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Comment by thfuran

2 months ago

>Google basically destroyed itself when it decided to become an ad network rather than a dumb pipe you pay to access.

It didn't destroy itself, it became one of the largest and most profitable companies ever.

Right! Imagine how big they'd be if they hadn't given up on microtransactions in the 90s. I'd guess not trying to be broken up by the DOJ.

  • Probably they'd have closed shop long ago, because someone else would've done ad-funded search, and it's nearly impossible to compete with free.

    • We'll never know because nobody tried. The internet is too broken now to bother searching. For a group of people that claim to love empirical analysis people on this site sure do love writing off anything but the current state of affairs.