HACKER Q&A
📣 blinotz

Is “Big Google” Dying?


Is googles relentless long term product killings a sign that the days of “Big google” are coming to an end?

The company that seemed to do so much is now contracting down to .....what?

Does it mean google is going back to just being search plus a few other things?

Is Big google a thing if the past?

Here’s a list of google products, which ones do you think they’ll keep? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products

  👤 throwaway29303 Accepted Answer ✓
Google haven't veered off their modus operandi since, maybe, its inception. Most people would say they're an ad company but if you look closely they're a patent hoarder and billion user product/service chaser. Beyond its products/services you should look at their acquisitions as well, so you can have a fairly decent picture of what they're trying to achieve.

I doubt Google will vanish that easily, if, for whatever reason, ads become unsustainable (which is very unlikely) I predict they're are going to start licensing their tech to the highest bidder much like what they're doing right now with Waymo. (Waymo's end goal, like other players in this field, is insurance, btw.)

It's equally important to recall that they have lots of investments on a lot of other well-known companies (some are even outright competitors). (Makes one wonder if they're using those positions to keep their edge in the market that they may intend to takeover in the future.)

The "Google feels old now" feeling we're currently experiencing comes mostly from a power struggle between Big Tech and Big News.

Google have so many investments in so many different fields, and are so risk averse (I'd even risk saying paranoid) that I doubt they're going under any time soon.

But my guess is as good as any, though.

👤 hedora
Now that I’ve switched away from Google, there’s no way I’m going back.

It was a ton of effort, and I started because they kept breaking / discontinuing things I relied on. I finished because of privacy concerns. I see no evidence that they are addressing either of these issues.

I’d guess when they lose a user, it is usually permanent.

Less anectdotally, DDG’s adoption curve looks solid:

https://duckduckgo.com/traffic

Also, the gmail client seems to have peaked in popularity:

https://emailclientmarketshare.com/

and services like fastmail are more popular:

https://trends.builtwith.com/mx/FastMail

(Be sure “all internet” is selected to see the recent uptick in presumably personal email hosting)

👤 stanislavb
... and here it is a list with Google Products and their alternatives https://www.saashub.com/all-google-alternatives (disclosure, I'm the author of the list)
👤 franzwong
I think Google should focus on continuous product development. They always create a product and then leave it alone without touching it again. Usually the product is good originally, but it degrades because nobody updates it.
👤 gshdg
Google has always aggressively created and sunsetted products, even popular ones. I don’t see any change in that MO recently.
👤 twox2
My understanding is that the minimum bar for an in house google product or service is that it needs to generate ~$100MM in ARR. If that bar isn't met quickly without too much overhead, then the product or service gets cut. They are like a VC chasing unicorns.
👤 rapnie
Also interesting: Is #DeGoogle on the rise (as a real thing, not a fad)?