Comment by shimman
3 days ago
Being a monopoly worth trillions while having enough BUs to subsidize anything you can imagine does have its perks.
3 days ago
Being a monopoly worth trillions while having enough BUs to subsidize anything you can imagine does have its perks.
Also having invented the transformer architecture, doing "AI" since it was called "machine learning", and having data centers and TPUs that define state of the art.
Yes and they would have never been able to do any of this without their illegal monopoly that needs to be broken up and sliced/diced to benefit society.
Well sure, but lots of big companies have all the resources in the world and can't execute. Google really did turn things around in an impressive way.
Additionally, they have built-in distribution and integration for their products. I don’t know how folks don’t see that as a massive advantage.
It’s like Microsoft and Internet Explorer in the 90s but on a much larger scale both in the breadth (number of distribution channels) and depth (market share of those channels in their respective verticals).
That's true. It's also a fine line to walk for Google.
Google has recently received regulatory pressure, for instance, just like Microsoft had trouble in the late 90s.
Didn't work for Meta
Skill issue.
Or Apple. Also Microsoft who were the ones bankrolling OpenAI before it started floating on its own equity.
In point of fact money to throw at AI development is essentially free, not one of the big players sustains itself on income. Investors are throwing every dollar they have at everyone with a usable pitch.
Whatever advantages Google had, financial stability is way, way down the list. For better theories, look to "Proven Leader at Scaling Datacenters" and "Decoupled from the CUDA Cartel via being an early moving on custom AI hardware".
The issue with Meta is entirely confined to a single individual, Zuckerberg.
I think the single biggest bad thing Google does (Android and YouTube bad practices [2] aside):
Google taxes every brand and registered trademark.
The URL bar is no longer a URL bar. It's a search bar. Google used monopoly power to take over 90% of them.
Now every product, every brand, every trademark competes in a competitive bidding process for their own hard-earned IP and market. This isn't just paying a fee, it's a bidding war with multiple sides.
If you want to strike Google at their heart, make it illegal to place ads against registered trademarks.
I'm going to launch "trademark-extortion.org" (or similar) and run a large campaign to reach F500 CEOs and legislators. This needs to end. This is the source that has allowed Google to wreak incredible harm on the entire tech sector. Happy to send this to Sam Altman and Tim Sweeny as well.
[1] Rug-pulling web installs; leveraging 3rd party vendors to establish market share and treating them like cattle; scare walls and defaults that ensure 99.99% of users wind up with ads, Google payment rails, etc. ; Google ads / chrome / search funnel ; killing Microsoft's smartphone by continually gimping YouTube and Google apps on the platform ; etc. etc. etc. The evilest company.
Counterpoint: This allows competitors visibility in a space where consumers would otherwise blindly stick with overpriced brand names.
Is it?
Google isn't exposed in such a way.
Hundreds of billions of dollars are being deflected to a single entity, adding to customer costs.
This turns into a game of who has the bigger ad budget.
Companies can compete on product and win in the court of public opinion. TikTok marketing and reviews showcase this masterfully. Even Reddit reviews.
Yet when you go to search for those things, the Google tax bridge troll steps in and asks for their protection money.
They're a cancer on capitalism and fair competition.
We tell business people it's illegal to perform bribery. Yet that's exactly what this is. It's zero sum multi-party bidding, so it's even more lucrative to the single party receiving the bribes.
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I think Firefox was first to the "Awesome Bar".