Wanna listen to this story instead? Check out this week's Better Offline podcast, "The Man That Destroyed Google Search," available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts. UPDATE: Prabhakar has now been deposed as head of search, read here for more details. This is the story

Ironic, just saw the post about ChatGPT launching their own competitor

    • Sauerkraut@discuss.tchncs.de
      12·
      9 days ago

      He has potential, for sure, but putting the blame on one person was a massive whiff, especially when his own sources had spelled out the real problem multiple times:

      "When Gomes pushed back on the multiple requests for growth, Fox added that all three of them were responsible for search, that search was “the revenue engine of the company,” and that bartering with the ads and finance teams was potentially “the new reality of their jobs.”

      On February 6th 2019, Gomes said that he believed that search was “getting too close to the money,” and ended his email by saying that he was “concerned that growth is all that Google was thinking about.”

      “Growth is all that Google was thinking about”. Companies prioritize quality and customer value when they are worker owned or trying to corner a market, but once they have a monopoly that goes out the window. Profit driven monopolies always end up cutting corners and abusing their customers. That is why anti-trust laws are so important and why it is so frustrating that we allow companies to bribe our politicians into eroding our anti-trust protections