

Post by mrkramer »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #103
jmyeet wrote: post #28

The fallacy of youth is that one of extremes. Things are never as bad as they seem. Likewise they're never really as good as they seem. The latter I think explains a lot of nostalgia and holding onto the first "past" we lived through. At the very least it's easy to view that as our baseline. What's "normal", if you will. I say this because as hard as can be to imagine how something like Google will cease to be domina…

Honestly, I think the fallacy is to just believe that Google's dominance will magically end. I have a different take, which is that tech leadership rarely changes in a particular technology , it's just that new technologies arrive that displace the old. Microsoft is still absolutely dominant in desktop operating systems. IBM has 90%+ marketshare in mainframes. Oracle is still the top enterprise database. So we seem t…

>So we seem to see these posts periodically now on HN, about "who is going to displace Google in search?" Sorry, that ain't happening.

Google is no longer focused on its core business >Search. They have 99 other projects they are focused on.

For example there is no dedicated search for Audio content on Google Search like there is for Images and Videos. There is no way to search comments on YouTube and there is no way to search your own YouTube playlist! This are just few shameful examples on how Google no longer thinks and behaves like a Search company.

I really like Larry and Sergey but unfortunately for them and Google the current Google's approach is not good for the future of Web. Maybe the culprit is ad business model, maybe it is their de facto Internet Search monopoly or maybe both but if Google is how the future of Web is going to look like then we are all in a big trouble.

Re: Who is going to replace Google for us?

#196

Post by BurningPenguin »

Maybe that Google News thing is country specific? Here in Germany it's somewhat balanced. Yes, there is trash like the BILD, but there's also more reliable ones like Spiegel, NDR or Süddeutsche.

What's more annoying are the comment and reactions features which Microsoft News started to use. It's filled with angry faces and very questionable comments. From conspiracy nutjobs to the far right with their racist and inhuman nonsense. And of course absolutely no moderation whatsoever.

But regardless of that, i also noticed the search quality on Google going down. On some occasions i have trouble finding things. That's when i switch over to alternatives.

Re: Who is going to replace Google for us?

#197

Post by anko »

freyr wrote: post #75

Do people miss the Google of old, or the Web of old? The Web used to be very information dense. It was built from the ground up by specialists and enthusiasts, educational and governmental institutions, and groups of like-minded individuals. Then it became commercialized and commodified. Entire industries popped up to shovel mass-produced crap to masses of people through Amazon, Google, Facebook, etc. Forums became s…

yep.. i even just miss the google reader days. why don't sites use rss/atom anymore? it drives me nuts

Re: Who is going to replace Google for us?

#198

Post by throwaway14356 »

ThalesX wrote: post #166
beej71 wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I miss the non-commercial web of old. It's got into the point where I think my ultimate search engine is one that ranks pages by fewest ads. And I get that people make a living by putting advertising on their pages. I'm not really against that. (Though I don't do that myself for my own reasons, I wouldn't presume to tell other people what to do with their websites.) But it's been abused to the point where number of a…

I can't for the life of me understand why people don't put static ads that are relevant to the consumers of their content. I was close to doing this once for a product I was CTO of, but I couldn't push it all the way through. We were so niche, and knowing exactly who our audience was. It's mind boggling to me that we chose to darkly monetize their data instead of showing them relevant domain ads.

it works the other way around now. you make a business blog written around your product

Re: Who is going to replace Google for us?

#199

Post by throwaway14356 »

timapplesauce wrote: post #147
dixego wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't think "Breitbart is not a credible news source" is not a valid point then oof, yikes, etc.

I'm curious, what is a "credible" news source these days? I don't think any of the major news networks have much credibility any more, it's just that some may seem better than others simply because they align more with your particular personal opinions and biases.

the credibility does improve the further the news outlet hq is away from the location of the topic.

Re: Who is going to replace Google for us?

#200

Post by ModernMech »

ac130kz wrote: post #181
ModernMech wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's still light years ahead of the competition How do you figure? I never use Google and get through my searches just fine. What am I missing?

Bing, Yandex and DDG just don't achieve the same level of relevancy for me. Their indexes are missing many good results that Google gives out straightaway

Still not sure what I’m missing though since I find everything I’m looking for with those engines. Marginally better results (an opinion) doesn’t seem like “light years” better to me.
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