721–730 of 748 posts
Why do multi billion dollar companies keep pulling the "small business" card. Does anyone actually fall for this?
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> Apple for example is a 100% monopoly in the app store. Every physical store is a monopoly in their own space. It is hard to see that specific point being important. The fact that Apple gate-keeps their store is also a major selling point of the iPhone. I don't want random people to be able to load random apps onto the phones of my family members. Having a programmable combined GPS/microphone/wallet/photo repository…
>Every physical store is a monopoly in their own space. This comparison is disingenuous. There aren't only two big physical stores (and maybe a handful small stores hardly no one knows about) in the entire world. If 99% of all physical stores were a Walmart or Costco you could compare but luckily this isn't so. >The fact that Apple gate-keeps their store is also a major selling point of the iPhone. That is beside the…
You say that, but then you make a completely different argument for why Apple is a monopoly. I'm just responding to what you've said, without using my well developed psychic powers to divine what different point you meant without saying.
You started your post with a point that is so weak that it is indefensible. Apple creating a virtual store and having a 100% monopoly in it simply isn't remarkable. That is how stores work, the store owner has near total control what is in the store to their benefit.
If your argument is that it is incomparable to a normal store then well ok, but you're going to need to argue that. A reasonable person could see Apple's store as comparable to an actual store. Apple very likely does.
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> Google added flights, but Booking Holdings (aka Priceline) continued to grow each year to 15B in revenue for 2019. (Huge drop for 2020 obviously.) But did advertising on Google become more expensive for competitors once Google entered the market (e.g. did Google Flights also bid on Google Ads) and were those additional costs passed along to customers? So while your example shows a competitor survived, it over looks…
> over looks the increased costs to consumers Google flights takes you straight to the airlines websites. No intermediaries. How's that increasing costs to consumers? Do third party booking sites usually offer lower prices than the airlines themselves? I've seen it happen but very rarely.
For the specific flight I searched for, the 3rd parties were listed as having cheaper prices than the airline itself, but upon visiting the sites and going through the optionals etc those prices turned out to be misleading, and eventually it was cheaper to book directly through the airline.
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I'm surprised I haven't seen much in the responses to this comment that the issue isn't so much that consumers have other options (though given how high Google's search reach is, how relevant is that if hardly anyone does), it's that for most businesses your option is either have a strong search presence on Google or go out of business. There is just no viable path to avoid Google as a business when they control 80+…
Yes, reading through so many responses it's clear that even on HN in 2021 we need to remind people that you are NOT Google's customer. You are the product!
As a user, I am quite happy with this status quo. The quality of the service is pretty good, and there isn’t much user-facing rent seeking. Compare this to the app stores, which are a true public utility monopoly in Apple’s case, and you’ll immediately see the difference of true monopoly.
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I think you're making a category error in your analogy. DuckDuckGo is much more like Google than "dig a well" is like municipal water.
Wells dug with modern equipment are a perfectly good alternative to municipal water - they can free one from over-regulated or poorly managed utilities. Even in the outskirts of California metros it's sometimes the only option without shelling out hundreds of thousands for extensions. DuckDuckGo, on the other hand, is just Google with bangs, an insignificant spec compared to the latter. Edit: DuckDuckGo US market sha…
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> Wells dug with modern equipment are a perfectly good alternative to municipal water ... in certain geologic areas. And this doesn't work if you live in an apartment. I do feel like this is a big example of the "why don't you just" discussion from last week.
"Why don't you do something that works for over 40 million people all over the US" is a very far cry from "why don't you build your own power plant, datacenter, and networking infrastructure." It's a far better argument than DDG which - if my usage is anything to go by - is just a frontend for Google with convenient shortcuts to specialized searches like Github. If you live in an apartment, you live in a multi-family…
Bing*
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What step were they unable to complete in the process of changing their browser's default search from Google to Yahoo? (With your walking them through it, I mean?)
They need to be able to get to Yahoo Mail from their home page and the search engine result page. This is a hard requirement.
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Except it's actually not that easy. Most of the web uses google analytics, so its unavoidable when you visit a website. Most of the web's emails are routed through google; I remember reading a post about a guy who set up his own SMTP server and everything, but then realised that everyone he was contacting was using gmail anyway (can't find the post). Every time you see an add that's served by google, that means that…
"Most of the web uses google analytics, so its unavoidable when you visit a website." I actually mentioned that. Just shim GA connections; this happens with most ad-blocking software, and I believe happens in Firefox's "strict" mode by default. It's really trivial. "Most of the web's emails are routed through google; I remember reading a post about a guy who set up his own SMTP server and everything, but then realise…
The majority of people are “boring.” Not acknowledging your approach’s failure points (in this petty way) isn’t good marketing, really.
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These are things that are done locally. You can find a smartphone for under 250 at any phone store. Or by calling a number. I got one by text the other day through my carrier. I can't find an iphone 12 for that online or locally legally and I would have better luck getting a stolen phone cheaper locally. Small business are finding success through facebook and other social platforms. Not sure google is a player here.…
>You can find a smartphone for under 250 at any phone store. These phones all run android or have no features which are required in the modern age. The OP point is that avoiding google is a privilege many do not have. >Small business are finding success through facebook Your competitors are advertising on facebook and google. If you want to compete you have no choice but to do both.
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You might want to rethink your bike claim; it is certainly possible.
Only as a technicality. Domestic electrical power use varies worldwide from “none” to “tens of kilowatts”. This, for example, is what it takes to run a UK household on bicycle electricity: https://youtu.be/C93cL_zDVIM