Hacker News Reader

Comment by disantlor | Hacker News Reader

i get your point but this is really pretty dramatic.

it’s a website. not everything needs to be found, let alone searched for

"Currently, the predominant business model for commercial search engines is advertising. The goals of the advertising business model do not always correspond to providing quality search to users. […]. For this type of reason and historical experience with other media, we expect that advertising funded search engines will be inherently biased towards the advertisers and away from the needs of the consumers."

The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine, Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page

Great quote (given the context) - gonna go give this a read now, thanks.

Almost everything posted on this site is blown way out of proportion. Google is a tool you can use if you want. The vast majority of people think it works great. But from the comments that get posted here you'd think the government is sending police forces to bust down your door if you don't endure an hour of google waterboarding.

My increasing dissatisfaction with Google’s core product, what made it a company in the first place, it’s prime product, it’s raison d’être, Internet search, is because it now seems to fixate on the most generic terms in my query and returns answers for a question it assumes I have - rather than just being a powerful keyword search like it was two decades ago.

You can still use something while lamenting that the product is not as good as it used to be.

Early google represented "the good guys" against the bully Microsoft.

Back then, they created Google Talk which rivaled MSN. Android started as a "open source mobile Linux" which rivaled Windows Phone.

People trusted Google as the good guys open source powered company and, when it got big enough, it screwed everyone over.

And that disappointment and outrage is still there

> when it got big enough, it screwed everyone over

How did it screw everyone over? Almost all my non tech friends adore most Google products.

You may feel screwed over, meanwhile a billion people happily chug away on Google, GMail, and YouTube.

Inferior products can still be popular, how surprising.

Seriously though, the only actually valuable thing Google has at this point is its market share.

Given it's an inferior product, weird how nobody's come and made something better and eaten Google's lunch, isn't it?

Network effect; can’t really compete until the current monopoly is solved. Also it’s disputable whether a business model based on invading peoples privacy should be legal.

What does Google have a monopoly over?

(Hint: nothing)

Every market it's still in, from search to mail. Google can't compete on markets it doesn't already have monopoly; see... well, see the vast majority of its products.

Ok they broke Google Talk however they actually made Linux mainstream, something no one else managed on this level before.

lol what ? I'd give Google a lot of credit for a lot of stuff, including all their Linux contribution to the kernel.

But stating "Google made Linux mainstream" ? I can't see how ? I'd wager orgs like Ubuntu had a lot more todo with making "Linux mainstream".

Linux is now a majority of active devices on any website statistic.

It's not unusual to have more Android users on any given day than windows, Mac and Linux together.

How is that not mainstream?

But I can’t search for things I know exist and very much want to find. I could previously do this with the same search syntax, really hoping this announcement means I can again.

And if that seems dramatic, in the intervening period do you want to know what Google served me for very specific search terms? Malicious content and very little else.

that sounds frustrating but it’s not the same as being with an abusive partner

Consider that the analogy is intended to illustrate the mechanisms at play, and not the import.

A bad analogy is a bad analogy. If you want to illustrate the mechanism at play, come up with an analogy that fits the situation.

I'd agree that it's an overall failed analogy because people here are being distracted by the intensity signal, but I still see it as a good analogy for the purposes of illustrating the mechanism.

I’m sensitive to the distinction you’re making, I have had abusive partners. One of whom is a routine and often daily reminder of things I’d like to leave behind but haven’t yet been able to. I didn’t take the figurative way the other comment was phrased to mean literally that. Because you’re right, it’s not the same.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com