I really do not want Google to win anything. They're a giant monopoly across multiple industries. We need a greater balance of power.

Antitrust enforcement has been letting us down for over two decades. If we don't have an oxygenation event, we'll go an entire generation where we only reward tax-collecting, non-innovation capital. That's unhealthy and unfair.

Our career sector has been institutionalized and rewards the 0.001% even as they rest on their laurels and conspire to suppress wages and innovation. There's a reason why centicorns petered out and why the F500 is tech-heavy. It's because big tech is a dragnet that consumes everything it touches - film studios, grocery stores, and God only knows what else it'll assimilate in the unending search for unregulated, cancerous growth.

FAANG's $500k TC is at the expense of hundreds of unicorns making their ICs even wealthier. That money mostly winds up going to institutional investors, where the money sits parked instead of flowing into huge stakes risks and cutthroat competition. That's why a16z and YC want to see increased antitrust regulations.

But it's really bad for consumers too. It's why our smartphones are stagnant taxation banana republics with one of two landlords. Nothing new, yet as tightly controlled an authoritarian state. New ideas can't be tried and can't attain healthy margins.

It's wild that you can own a trademark, but the only way for a consumer to access it is to use a Google browser that defaults to Google search (URLs are scary), where the search results will be gamed by competitors. You can't even own your own brand anymore.

Winning shouldn't be easy. It should be hard. A neverending struggle that rewards consumers.

We need a forest fire to renew the ecosystem.

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andai 18 hours ago | parent [-]

Google supposedly claimed to have no moat, but they actually have

- all the users

- all the apps (Google, GMail, YouTube, Docs, Maps...)

- all the books (Google Books)

- all the video (YouTube)

- all the web pages

- custom hardware

It's honestly weird they aren't doing better. Agree that the models are great and the UX is bad all around.

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brianjking 14 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Hey now, let's not forget it. They also have:

- all the lobbyists - all the money

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LordDragonfang 17 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Google has been, for at least a decade, making pretty terrible choices that squander developer and power-user goodwill (see: any thread where they announce a new product and one of the top comments will link to killedbygoogle). When you've burnt bridges with your biggest evangelists, adoption by normies slows, and your products appear to stagnate.

Unfortunately, they've been insulated from the consequences of their bad decisions by the fact the money printer (ads) keeps their company afloat and mollifies shareholders. The moment that dries up, they're in trouble.

	▲	echelon 17 hours ago \| parent [-]
		We say this (I admit I would say the same as you), and yet their revenue is $400 billion a year. I don't think they care what we think. They're thriving despite our protests. But yeah, they shouldn't be shielded from antitrust. They have literally everything.