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Google/IAC/Expedia (2019)

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Re: Google/IAC/Expedia (2019)

#21

Post by kubb »

In my impression, a lot of people here hold a surprisingly contradictory set of beliefs. They're huge fans of the current economic system, where the main actors are publicly owned companies, and where we rely on profits growing YOY to generate wealth for everyone (who owns the stocks).

And, on the other hand, they're critical of Google which is operating precisely as such a company, and doing exactly what it needs for its profits to grow YOY.

Google is being lead by an MBA, has a very extensive management class, and employs a lot of people. The only way to be a lead and earn good money is to have people under you. The structure of Google is very analogous to other companies in the same sector.

Frequently there's no other behavior that would make sense for Google to exhibit. The job of all the execs in the company is revenue growth.

Could you enlighten me here? Maybe I can update my model with your feedback? Do you believe that you can somehow have your cake (infinite growth) and eat it too (ethical companies which care about the community when the profit margins get slim)?

Re: Google/IAC/Expedia (2019)

#22

Post by izacus »

sschueller wrote: post #6
matheusmoreira wrote: post #2

> Google has become an existential threat to all our businesses To the web itself.

Apple as well. If you are trying to provide for example a piece of configuration software that runs on a mobile device in a heavily Apple dominant market you are at the whim of Apple App store reviewers.

Apple has beautiful logos on beautiful hardware so they can't be that bad, can they? They think about the users.

Re: Google/IAC/Expedia (2019)

#23

Post by yard2010 »

bomewish wrote: post #5
epolanski wrote: post #3

Between Android, App Store, Chrome and Search Google has a very big stronghold over how people access and consume the internet. Google has an insane competitive advantage over most of the internet into knowing exactly what are people looking for and being the first to provide it. This isn't any different to what Amazon does on their shop. They know what sells and for how better than any of their sellers, and they wil…

Hate to say it but this is where we get the state to step in and simply dismember the company.

There's always a bigger fish :)

Re: Google/IAC/Expedia (2019)

#24

Post by zlg_codes »

epolanski wrote: post #3

Between Android, App Store, Chrome and Search Google has a very big stronghold over how people access and consume the internet. Google has an insane competitive advantage over most of the internet into knowing exactly what are people looking for and being the first to provide it. This isn't any different to what Amazon does on their shop. They know what sells and for how better than any of their sellers, and they wil…

Search engines are already doing it to themselves by screwing with the ordering of results, paid placement in results, "did you mean" anti-patterns, obscuring or ignoring their prior powerful tools to filter results, etc. I don't really trust what a search engine returns to me. I have to sanity check every result.

With generative text and image technology, the reliability of finding legitimately human and organic information is basically nil.

Intellectuals will begin forming smaller, more exclusive, and better-curated groups and content stores. We're already seeing a slow resurgence of micro communities, for example pubnixes/tildes, directories like ye olden DMOZ, blogrolls and protocol rings, e.g. Bongusta on Gopherspace.

None of them solve the search problem per se, but it's an answer to the eroding quality of web search results.

Re: Google/IAC/Expedia (2019)

#25

Post by throwaway4good »

bomewish wrote: post #5
epolanski wrote: post #3

Between Android, App Store, Chrome and Search Google has a very big stronghold over how people access and consume the internet. Google has an insane competitive advantage over most of the internet into knowing exactly what are people looking for and being the first to provide it. This isn't any different to what Amazon does on their shop. They know what sells and for how better than any of their sellers, and they wil…

Hate to say it but this is where we get the state to step in and simply dismember the company.

Google is a US company but the "welfare loss" its monopoly create is on the whole (western) world and not just the US economy. That is why it won't be regulated out of existance.

That and national security.

Re: Google/IAC/Expedia (2019)

#26

Post by Barrin92 »

epolanski wrote: post #3

Between Android, App Store, Chrome and Search Google has a very big stronghold over how people access and consume the internet. Google has an insane competitive advantage over most of the internet into knowing exactly what are people looking for and being the first to provide it. This isn't any different to what Amazon does on their shop. They know what sells and for how better than any of their sellers, and they wil…

>But honestly, I think that if I was Google or Amazon...I would do the same?

Youre always a person, and every single decision is always signed by a person. Yes, markets should be regulated and this should not be up to Google, and yes there are incentives within companies to make people behave in certain ways, but it's always been a strange line of argument to me that this absolves individuals.

If I worked at Youtube right now and someone told me to implement that stupid ad blocker I'd tell them to shove it. People who are fortunate enough to be in demand at Google or Amazon have a non-negligible amount of agency, and alternatives.

Re: Google/IAC/Expedia (2019)

#27

Post by lopis »

epolanski wrote: post #3

Between Android, App Store, Chrome and Search Google has a very big stronghold over how people access and consume the internet. Google has an insane competitive advantage over most of the internet into knowing exactly what are people looking for and being the first to provide it. This isn't any different to what Amazon does on their shop. They know what sells and for how better than any of their sellers, and they wil…

> I think that if I was Google or Amazon...I would do the same?

Of course. There isn't anything particularly evil in Google or Amazon. They are a result of the capitalistic environment. If not them, some other mega corp would have emerged to do essentially the same. Bigger companies get bigger. They are just optimization machines.

That's why we need governments to intervene, break up monopolies, stop mergers, etc. I don't care if it's "fair" for companies. Most people are worse off because of huge multinationals and monopolies.

Re: Google/IAC/Expedia (2019)

#28

Post by ric2b »

epolanski wrote: post #3

Between Android, App Store, Chrome and Search Google has a very big stronghold over how people access and consume the internet. Google has an insane competitive advantage over most of the internet into knowing exactly what are people looking for and being the first to provide it. This isn't any different to what Amazon does on their shop. They know what sells and for how better than any of their sellers, and they wil…

Did someone say anti-trust?

As you said, it's only natural for a company to abuse a monopoly in one area to boost them in other areas, that's why these companies have to broken up to keep competition healthy in the other areas.

Re: Google/IAC/Expedia (2019)

#29

Post by passwordoops »

lopis wrote: post #27
epolanski wrote: post #3

Between Android, App Store, Chrome and Search Google has a very big stronghold over how people access and consume the internet. Google has an insane competitive advantage over most of the internet into knowing exactly what are people looking for and being the first to provide it. This isn't any different to what Amazon does on their shop. They know what sells and for how better than any of their sellers, and they wil…

> I think that if I was Google or Amazon...I would do the same? Of course. There isn't anything particularly evil in Google or Amazon. They are a result of the capitalistic environment. If not them, some other mega corp would have emerged to do essentially the same. Bigger companies get bigger. They are just optimization machines. That's why we need governments to intervene, break up monopolies, stop mergers, etc. I…

They are the result of a capitalistic environment that systematically dismantled all rules and regulations to prevent monopoly and oligopolies from happening in the first place
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