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Are Google, Amazon and others getting too big?

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Re: Are Google, Amazon and others getting too big?

#21

Post by stronsay »

therobotking wrote: post #4

On one hand I absolutely love Google's ecosystem and have an Android phone, use Gmail, have an nVidia Shield TV, use Android Pay, travel using Google Maps for transit every day, use Docs for work, Drive for all cloud storage needs and YouTube is YouTube. On the other, being so reliant on one company for so much is bound to cause problems at some point.

How about switching to reasonable alternatives when you can (and use the Google product as a fallback)? For example, OSM is fine for daily navigation, there are plenty of cloud storage solutions and email providers. Obviously there's going to be some cost to pay for not being in Google's walled garden, but using the alternatives (and donating to them) stimulates their development.

Re: Are Google, Amazon and others getting too big?

#22

Post by hammock »

tyingq wrote: post #5

Feels like it's getting worse too. For example, things like Google Home and Alexa discourage choice. "Order me a pizza" means they are now either kingmakers in the space, or incented to open their own pizza business. I'm not a fan of big government, but at some point depending solely on their goodwill seems dangerous.

How is that different from a yellow pages?

If you are going to say "amazon only offers you one choice" that is an assumption you could make of yellow pages as well (it's a commercial publication, they don't have to list everything). The yellow pages chooses to accept payment from competitors to offer more choice. Amazon could do the same.

And if you are going to say "what is yellow pages?" then damn am I old :)

Re: Are Google, Amazon and others getting too big?

#23

Post by adtac »

wildmusings wrote: post #7

I am ultimately skeptical of companies that get all of their revenue from advertising and who fail to make money from sales of products. The value of online advertising is massively inflated. Of the tech giants, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft seem to be in the best shape at the moment. They make their money from selling real products and services to real end users. Amazon is strong but not unbeatable. Walmart in partic…

I disagree. Advertising has been around since the 1800s and I don't really think it'll be going away anytime soon. And besides, Google is diversifying its portfolio these days anyway (GCP, Google Home, Waymo, and tons of moonshots).

Re: Are Google, Amazon and others getting too big?

#24

Post by mgkimsal »

hammock wrote: post #22
tyingq wrote: post #5

Feels like it's getting worse too. For example, things like Google Home and Alexa discourage choice. "Order me a pizza" means they are now either kingmakers in the space, or incented to open their own pizza business. I'm not a fan of big government, but at some point depending solely on their goodwill seems dangerous.

How is that different from a yellow pages? If you are going to say "amazon only offers you one choice" that is an assumption you could make of yellow pages as well (it's a commercial publication, they don't have to list everything). The yellow pages chooses to accept payment from competitors to offer more choice. Amazon could do the same. And if you are going to say "what is yellow pages?" then damn am I old :)

yellow page publishers don't actually know the details of my orders.

Re: Are Google, Amazon and others getting too big?

#25

Post by MichaelGG »

patrickaljord wrote: post #15
benevol wrote: post #11

Well, that was pretty clear more than a decade ago. Proprietary technology has a monopolizing effect in capitalism. Since technology by definition has an exponential growth rate of efficiency, the monopolizing effect grows with it.

Yeah like IBM in the 80's and Microsoft in the 90's, no, wait...

Microsoft and IBM never had the penetration Google has as far as individuals depending on it for individual ideas and decisions, minute by minute. Nor were the network effects of Microsoft's products, however strong for interop/compat, anything close to what Facebook has.

Many companies now only publish their information on Facebook. It's becoming harder and harder to even find a phone number for a business without hitting Facebook. Sometimes FB even requires a login before letting me see details (perhaps the business misconfigured their page?) If FB ever bans me (the person) for using a fake account, it'd be very difficult to do many "normal" things.

If we get anti-net-neutrality markets going, like FB is already doing in some countries (I see "free WhatsApp/FB with any SIM card" offers all the time), this lockin will become even more powerful

Also, MS still has a ton of power. But imagine how much worse it'd be if MS was sevrice-only. What if they decide to ban your company? It might be very difficult to remain in business if they could revoke all your Windows licenses (say, if you're in medical, or need MS compat for another reason). IBM perhaps less-so, since it's more real back-end systems.

Re: Are Google, Amazon and others getting too big?

#27

Post by Kenji »

jondubois wrote: post #14

I agree they should be regulated. The world is a better place with lots of smaller companies. These big companies turn regular people into corporate livestock to serve the wealthy. If you were to analyze Facebook as if it were a country, the wealth gap among employees would be atrocious - The top 1% would own maybe 99% of the wealth of the country and everyone else would earn a minuscule fraction of the total value t…

I think your comparison of companies with states is really far fetched. An employment contract is completely different from citizenship. The freedom of speech comparison is particularly odd, obviously if you are a trouble maker in your company, they rightfully conclude that your value to them decreases.

Re: Are Google, Amazon and others getting too big?

#28

Post by gigatexal »

Regulation only makes the largest companies that much more untouchable. Why not invest what would have been spent on regulation instead on education? That way the next pioneer could be fostered. Or invest in subsidies for health and wellness and food programs so the next Zuckerberg doesn't go hungry and can have the luxury to innovate (terrible analogy since he came from a middle class family but still). Or if you don't want to do that what about allowing foreign nationals with an idea but without capital and a safe and business friendly government to come to the States to create their businesses?

Re: Are Google, Amazon and others getting too big?

#29

Post by supremesaboteur »

wildmusings wrote: post #7

I am ultimately skeptical of companies that get all of their revenue from advertising and who fail to make money from sales of products. The value of online advertising is massively inflated. Of the tech giants, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft seem to be in the best shape at the moment. They make their money from selling real products and services to real end users. Amazon is strong but not unbeatable. Walmart in partic…

> Microsoft's wins are hard fought and fair

Was giving Internet Explorer away for free along with Windows and bankrupting Netscape fair ?

Re: Are Google, Amazon and others getting too big?

#30

Post by hammock »

mgkimsal wrote: post #24
hammock wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is that different from a yellow pages? If you are going to say "amazon only offers you one choice" that is an assumption you could make of yellow pages as well (it's a commercial publication, they don't have to list everything). The yellow pages chooses to accept payment from competitors to offer more choice. Amazon could do the same. And if you are going to say "what is yellow pages?" then damn am I old :)

yellow page publishers don't actually know the details of my orders.

Indirectly they do because the more orders you make through yellow pages, the more a pizza place will pay to be listed

Also are you complaining that Amazon will be able to order the options it gives you based on your personal preference?

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