Re: the post from the ex-Googler, it's just a long-form advertisement.

He starts out by acknowledging that he's moved to a new product/company, but doesn't tell you what it is. He talks about Google becoming "competitor-focused" rather than "customer focused [sic]." But who, exactly, are Google's customers? It's certainly not most of us, which he seems to be implying. Given Google's revenues, they seem to be pleasing their actual customers just fine. Then he goes on to criticize other big tech companies, sometimes while ignoring how they're different from Google, or by exaggerating their failures. (Amazon's same-day delivery, we're told, only applies to "a few SKUs in a few cities," so is basically worthless, evidently.)

Once he's done that, he can get to the money shot: why his new company is oh so much better. How excited he is to work there, how amazing and ahead of the curve they are, while also making sure to get in plenty of digs at Uber, their biggest competitor.

And I mean, that's all fine. This is what marketing is supposed to do. I'm just surprised at the number of other sites (including CNBC and The Register) that are taking his criticism at face value.