On a scale of evil from Jesus to Stalin, laying people off is a solid Quark from DS9. I find it hard to get very riled up about it.

If anything, it’s good that googlers got a dose of cold water and realized that they need to worry about losing their job, just like everybody else.

The way people were chosen seems strange though. Several people noted it seemed basically random.

Not sure if I agree with the rest but I love the scale.

It is true. If it wasn't for the side loading of Apps and app stores on Android - I would give it a hard miss!

Not me. Android is an easy pick, not because Google is perfect, but because the alternative (and there is only 1 alternative) is worse in so many ways, especially for freedom.

Just being able to use a web browser with proper ad-blocking and paywall-bypassing alone (Firefox Nightly) is enough to make the choice easy, not to mention being able to use an SD card for storage, being able to connect via USB to my Linux PC and download photos, I could go on and on.

I completely forgot about the open USB/SD card stuff even though I use it all the time. Yeah that is pretty cool.

I am more projecting onto a potential of things like Linux Phones. Once they get the stability issues resolved, they have the potential to be something wonderful.

I think transformers, which power ChatGPT, will go down in history as Google's biggest invention. Good thing they didn't keep it for themselves!

DeepMind too.

C'mon

* Gmail

* Maps

* Chrome

* Youtube (yes, it was acquired. But you cannot deny Google's touch pushed Youtube to the top)

* Flights (seriously, forget all the other sites)

* NGL I love their productivity side (Docs, Keep, Drive is OK I guess)

Not to mention the near countless multi-millionaires Google has created

Maps - idea is from DARPA, commercialized by G and other tech companies Chrome - I prefer Chromium YT - they planet scaled it, but the original idea was not theirs Flights - okay, this is kind of useful but I only use this a handful of times during the year

> Youtube (yes, it was acquired. But you cannot deny Google's touch pushed Youtube to the top)

They bought it because their competing product failed so badly barely anyone remembers it existed. I'm not so sure Google actually helped much beyond increased bandwidth for higher-quality video.

Despite not knowing big G's influence on Youtube, I can still say with confidence that YT has been a consitent, huge time sink in the past decade since they were bought.

And don't underestimate how important it is to be capable, performant, and available. Outages and routinely slow performance is how you bleed customers. No doubt G had a hand in bolstering our little video site

> Google peaked at Google Search and Google Ads. Everything else is subpar or average

So should they have laid off more people and just kept coasting on search ads?