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Google’s new popup will further weaken Facebook’s advertisement business

thebigtech.substack.com

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Re: Google’s new popup will further weaken Facebook’s advertisement business

#81

Post by motoboi »

akmarinov wrote: post #17
motoboi wrote: post #4

So we basically are seeing that google was "right" from their point of view in securing a mobile OS. Facebook maybe thought this day would never arrive and could have avoided that by doing their own mobile OS too. Well, maybe they declared this battle as lost and focused on the next one: VR. Problem is that VR took too long to arrive and death on mobile can kill Facebook?

VR's probably not going to be bigger or even equivalent to mobile, so they should've tried harder.

I personally believe VR and mainly AR are the next and natural step in personal computing.

Ubiquitous computing may be the next step from there. Something like “the world is the computer and you just interact with it”.

Re: Google’s new popup will further weaken Facebook’s advertisement business

#83

Post by danaris »

nahkoots wrote: post #73
danaris wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get an iPhone. Whatever else you may think of them, Apple is deliberately working to prevent this sort of crap from happening without your knowledge and consent.

They've also taken a hardline stance against right to repair, which is a deal breaker for a lot of HN. Unfortunately, there aren't many modern options for people who care about both owning their devices and not being spied on by them.

Which is why I buy Apple: I may, on rare occasions, want the ability to mess with my device, but I always want privacy.

Re: Google’s new popup will further weaken Facebook’s advertisement business

#84

Post by rjsw »

jraph wrote: post #20
speeder wrote: post #5

Whenever I read articles like this, I get more and more horrified. I mean, I know that adtech spy on us a lot, but I didn't knew for example that using Bluetooth while the app is shut down was possible. Makes me very wary even of dumbphones, for example I bought a dumbphone recently, and yet it came with Facebook and Google Assistant both pre-installed.

if it has facebook and google assistant, isn't it really an (Android) smartphone which looks like a dumb phone?

Newer Nokia/HMD dumb phones come with a Facebook app, they are not running Android.

Re: Google’s new popup will further weaken Facebook’s advertisement business

#85

Post by toast0 »

spoonjim wrote: post #15
motoboi wrote: post #4

So we basically are seeing that google was "right" from their point of view in securing a mobile OS. Facebook maybe thought this day would never arrive and could have avoided that by doing their own mobile OS too. Well, maybe they declared this battle as lost and focused on the next one: VR. Problem is that VR took too long to arrive and death on mobile can kill Facebook?

Facebook realized that no amount of money was going to will a third mobile OS into existence. cf. Microsoft.

Microsoft actually had a winning formula. Make cheap phones that work alright. And they were getting market share with later wp7 and throughout wp8.

Between wp8 and WM10, they merged the phone team with the regular OS team, and eliminated (or at least gutted) their QA teams, and they decided to target the high end market only. There were no low spec WM10 phones, and there hadn't been many high end buyers anyway, so who was going to buy WM10? And upgrading to WM10, when available, was often a bad experience.

Also, mobile Edge had a nicer renderer than mobile IE, but it was sooooo much worse UX (laggy, slow, navigation buttons went into some sort of button press queue to be resolved seconds later). When you've driven away app developers, ruining the browser isn't a good choice.

So, it's not that you needed more money (although I'm sure it would help), you also need to not abandon the market niche you found in search of an unobtainable, but potentially more lucrative one, and you need to make releases be consistently better each time. (It would also help if one of the big players stumbled, but you can't count on that).

Re: Google’s new popup will further weaken Facebook’s advertisement business

#86

Post by johannes1234321 »

Sunspark wrote: post #62
johannes1234321 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They didn't even find enough users for their Android "launcher" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_Home A Facebook phone probably would give even more critical reception ...

Years ago a Facebook phone was planned. Its differentiating feature as I recall it was the "like" button.

Nowadays it would be "share on insta"

But it's still interesting how they initially were late on mobile, with all the FBML embedded things (Zynga games) not working on mobile and things moving from their "platform" to mobile apps, but I assume for now with WhatsApp, Insta and messenger they "own" a notable amount of mobile screen time. Missing the underlying platform of course gives them "neutrality" that they can be on all OSes (till the privacy enforcements make it harder for them) instead of having to differentiate the Facebook phone from iPhone.

Re: Google’s new popup will further weaken Facebook’s advertisement business

#87

Post by jjtheblunt »

nahkoots wrote: post #73
danaris wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get an iPhone. Whatever else you may think of them, Apple is deliberately working to prevent this sort of crap from happening without your knowledge and consent.

They've also taken a hardline stance against right to repair, which is a deal breaker for a lot of HN. Unfortunately, there aren't many modern options for people who care about both owning their devices and not being spied on by them.

> for a lot of HN

I wonder what fraction

Re: Google’s new popup will further weaken Facebook’s advertisement business

#88

Post by ladyanita22 »

toast0 wrote: post #85
spoonjim wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook realized that no amount of money was going to will a third mobile OS into existence. cf. Microsoft.

Microsoft actually had a winning formula. Make cheap phones that work alright. And they were getting market share with later wp7 and throughout wp8. Between wp8 and WM10, they merged the phone team with the regular OS team, and eliminated (or at least gutted) their QA teams, and they decided to target the high end market only . There were no low spec WM10 phones, and there hadn't been many high end buyers anyway, so…

Yeah, Microsoft had an exceptional OS that was competitive to iOS (and much better than Android) on its foundations and APIs. It had everything needed to succeed and get a big chunk of the market, except for a clear leadership.

Now, here we are, with extremely powerful Android phones that do little because they don't have a solid software foundation with which to build good software, an iOS has all the high-quality software.

Re: Google’s new popup will further weaken Facebook’s advertisement business

#89

Post by joe_guy »

prepend wrote: post #66
esrauch wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's several reasons why everyone wants you to install the app, some of which aren't sketchy.

I get pop ups from sites all the time asking me to try their site, every darn time I visit. Mai it stuff like Reddit, Imgur, most news sites. I’ve tried the apps and they’re worse. I’m not sure there’s any explanation other than more ad/data revenue. Are there apps that give superior experience than web sites nowadays? Even not accounting for privacy, the apps are generally just shittier with less functionality. I us…

Our experiences overwhelming align but one counter example is Discord. The chess.com native client is also reasonable.

Re: Google’s new popup will further weaken Facebook’s advertisement business

#90

Post by neatze »

tpmx wrote: post #80
lima wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google has a reputation for good internal controls (that Facebook was lacking at the time).

Going slightly tangential: It seems like there are a lot more political activists working at Google. It also seems likely that this will backfire in a spectacular way at some point. The risk here is politically strategic data leaks of individual user data - not Cambridge Analytica-like situations. Could be blackmail material on a few key people, or perhaps a giant data leak on millions of people from the "enemy side"…

What is not dangerous ?
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