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Comment by Gigachad | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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?

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