Google gone bad?

[HarisA1]

Have you guys noticed google is turning into a ****. Blocking YouTube on WP now screwing over their employees, is this becoming a trend?


http://bgr.com/2013/08/16/google-em...+TheBoyGeniusReport+(BGR+|+Boy+Genius+Report)

 

[LMZR]

Google has become what Microsoft was back in 2000-2002.

The difference is Microsoft got in trouble, but Google hasn't.

 

[WanderingTraveler]

I'm not really surprised BGR wrote that article.

Considering what you ask, yes. This happens just when I was finally warming up to Android.

 

[HarisA1]

This article was posted on multiple sites

 

[jmshub]

Google was always a tech darling, but I think they are definitely on a path to complete awful.

For one thing, Google is building all kinds of things, Android, Chrome, Maps, self-driving cars and 3D glasses and crap, but in the end, their only substantial source of income is advertising. This makes them just kind of icky...they are incapable of selling a product...the only thing they have ever been able to successfully monetize is their hoard of users.

So many of their recent decisions like killing off Reader, discontinuing EAS on gmail, and their jihad on Windows Phone seems to have no legitimate business case, other than them being corporate dinks. They are just using their position to bully other people around...and they seem to be trying more than anything to become a successful soccial network with G+, even at the expense of their search business.

 

[HarisA1]

You mentioned their only substantial source of income was advertising, can you please explain that

 

[jmshub]

Google's primary product is search. They monetize search with advertising. Google has their financial information published, available at 2013 Financial Tables ...Advertising revenue makes up the vast majority of their revenue.

 

[HarisA1]

Thought it would def be android guess not

 

[WanderingTraveler]

Thought it would def be android guess not

Android is free. Free as in Google gives it away to expand their user base.

 

[HarisA1]

Dafuq?!?!

 

[jmshub]

And that shows the core problem with google. Reader was a much loved service by those that use it. But it provides google no source of income and got axed. Nearly any of their services, could get dropped when the goog gets tired of supporting it.

 

[HarisA1]

That's the difference between google and Microsoft

 

[cyberden]

Android is free. Free as in Google gives it away to expand their user base.

Not only it expands their user base but it makes users captive of an ecosystem in which google can push contextualized (ie expensive) ads. Plus, android enables google to gather a lot more data about their users than if they stayed on standard web applications. Android is in fact google Trojan horse trap. Google doesn't care about,its services, only the ads and user data that go with them. Reader example shows that quite well.

 

[Reflexx]

Not only it expands their user base but it makes users captive of an ecosystem in which google can push contextualized (ie expensive) ads. Plus, android enables google to gather a lot more data about their users than if they stayed on standard web applications. Android is in fact google Trojan horse trap. Google doesn't care about,its services, only the ads and user data that go with them. Reader example shows that quite well.

That's an interesting (and good) analogy.

If Android was running on top of something else, it would be flagged as a virus. LoL

 

[a5cent]

Dafuq?!?!

I'm surprised this is still news.

Android is free because Google uses every Android device as a data collection machine. It collects data about its owner... primarily by encouraging people to access Google's services/ecosystem (where every email you send or receive is "read", your media usage us tracked, etc.), but also more directly through Google Now and location tracking. Everything it can extract Google assembles into a huge profile, describing who Google thinks you are. They are amazingly accurate. Income brackets, family status, education, interests, health, your pets, job/employer, likes and dislikes... the lot.

This information is then used to target advertising, which is what Google's actual customers (corporations) pay for.

However, Android is not really intended to be an advertising delivery medium, although a few exceptions exist.

 

[a5cent]

If Android was running on top of something else, it would be flagged as a virus. LoL

Absolutely true, or more precisely, it would be flagged as spyware :-/

The only difference is that Google is upfront about it in their terms of service, which nobody reads.

 

[TechFreak1]

Android is free. Free as in Google gives it away to expand their user base.

Yup. Its simple as more users = more data to mine and sell = more ads served.

 

[Reflexx]

Absolutely true, or more precisely, it would be flagged as spyware :-/

The only difference is that Google is upfront about it in their terms of service, which nobody reads.

Yeah.

I'm not really that upset with Google collecting data. I think consumers who use Google pretty much know that their likes, dislikes and habits are being tracked.

Though I think people sometimes dont really realize just how much Google knows about you. How they are able to take all this data and connect dots.

I'm more comfortable with the idea of choosing product categories from a list of choices than I am of having my emails searched for keywords.