Hacker News Reader

Comment by eof | Hacker News Reader

Interesting and surprising comments. Anyone ever heard of AOL? Are they dead?

I think Google will likely go through similar path as Microsoft; such a tech powerhouse and cash cow for so long, innovation became eclipsed by profit optimization.

Microsoft turned it around a decade ago with a successful cloud pivot.

Google would have to fail fabulously for minimum of a decade before we could even begin to start claiming it’s terminal.

View on HN

> Anyone ever heard of AOL? Are they dead?

I think that when people say "dead" in this context, they aren't really meaning "out of business". They're meaning "no longer relevant".

AOL, as well as IBM, are both still doing pretty good business, but in terms of relevancy (at least culturally), they are both pretty dead. Neither can move markets. They are shadows of their former selves.

Microsoft “turned it around” by extracting money out of its existing enterprise customer base. Apple had a base of fanatic customers even during its lowest point.

What does Google have?

How many times have you used google or gmail or YouTube or android today?

If Gmail is just email and I use it on my iPhone with the native mail application -- along with 5 other email accounts. If Gmail disappeared tomorrow, I would choose another email provider. There are very few "fanatics" for Android. It's the only alternative if you don't want to spend on an expensive phone. But the majority of people who can afford a more expensive phone -- buy an iPhone.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com