Comment by infogulch
5 years ago
"Consciously malicious" is not a good rule of thumb standard to measure threats to yourself or your business; it only accounts for a tiny bit of all possible threats. GP isn't claiming that Google is consciously malicious, they are claiming that you should prepare as if they were. These are not the same thing.
A lion may not be malicious when it's hunting you, it's just hungry; look out for it anyway. A drunk driver is unlikely targeting you specifically; drive carefully anyways. Nobody at Google is specifically thinking "hehehe now this will ruin jdsalareo's business!" but their decisions are arbitrary, generally impossible to appeal, and may ruin you regardless; prepare accordingly.
"The decisions are arbitrary, impossible to appeal, and may ruin you."
This is a monopoly.
Google may be a monopoly, but this quote has nothing to do with monopoly status. It has to do with power.
As a local businessman I can ruin someone’s life by applying the right legal pressure. Likewise, if one of my customers is reliant on my product to run their own business, and I drop them suddenly (akin to what google sometimes does), that could ruin them. But it’s not because I’m a monopoly, only because people rely on me. Monopoly implies there’s no choice, and while that IS true with google and search. It is not implied by “arbitrary, impossible to appeal, and may ruin you”. The two are distinct (though often related) problems that are both exemplified in Google.
Yes, exactly what I meant, thank you.
And very well said I might add. I don't mean to leave a vapid "I agree with you" comment, but your analogies are fantastic. They are accurate, vivid, and easily understandable.