I feel that some of this article is a bit extreme and doesn't take into account the number of nuances and factors that make up all three of these companies. However, it's an interesting argument to consideration.
I agree with you. It's an interesting argument but Kelly is trying way too hard to make the parallel. For one thing, ad revenue is certainly slowing down for Google but Google only got into ad revenue grudgingly. I don't remember what gobsmacking amount of revenue it's estimated Google foregoes by leaving the ads off the landing page, but it's a fearsome amount. Page and Brin didn't start Google because they wanted to make a shit-ton of money, they started it because they wanted to engineer the world a better place (and like all engineers, they know best...right...?). The gobsmacking coffers of money are a side-effect. For another, Google has never been about monetizing the user side, they've always been about monetizing the B2B and even that has been half-hearted at best. One look at the Android Marketplace or the Play Store and it's abundantly clear Google doesn't have the first fucking clue about merchant services. The App Store isn't perfect but Play is a Kowloon night market by comparison. What they do best is disrupt inefficient markets... which is why I think they pushed so hard into location services. They recognized that it would be a BFD in 10-20 years and victory would belong to anyone who did the early investing. "Self-driving cars" are whizz-bang futuretech if you aren't paying attention, but the Killer App for location services if you are... and nobody is going to use Apple Maps on an autonomous vehicle. Google has the data. Apple doesn't. Trimble doesn't. OpenStreetMaps doesn't. If they want to hit you up for a $2000 license for every vehicle that rolls off your assembly line, you will pay it. Period. Finally, Forbes is really grading on a curve when it comes to Microsoft. I mean, It's February, dawg. They've cut 14% of their workforce since nine months ago. Eighteen months ago the company wrote down nearly a billion dollars in losses on the Surface, which nobody still gives a shit about by the way. Spartan is the replacement for the browser that even your mother stopped using three years ago and while Microsoft is giving away Windows 10 for free, that makes them the last software vendor to do so, not the first. Meanwhile, Kelly is snarking about a $30 monetization of Google Cardboard, which was basically developed to make Oculus look retarded, while championing Windows Holographic, which was basically developed to make the Nintendo Power Glove look cool. And while I haven't used Windows Holographic, I have used both Google Cardboard and Oculus VR and lemme tell ya - Cardboard makes Oculus look wicked retarded. If the whole point was to make Facebook look stupid for spending $2bln on a company that doesn't quite accomplish the snappy feel of holding a phone to your face, they hit that one out of the park. I think Google still has missteps to make. I'm not at all comfortable with their general business philosophy. But I'm not about to point to Microsoft and say "they just bought two email apps I've never heard of, they're the ones to beat."In 2015 Satya Nadella led Microsoft has become a progressive, open, web services company.
I started avoiding google when it started being obvious in the ways it was shoving shit on me and I'm pretty sure, reading my keystrokes (not really shocking as a tool to make searching more "immediate"). I don't assume active malice on this part, just that They've moved their company into a direction that no longer matches up with how I want to use the internet. I recently switched to duck duck go, and while it is not perfect, it doesn't track everything I do. Now I just need a replacement for youtube. Gmail is too ingrained in my life at the moment.
I hope you also avoid using google chrome, and emailing anyone with a gmail account or email serviced by google. Along with that, I hope you avoid any and all websites that have their search powered by google (like Yahoo). And if you are worried about tracking, I'd be more concerned with Facebook, who tracks you through the like button on various sites. On top of all that, I'd be wary of who you buy your internet service from. Hopefully it's not one of the providers that many people know of, because they all are pretty much logging data. And be sure you don't connect to any site/computer/network that does, because otherwise your data will be transferred through there and logged. Worrying about google tracking your searches is about as silly as avoiding the internet entirely because ISPs log network traffic. If anything, I'd rather it be google than say Microsoft.
^^^ I forget what this is called, but basically you're saying "what you're doing is just a drop in the ocean, so why bother?" Or, worded differently, If you can't do everything, why do anything? I said I was "too invested" in my gmail, but that's not the whole picture. I also, rightly or wrongly, have the opinion that my data inside my email is relatively safe without a warrant. That also being said, I'm not ashamed or concerned about any of my activity (though yesterday I was defending the rights of muslim women to wear a Niqab if they chose, so I'm probably on a list somewhere now). My actions are less influenced by the concept of broad privacy and more the concept of encouraging what I perceive to be good business practices and discouraging what i perceive to be bad business practices, as much as one person can. I do my best to be a fickle online consumer.
Yea. I'm all for privacy, but explicitly avoiding google services because you are concerned about privacy is ridiculous. Considering there's so many other problems, and google isn't really all that evil about it. They just use it for statistics and relevant ads. Honestly, the day that google will automatically know what music, movies, and video games I like (and will suggest them to me) is a day I look forward to. I have to go out of my way in order to find things I like. Having google just know that shit would be nice. My thoughts: A search engine should know you pretty well. An ISP should not.