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Google Blindness

marco.org

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Re: Google Blindness

#81

Post by tewha »

Symmetry wrote: post #75
runjake wrote: post #43

Marco's article is so poorly-written, so poorly thought-out, I don't know where to begin. It's really more an article about hating Google as a whole. Google blindness? Or blind hatred for Apple's competitors? Some gems, though: I think it’s unwise to use many proprietary, hard-to-replace services in such important roles, and I think it’s downright foolish to tie that much of your data and functionality into proprieta…

A long time ago back in the 3GS days I was a happy iPhone user, who happened to like podcasts. There were several very nice podcast apps which I liked since they would download everything I wanted to listen to over the night and I could listen to them on my walk to work without having to boot up Windows and sync via iTunes. Then one day after an update all the podcast apps were gone from the Appstore and my phone sin…

Apple never removed apps. They stopped accepting updates.

Re: Google Blindness

#82

Post by ZeroGravitas »

bane wrote: post #68
Oletros wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The leading Apple pundits (Gruber, Marco, Dalrymple) are getting more and more hateful towards Apple's competitors" Exactly this, they are more defensive each month it pass

They're finally running out of places to move their goal posts to.

Gruber was quite happy arguing that Apple was "winning" back in the days of Mac OS 9, he's not going to quit any time soon (though it's amusing to contrast all his triumphalist claims e.g. the only true metric of success is profit, against what he was saying back then).

Re: Google Blindness

#83

Post by dictum »

casca wrote: post #80
dictum wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The cost of preparing to switch can be relatively low - pay $8/year for your own domain and it's possible to keep using the same systems you choose today. Domains are not the only thing you need to take into account. There is hosting, deployment, and keeping things up to date and secure. Take email for example. Google no longer offer free Google Apps accounts, so you have to spend at least $50/year for a single user…

I'm not advocating that people move now. The value of Gmail definitely outweighs current costs for many people so it makes sense to keep using it. But to buy a domain and forward email to a Gmail address does not require a VPS or maintaining it. Other services may be harder to migrate, but they usually don't have the same cost of notification. If I change where my calendar is hosted, I don't need to inform all my con…

Again, a Google Apps account for a single user now costs $5/month ($50 if you pay annually). I made an account (with multiple users so I could have different emails for certain services and needs) when it was still free. If I were to sign up now, I'd need at least 4 users, so it'd cost me $20/month.

There are better and cheaper alternatives, but I just wanted to point out that you can't get free Google Apps accounts anymore.

Re: Google Blindness

#84

Post by acqq »

anxious wrote: post #65
acqq wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is, Google isn't just "selling space." They collect the data about you, admitting themselves that they prefer to never delete anything. The key word is "targeting," remember? In process, they still know more about you than your mother or partner. Somewhere in their guts, there is a collection of data about you, the depth of it not even imaginable before. How we got here: Moxie Marlinspike, 2010: http://www.…

That is a pretty big downgrade in rhetoric on your side: first you were claiming that their business is "surveillance", and that they "sell their users to advertisers" and now that you know better you try to shift the argument to data collection?! The bottom line is that more data makes better apps, and yes, better ads. I doubt they know you better than "your mother or partner" because I don't know how to measure tha…

You're completly misinterpreting what I write. I still agree with Schneier that the main mode of their current business is surveillance.

And we slowly got accustomed to it, noticing less and less. The process of it is described by Moxie in the video I've linked to. Do try to watch and think about it.

Btw, it seems this article was flagged to death. Google seems to be sacred here.

Re: Google Blindness

#85

Post by Oletros »

tewha wrote: post #81
Symmetry wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A long time ago back in the 3GS days I was a happy iPhone user, who happened to like podcasts. There were several very nice podcast apps which I liked since they would download everything I wanted to listen to over the night and I could listen to them on my walk to work without having to boot up Windows and sync via iTunes. Then one day after an update all the podcast apps were gone from the Appstore and my phone sin…

Apple never removed apps. They stopped accepting updates.

Tell that to the 3rd party Google Voice apps pulled from the App Store

Re: Google Blindness

#86

Post by tptacek »

Not that any other forum would do a better job of carefully and intelligently discussing the differences between Apple and Google and iOS and Android, but just so you know: HN is terrible at these kinds of discussions. Maybe we should cultivate them so 'pg and his minions can come up with clever statistical tests for bad comments using these stupid OS-war slapfights as a corpus.

Meanwhile, to everyone else on the thread: GUESS WHAT? You're never going to resolve this issue. None of your comments are convincing anyone of anything. They're generating head-nodding from people who already agree with you, and rageposts from people who don't. It has ever been thus, since the moment where someone wrote a second text editor in the history of text editors, and it will always be thus. At least you're part of a noble, silly-looking tradition.

Re: Google Blindness

#87

Post by nimh »

thrownaway2424 wrote: post #48

It doesn't seem very hard to believe that someone uses an iPhone but doesn't use iTunes to manage music. iTunes is next to useless if your music doesn't fit on your device. A service (such as Google Play Music All Access [worst product name ever]) makes more sense if you're always connected.

Apple has had iTunes Match since 2011 for music that doesn't fit on your device.

Re: Google Blindness

#88

Post by nimh »

xradionut wrote: post #57

Marco so conveniently forgot the whole debacle of Apple's developer resources and sites being down for almost two weeks.

Which is completely irrelevant in a discussion about the iPhone from a user's perspective.

Re: Google Blindness

#89

Post by taylodl »

The most fundamental difference between Google & Apple? With Google you're the product. With Apple you're the customer. It's a subtle, but important, difference.

Other than that both are for-profit companies seeking to lock you into their ecosystems as much as they can. And in order to do that they need to compete for customers - who are varied and have different needs and expectations. Some will choose Android, others will choose iOS. Meanwhile the earth will keep turning.

Re: Google Blindness

#90

Post by LluisGerard »

Oletros wrote: post #85
tewha wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple never removed apps. They stopped accepting updates.

Tell that to the 3rd party Google Voice apps pulled from the App Store

They can pull an app out from the App Store but they never, ever had the ability to remove it from your phone.
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