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Comment by wpietri | Hacker News Reader

Of course they want to close us in. Or, more technically, they feel commercially compelled to do so.

There are only so many eyeballs, and right now being very sticky is an obviously viable strategy for dominance. Google didn't get into phone operating systems because they knew or cared much about them. They did it because their revenue base was under long-term threat. (Hell, Google is trying experiments to see if they can get in front of your actual eyeballs, intermediating your entire waking life.) And Facebook tried taking over people's phones for exactly the same reason.

Talk to the Googlers who have left over the last few years, and you'll hear very clearly that things have changed internally.

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What you're saying is that a company wants you to use their product and no one else's. Sure, that's how companies work. They aren't compelled to allow anyone from the outside to contribute. This is not closing us in. Unless I'm missing something, people are still able to choose the applications they install and use on their mobile phones, and I don't see that as a lock-in in the slightest. I understand the internal changes that have happened over the years at Google, but to say that Google no longer supports or does not plan to support openness or interoperability is either the word of a prophet or Google Reader-inspired sensationalism.

"What you're saying is that a company wants you to use their product and no one else's. Sure, that's how companies work"

Uhm, what?

So the company selling my milk want me to drink milk, just milk and nothing but milk?

I thought one of the founding ideas of capitalism is that you can strike deals that benefit everyone. That you don't have to screw anyone over.

You're misreading what you quoted. I'm telling you that the company that sells you milk doesn't want you to drink anyone else's milk because that's how businesses work. They might sell some cheese too, but they also don't want you eating anyone's else's cheese. Also, perhaps that is one of the founding ideas of capitalism, but our modern day version is far away from that. Capitalism screws people over by the day in America.

Yeah, I understand, and my example was bad.

Internet is such a big space (unlike milk) that if an Internet-company wants you to use their Internet-stuff and no-one else's Internet-stuff .. well, I don't know what will happen, but it can't be good.

Capitalism screws people over by the day in America

Finally something we can agree on

Good thing I am not saying that.

I am saying that Google's commitment to openness has declined substantially over the years, and that this is due to their interpretation of the commercial context.

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