Whats with all the GOOGLE hate?

[semaphore]

Google is a power-hungry company.

I know they're still a company with all that implies, but bit difficult to perceive them like that (power hungry) when they do things like enter joke bids on important patent auctions...

[S7orm]

There are no free lunches however, to think otherwise would be naive. Googles search engine results are constantly being manipulated by both users and google themselves, if you had your own company that had it's income rely on internet sales, you might have really good reasons to be pissed off at google. I'm sure that this happy era of "free stuff" is just the honeymoon period, once/if google manages to drive off all competition and establish a true monopoly on things it's working on, things probably won't seem so sweet anymore.

Power is the root of all evil and the devil often comes in a disguise. Frankly, I'm a bit intimidated how far Googles tentacles stretch, and they just keep reaching further. Do I hate google? Absolutely no, doesn't feel like I have a reason to hate them, atleast yet. Do I fear Google? Absolutely yes. They have a lot of potential to do some really nasty things if they wanted to, and once the infrastructure is there so to say and there's massive amounts of harvested data available, what will happen when there's a nasty change to who's pulling the strings?

Orwellian shit usually comes wrapped up in nice looking packages everyone is almost too happy to embrace. Things can go bad really fast if everyone gets too dependant on google products.

if Google will monopolize the market and turn Evil, another company will take place and compete for a market share

that's the power of free market

[N-7]

Google hate is more prevalent in Europe than the US.

The only "hate" towards Google in Europe is from the EU regulators and governments not the general population.

---------- Post added 2013-01-05 at 03:43 PM ----------

I know they're still a company with all that implies, but bit difficult to perceive them like that (power hungry) when they do things like enter joke bids on important patent auctions...

I haven't read anything about that... care to share a link? seems too awesome to be true :P

[Noxia]

if Google will monopolize the market and turn Evil, another company will take place and compete for a market share

that's the power of free market

I wish it was that simple. If they grow big enough/advance far enough, there could be so much catching up to do it would be an insanely difficult task for someone else to even get back in the game as a major player. You also don't have to go all the way evil nor should you, just go more and more evil in small, 'tolerable' chunks and the general masses will take it down their throat. A bit like facebook. Isn't facebook a prime example of an evil company that gets to do pretty much whatever it wants? I wouldn't say they have any notable competition either competing for market share let alone "taking their place". Cutthroat business models earn you a lot of money too and this can be used to further advance your monopoly position.

[Deleted]

and pay no taxes......

They pay all the taxes the LAW requires them to.
If they don't want companies to use loopholes to reduce the tax they pay they need to fix the law, not try and publicly shame companies using the news.

[Lefrog]

I wish it was that simple. If they grow big enough/advance far enough, there could be so much catching up to do it would be an insanely difficult task for someone else to even get back in the game as a major player. You also don't have to go all the way evil nor should you, just go more and more evil in small, 'tolerable' chunks and the general masses will take it down their throat. A bit like facebook. Isn't facebook a prime example of an evil company that gets to do pretty much whatever it wants? I wouldn't say they have any notable competition either competing for market share let alone "taking their place". Cutthroat business models earn you a lot of money too and this can be used to further advance your monopoly position.

Same thing could have been said about Microsoft though, and look at how apple took the mp3/mobile/tablet world. When the beast gets so much power that they are bloated and unable to change, well then it leaves room for superior products to come into play. Another example that comes to mind is Microsofts venture into the console market. Before them it was just Sony and Nintendo sucking the blood out Sega lol.

It's completely possible to topple the bigger bloated companies, because often times they are so big that it's hard for them to adapt quickly to market. It's just harder to do if you are trying to go up against their main product with something that isn't clearly superior in some way.

---------- Post added 2013-01-05 at 10:09 AM ----------

They pay all the taxes the LAW requires them to.
If they don't want companies to use loopholes to reduce the tax they pay they need to fix the law, not try and publicly shame companies using the news.

At least here in the U.S. the average tax payer doesn't have much of a voice in creating new law that would close them and make everything fair. The lobbyist from huge corporations on the other hand have quite the say in things.

[aztr0]

Didn't know there was a Google hate....

[bekilrwale]

Never met anyone who hates Google, I have only ever heard positive things about Google.

Also, I welcome our new Googelian overlords.

[Noxia]

Same thing could have been said about Microsoft though, and look at how apple took the mp3/mobile/tablet world. When the beast gets so much power that they are bloated and unable to change, well then it leaves room for superior products to come into play. Another example that comes to mind is Microsofts venture into the console market. Before them it was just Sony and Nintendo sucking the blood out Sega lol.

It's completely possible to topple the bigger bloated companies, because often times they are so big that it's hard for them to adapt quickly to market. It's just harder to do if you are trying to go up against their main product with something that isn't clearly superior in some way.

