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Is Google’s 20-year search dominance about to end?

economist.com

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Re: Is Google’s 20-year search dominance about to end?

#501

Post by T3RMINATED »

mvonballmo wrote: post #407
victor106 wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both are evil but I agree that Google is less evil than Microsoft. Just like the OP I have first hand info on how atrocious Microsoft’s internal privacy controls are. The later versions of Windows are just ad space for Microsoft to advertise. Azure is the worst of the 3 cloud providers. Horrible developer experience and documentation and reliability. That said, I would still take Satya’s Microsoft over Balmers any da…

> Azure is the worst of the 3 cloud providers. Horrible developer experience and documentation and reliability. Really? I find Microsoft's documentation for Azure (in English) to be quite thorough and helpful. Their tools are well-designed and quite powerful. Perhaps those of AWS and GCP are even more amazing, but I wouldn't call Azure "horrible" by any stretch of the imagination.

[dead]

Re: Is Google’s 20-year search dominance about to end?

#502

Post by stevenhuang »

lvl102 wrote: post #288
stevenhuang wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It excels at conversational style pedagogy when exploring new topics.

How can you say that with a straight face? It’s a regurgitation of things it’s collected from the WWW. It is a step up from Siri/Alexa but completely lacks actual conversational skills.

If you don't put in an honest effort to give it a shot, you will remain forever confused why people find tech like this useful for some use cases and you don't.

Re: Is Google’s 20-year search dominance about to end?

#503

Post by jeremyjh »

oblio wrote: post #427
jeremyjh wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dude they are running an open public taxi in Phoenix, it has the run of the whole city.

Isn't Phoenix: 1. Car infested ergo perfect venue area for testing autonomous cars, since the infrastructure is through and through car oriented at the detriment of every other form of mobility (walking, cycling, buses, trams, trains, etc)? 2. Super hot and sunny, ergo no fog, no rain, no sleet, no ice, no special weather conditions to handle. 3. Flat like a pancake, making terrain management, coupled with the nice,…

Yes Phoenix is ideal, that is why they've been using it. I think it indicates they are more than 5% done though, is my point. Also they are operating fully autonomous public taxis in San Francisco, but not the run of the whole city, I think its just airport to downtown. But even navigating downtown SF I think is an accomplishment.

Re: Is Google’s 20-year search dominance about to end?

#504

Post by Dalewyn »

chimprich wrote: post #491
Dalewyn wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate Big Data(tm) as the next guy in line, but if I have to choose between Google and Microsoft nomming my data I'll happily pick Microsoft every time. Why? For one, I've had a Microsoft account for over 20 years now (anyone remember Hotmail?). It's long past due for me to be complaining, and Microsoft hasn't wronged me in that time anyway. By comparison, my oldest Google account only goes back just over 10 years,…

> Microsoft account for over 20 years now (anyone remember Hotmail?) From memory, Microsoft used to be absolute bastards when it came to your data. They did everything they could to keep you gated in and without any control. Things like: refusing any export tools for your emails so you couldn't migrate to another provider; or, not allowing any non-web access to your email. Then Google came along with GMail and revolu…

I remember when Hotmail still had an allowance of "only" 25MB worth of emails including attachments. No doubt a lot of the QoL improvements the free email provider scene has had stems from Google forcing a paradigm shift.

But on the other hand, Gmail was an absolute bitch to get early on unless you were lucky enough to be friends with someone who had an address already. Maybe it was justified, but I don't remember that period fondly.

And ultimately, whereas Microsoft at best improved and at worst stayed as EEEvil as before, Google went from hero to zero in just the last decade burning away all the good will they nurtured. As things stand, I'll happily throw my hat in with Microsoft here.

Re: Is Google’s 20-year search dominance about to end?

#505

Post by MichaelZuo »

college_physics wrote: post #447
azangru wrote: post #434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is depressing that people dont recognize that Google has invented and perfected a parasitic business model ... The article aims to offer a preliminary analysis of whether Microsoft can become a better parasite In this model, are end users who use it to search for information parasites as well? After all, they are consuming content that other people generate online, and usually pay nothing for it. And they love t…

> usually pay nothing for it Users pay with their data. That is the whole point of the business model and it is obviously lucrative enough so that the entire tech infrastructure (devices, OS, browsers etc) can be repurposed to be a user data collection channel. If you want to find a real accomplice that is essential for the model to work, it is not the users, it is the advertisers. It takes two to tango in the adtech…

Most user data is not worth anywhere near enough to keep the "entire tech infrastructure" running.

User attention is worth more but even then I would be hesitant to say such a grand claim.

Re: Is Google’s 20-year search dominance about to end?

#506

Post by josu »

silisili wrote: post #33
josu wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It has been many years since Google has launched an innovative new product. Stadia launched in 2019.

Stadia wasn't really that innovative, how many times has cloud/streaming gaming been done before? I can think of at least 3. Also, it's already dead.

Stadia worked much better than the competition. It was the first time that cloud gaming had no tradeoffs. Definitely a lot of innovation behind the curtains.

Re: Is Google’s 20-year search dominance about to end?

#507

Post by Invictus0 »

ranting-moth wrote: post #475
Invictus0 wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you'd rather have a load of probabilistic bullshit? The training sets are way too huge to be human audited, just wait until the malicious actors start producing propaganda with their own GPT sites and deepfakes. The fucking thing can't even tell a straight fact about a telescope. If you thought searching the internet was fucked before GPT, give it a few years.

I'm not sure who'd want probabilistic bullshit. I said people wanted answers and Google was crap at giving it to them. At the moment ChatGPT is like having an personal assistant that used to be an world leading expert, but has been sniffing glue for the last 5 years. He knows a lot of shit but you can't trust it. But he can help you get started and he's fun to be around. Except ChatGPT isn't fun to be around. It's be…

A nice thought, but if GPT can't answer "what is the name of Taylor Swift's latest album" for anytime past 2023 then I would call it not very good.

Re: Is Google’s 20-year search dominance about to end?

#508

Post by beamgirl »

Hamuko wrote: post #381
beamgirl wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Entirely possible, but the amount of people who moved to Mastodon after Twitter got lit on fire gives me hope that people might explore options if things go a step too far

My Mastodon is a ghost town while my Twitter feed keeps having hundreds upon hundreds of posts per day.

Ah, I mostly go based on what I hear from friends. This, Reddit, and a regional moped Discord are the closest I get to social media

Re: Is Google’s 20-year search dominance about to end?

#509

Post by [deleted] »

zarzavat wrote: post #484
nootropicat wrote: post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would have agreed with you in the past. Now, I have to disagree. >the web was hard to navigate and you relied on webpages "befriending" each other and helping you navigate to similar pages. That was real navigation and it had terrible recall. This is exactly why internet was decentralized. A network of social connections between small online spaces people congregated in was essential to find what you wanted. It was…

I don't think LLMs will replace Reddit. Reddit is mostly a social network for people with similar interests, or for funny cat pictures. LLMs don't provide that human connection.

[deleted]

Re: Is Google’s 20-year search dominance about to end?

#510

Post by ur-whale »

valley_guy_12 wrote: post #228

The article starts, "Nestled in the hills of Mountain View", which is worrisome, because as anyone with even a passing familiarity with Silicon Valley geography knows, Mountain View is mostly flat. And Google's Mountain View offices are located on reclaimed baylands, which are especially flat. I wonder if the article authors were thinking of Xerox PARC's offices in Palo Alto's hills? Or the road named "Sand Hill Road…

> Mountain View is mostly flat.

Well ... Not a big one, I grant you, but hill nevertheless :

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.4231911,-122.084872,3a,75y,1...

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