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Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

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Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#451

Post by dang »

MicroBerto wrote: post #449
dang wrote: post #434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"You spew" is a pejorative. Examples: https://twitter.com/search?q="you%20spew" https://www.google.com/webhp#q=site%3Atwitter.com%20%22you%2... What you're missing is that even though someone was uncivil to you on HN, you needed to remain civil in return. That's the social contract here, and we need it to prevent discourse from degenerating even further.

Given that there is no report button or ability to downvote someone that replies to you (at least not on mobile for me), it is only reasonable to defend myself in that situation. The ensuing attacker went to my profile, researched me and my business, and personally attacked me because they disagreed with my sentiment. What is my recourse for action in such a case? Take it on the chin like a wimp? I don't think so. If…

Your recourse is to email hn@ycombinator.com, as the site guidelines ask. Note that I chided that person for what they did, which of course was wrong. Two wrongs don't make a right, though, and you're continuing to break the rules while they at least stopped.

For civil discussion we all need to hold ourselves to a higher standard than the one we perceive other people to be keeping, because the only alternative is a downward spiral, and an accelerating one. If you want to keep commenting here, we need you to internalize that.

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#452

Post by dx034 »

endisukaj wrote: post #425
dx034 wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plus in-app ads and the fact that ad-blocking basically doesn't exist on mobile. I'd guess that Android is what actually ensured the success of Google. Controlling the ecosystem is incredibly important, even if you don't directly make money from it.

> ad-blocking basically doesn't exist on mobile What do you mean? https://adaway.org/

I mean that it is not widely used. There are solutions for ad blocking on mobile. But while it is quite widespread on desktops, the rate of adaption on phones is still relatively small.

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#453

Post by QuercusMax »

tln wrote: post #365
toast0 wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google could allow a small group to work on something with use of Google's full software stack, and HR etc, but host it in google cloud (or proxy through google cloud so it looks like it's in google cloud) and don't mention it's from google (and segregate the user data away from google) If it gets traction, you can reveal it's a google project or fold the learnings into appropriate google projects or spin it off (alt…

I was going to suggest something similar. Provide a way for employees to work part time or on a sabbatical, while on their own company. The incubator could take a small %age like YC, and Google would get to keep employees that would leave otherwise, closer to home.

That's pretty much exactly what "Area 120" is. Not sure how many projects they have in there right now, but that is precisely what the idea is.

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#454

Post by EpicEng »

the8472 wrote: post #441
EpicEng wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steam != The internet. No one is preventing people from marketing their crappy games on their own. I have to dig through a mountain of shit in hopes of _possibly_ finding something worth playing. It's bad for users.

But why should it be different from the rest of the internet? You also have to dig through mountains of shit to find, let's say HN.

...because we strive to make things better?

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#455

Post by wilde »

GCA10 wrote: post #57

Big companies seem to step in the same puddle, every time they try to set up one of these "breakthrough incubator" projects. They pick fascinating projects. They hire lots of smart people and give them great autonomy. But they inadvertently set up incentives that lead to the repeated creation of LINS (lavishly impractical non-solutions). And then the plug gets pulled. I think the key problem is that the research team…

Yeah. It seems like the real solution is to set up an investment fund and maintain distance from the incubator.

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#457

Post by zepto »

the8472 wrote: post #417
phil21 wrote: post #412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you're saying I should publish on the open/free Internet, and use a custom app to find good content?

I'm not proposing solutions. I'm saying that "restrict publication" does not follow from "I'm seeing low quality content". Don't restrict other people for your own benefit. Instead a solution that lets them do their thing while you get the content you want is much more equitable.

Steam doesn't restrict anyone from either supplying or consuming any kind of content.

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#458

Post by the8472 »

EpicEng wrote: post #454
the8472 wrote: post #441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why should it be different from the rest of the internet? You also have to dig through mountains of shit to find, let's say HN.

...because we strive to make things better?

in my mind you're not making it better, you're just making a different tradeoff between openness and discoverability of high-quality content.

my point is that you should maintain openness while making it easier to discover good content.

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#459

Post by EpicEng »

the8472 wrote: post #458
EpicEng wrote: post #454

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...because we strive to make things better?

in my mind you're not making it better, you're just making a different tradeoff between openness and discoverability of high-quality content. my point is that you should maintain openness while making it easier to discover good content.

>my point is that you should maintain openness while making it easier to discover good content.

Well, figure that one out and I'm sure you'll make a lot of money. Until that happens though, I'll take a semi-closed Steam ecosystem instead of the alternative.

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#460

Post by hobarrera »

mjevans wrote: post #429
NTripleOne wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does there even need to be a full review when someone has spent 1500 hours of their life playing it? If it was worth 1500 hours of the reviewer's time then it's probably worth 10-50 of a potential buyer's. Inversely, I don't need to play a bad game for 1500 hours to decide that it's bad. I played 60 minutes of No Man's Sky and you'd have to pay me to play a single one more. Does that mean I should be discredited…

I realized I was starting to rant about NMS, so instead I want to try to be more constructive about the problem-space and avoid that game as a topic. The return system and the achievement system should probably be integrated. Likely there should be some sort of achievement related to 'escaping the tutorial'. They might even call it "Almost bought the farm" or something. Playing to that point should give a player a go…

I actually miss demos, it's a shame they're a thing of the past, because they let you actually try the game before paying.

Steam could easily implement this, letting you try purchased games for up to two hours.

It's be trivial for them to implement some anti-abuse system (like "must have purchased N games before using demos, etc).

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