Yes, apple took over the mp3/mobile/tablet world from microsoft because microsoft wasn't wise enough invest in that market area early enough. Apple got a head-start, it didn't "take over" anything from microsoft when it comes to the mobile world. If you were saying that Apple took over the market from Microsoft when it comes to desktop operating systems, the main thing microsoft is known for, I'd have to call bs on that one. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_s...rating_systems - 7% for mac os X and over 90% for microsoft operating systems. So I consider your example with Microsoft and Apple weird at best.

The console example is an interesting one, here we have a huge, "evil" corporation strecthing it's grasp into new markets with great success. Can you think of another company that could have achieved the same as MS did with xbox? What I'm trying to go after here is, lot's of power enables the acquisition of even more power when it wouldn't otherwise be possible.

The beauty or terror I see in a company like facebook is, because the userbase is so established already, it's ridiculously difficult to overthrow them merely by making a "superior" product that is also completely free to use. Not even google managed to do it. VoIP products haven't overthrown GSM phones etc (yet) even though one could argue they are a superior product in many cases.

I'm not saying it's totally impossible to topple the bigger, bloated companies but look at the struggle AMD is having vs. Intel for example if you're familiar with CPUs. There is no real competition anymore, Intel can do almost as it wishes, it's too far ahead to consider AMD an immediate threat to it's sales (which might eventually prove fatal though if they get too arrogant). Now Intel is being a total dick with pricing, neutered products with features cut out etc and people just have to suck it up and pay if they want the better CPU for their desktop computers.

But hey, nobody can predict the future, who knows what new revolutionary game-changer technology might come up next week that completely rocks the world and it's power structures like the internet did back in the day.

[Shâréz]

The only hate I ever see is whenever the media decides to make another "OMG GOOGLE INFRINGES YOUR PRIVACY" article - at which point people not so well versed in The Internet get a shock reaction saying it's outrageous. And then move on with their daily lives the next day like nothing happened.

Well that and Apple sect-members bashing on Android like the good hipsters they are.

[Noah37]

I hadn't really heard anything about that. I can't really understand it, I mean I know some people always think the higher powers are watching us and tracking everything we do. Sure, Google may have a lot of information on me, but it is because they are smart and understand how things work. They are one of the best companies, trying to give things to the consumers for cheaper, and make sure everyone is happy.

[Herecius]

I don't use Google Chrome because I'm used to Firefox and that's what I like. Also I like my noscript.

As for Google hate? Bah! Bring on our mighty Google corporate overlords. Ultra fast Internet for everybody!

[N-7]

I don't use Google Chrome because I'm used to Firefox and that's what I like. Also I like my noscript.

As for Google hate? Bah! Bring on our mighty Google corporate overlords. Ultra fast Internet for everybody!

Just FYI Google Chrome has noscript.

[semaphore]

I haven't read anything about that... care to share a link? seems too awesome to be true :P

I forgot what it was, but Google was bidding on some communications patents buundle against a bunch of others tech companies. And they used non-even numbers that confused all the lesser beings in event with bids like $1,902,160,540 (Brun's theorem) and 2,614,972,128 (Mertens constant) and $3.14159 billion (pi, obviously). It was quite funny

Granted it's depressingly nerdy to get these kind of jokes, but yeah.

[breadisfunny]

did they ever put in a bid for a random uneven set of numbers like 6,753,951? or 74,390,487?

[Znuff]

The Google Hate is really strong on reddit and any article that talks about google and privacy.

I'd rather have targeted ads shown to me, rather than annoying hemorrhoid creams or penis enlargement pills in unrelated ads.

[Very Tired]

I'm willing to bet Google is the modern day Abstergo. Either that or Viacom, maybe Fox News.

[chadwix]

For americans their tax evasion rubs some the wrong way.

[N-7]

I forgot what it was, but Google was bidding on some communications patents buundle against a bunch of others tech companies. And they used non-even numbers that confused all the lesser beings in event with bids like $1,902,160,540 (Brun's theorem) and 2,614,972,128 (Mertens constant) and $3.14159 billion (pi, obviously). It was quite funny

Granted it's depressingly nerdy to get these kind of jokes, but yeah.

That is nice, at least we know that Google is nerdy and nerdy is good.

[This name sucks]

stuff

Yeah, I could understand hating microsoft during the 90s when they basically killed a dozen other companies by being incredibly anti competitive but they've really cleaned themselves up since. Too bad they're starting to cave again after being clean for a good 9 years.

Hating Apple is something totally different. The sole reason it exists as a company is because of their ecosystem which is nearly impossible to leave, hipsters, and suing/stealing everyone else's work.