Just because Google has a lot of capacity doesn't mean they're wasteful with it. At scale, minor inefficiencies add up to a lot. That is the incentive for protobufs, etc. For a more concrete example of seemingly trivial bandwidth savings, check out the HTML source to their 404 page (it validates!): http://www.google.com/asdf.html

That 404 page is a relic from the past. Take a look at what makes up their search page and you'll see that it is almost 1 MB uncompressed. That's for a page that displays a logo, a navbar, a text input and a button.

Sure, the page has really become a one-page app with some advantages that come from pre-loading, but jeez, it is still 1MB!

The problem isn't for Google, it's for the receiving mobile devices.

> Sorry but I just don't see how bandwidth and XML could ever be a problem for Google.

Then why comment? If you have nothing to input from either side. Doubt is not a valuable commodity.

We not here for the sole reason of providing value to you. Although we may, incidentally, hope to do so.

Some of us need our thoughts clarified by the community.

In any case, I find that learning happens in an atmosphere of uncertainty, humility and exploration. Doubt, thus, is a valuable commodity in any community which encourages learning, and I'd like to believe HN is one of them.

Yes it is. For instance, if someone spends years trying to solve a problem and they can't do it and they tell you that they doubt that you're going to be able to solve it in a year and probably shouldn't base your strategies around doing so then that information is worth something - whatever the relevant entire costs are for your having done otherwise.

If you respect people, then their opinions tell you things about the search space in which they live. Heck, even if you don't respect people it at least tells you nsomething about how widely known a particular thing is within comparable sections of society.

There are, potentially, some good arguments for filtering your information to keep newbies out of higher level discussion where people are trying to make progress on a problem - but in the context here it seems to me at the moment that you're just being somewhat mean; I don't see what you hope to gain other than to make someone feel bad.

Neither is being a snarky dickhead.

Maybe you should refrain from commenting until you have something "valuable" to offer, too.