News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Why are US consumers so angry? It's not just high prices. Parent comment

Re:Why are US consumers so angry? It's not just high prices by thomassmith65 on Sunday July 12, 2026 @04:02AM (#48879285)
Gmail was a great product because they doled out a GB of storage for free. Agreed that they introduced other features people liked.

As a user, you were faceless. I have a vague memory from the early Gmail days. I'm pretty sure they charged me $5 to contact support.

Customer focus includes more than having a good product, though having a good product is a component. The business model Google chose (it was a choice) for Gmail wasn't compatible with focusing on Google's customers.

That said, there were other good examples. I chose Gmail because I believe it was one of the best known products of the era.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why are US consumers so angry? It's not just high prices by thomassmith65 on Sunday July 12, 2026 @04:52AM (#48879503)
Too late to edit my comment.

I'm embarrassed to say, I just realized the big problem with my original comment, and it is hackneyed: the end-users probably weren't the customers.

I doubt Google was cavalier about its relationships with advertisers back then.

[ Parent | on HN ]