Should have put the disclaimer first. This is just a guy betting on Brave trying to write up some imaginary future where Brave causes google to collapse.
I went to medium.com to read this article about the forthcoming collapse of Google, and I noticed that medium.com wanted me to log in using my Google account. I find this ... unconvincing.
> For all its efforts, the money Google earned from its nonadvertising ventures only ever accounted for a mere 15% of their revenue.<p>15% of Google's revenue is still a quite large business. Having online advertising badly weaken isn't enough to kill the firm, unless they sell the profitable parts to try to bail out the unprofitable core business.<p>The assumption that Google will collapse is probably still true, but only because most companies don't last long term. The bigger firms often take quite a while to fade though.
The article makes big swooping statements like <i>"treating people as people turned out to be a winning strategy"</i> but fails to adequately explain what that means here.
If you are going to continuously edit a soothsaying prediction about Google's doomsday date since 2017 and place a bet on Brave succeeding while they keep using Google's technology (Chromium now maintained by Googlers), it very well appears that the authors crystal ball is a faulty one.
Well that was an underwhelming argument..
<i>google is shit </i>random links* - DOWNLOAD BRAVE!"<p>My (and please feel free to take a pop at me) riposte is that Google is the single large Internet company that keeps encroaching into my privacy/life - but gives me enough carrot with each stick for me to forgive them.
Yes, I'm being data-raped, but they're actually pretty open with it and provide me some use from this data.
e.g. Years ago I was shocked at seeing that I was being tracked on the maps timeline. But, it meant I could identify that great restaurant I was trying to remember.<p>I had the option to turn off the tracking.. but well it's really useful. Then you see your last holiday came with free-tracking and your free-pixel photos inserted into a lovely timeline.. <i>grinds teeth at the intrusion, but loves the nostalgic montage</i><p>They also have been successful in opening my wallet - no more youtube adverts for me (and yes, you can block them in the browser, but then that doesn't pay the creator). Also paid for Drive - originally that, drop-box or Onedrive <i>flips coin</i> - but best client, API for my NAS, could add backup for my Mum's PC.. It was better so I bit, but kept finding more useful stuff being added.<p>As a counterargument - "Facebook".
I used to think it was magic, but every interaction annoys me. "Why don't you connect to these people???! - Because I've no idea who any of them are.<p>Ebay - Doesn't seem to offer me anything more, except more shite each time I try to use it. Expensive AliExpress at best.<p>Amazon - actually great for shopping, nice integration of third party stuff. Easily winner in cloud hosting - and great example of horizontal gubbins.<p>MS - Under Satya actually interesting once more - and as I was convinced they were going insane, proof that I've no idea what I'm talking about.
A bit dated and sensationalist, but still has some good points.<p>Maybe Google won’t collapse outright, but they are facing challenges on a lot of fronts. Everything from employees unionising, antitrust legislation both at home and abroad, massive loss-leaders like YouTube, and advertising market challenges.<p>Worst of all is probably the reputational damage. They used to be the darling of technologists everywhere, but countless privacy- and monopolist scandals have taken their toll. There’s a growing anti-Google sentiment, and once lost, reputation is hard to recover.
Reminds me of this Dilbert: <a href="https://dilbert.com/strip/2002-08-26" rel="nofollow">https://dilbert.com/strip/2002-08-26</a>