Re:”No one at Google is Returning Our Calls”
by wpietri on Friday December 27, 2013 @03:32PM
(#6972486)
You say it like it has to be one or the other, but why can't it be both?
Google has chosen businesses where most of their users aren't, as you point out, their customers. They're the product.
What made them interesting in the beginning is that their behaviors were different than the economic incentives. They were engineering-focused, so they made a great search engine, and didn't worry about revenue maximization. They were, as far as I can tell, really serious about organizing the world's information, and about not being evil. That helped them crush their competitors.
But as far as I can tell, they've become just another large company. Many thousands of people, interacting mostly with fellow employees. So the people, always numerous, have also become little. Which I think is always the seed of a company's downfall. E.g., Microsoft, which has floundered for how long now? Cut off the roots and the whole plant eventually dies.
Google has chosen businesses where most of their users aren't, as you point out, their customers. They're the product.
What made them interesting in the beginning is that their behaviors were different than the economic incentives. They were engineering-focused, so they made a great search engine, and didn't worry about revenue maximization. They were, as far as I can tell, really serious about organizing the world's information, and about not being evil. That helped them crush their competitors.
But as far as I can tell, they've become just another large company. Many thousands of people, interacting mostly with fellow employees. So the people, always numerous, have also become little. Which I think is always the seed of a company's downfall. E.g., Microsoft, which has floundered for how long now? Cut off the roots and the whole plant eventually dies.