Are Google's Best Days In the Past?

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Are Google's Best Days In the Past?

Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday February 22, 2011 @05:00AM from the they-were-cooler-when-only-we-knew-about-them dept.

rsmiller510 writes "For a time, everything Google touched turned to gold, but lately a slew of bad press is creating a negative perception about the search giant."

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Just because the "best days" are in the past.. by intellitech · 2011-02-22 05:00 · Score: 4, Insightful

..does not mean they can't still turn a profit.

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1. Re:Just because the "best days" are in the past.. by sakdoctor · 2011-02-22 05:14 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Google is clearly lacking in some key areas, most obviously social.
  Google is still untouched in search. A core internet technology.
  The glorified RSS feeds that are facebook and twitter have no relevance to that market.
2. Re:Just because the "best days" are in the past.. by Cheech+Wizard · 2011-02-22 05:18 · Score: 1, Insightful
  
  Good products that "Just Work" sell themselves.
3. Re:Just because the "best days" are in the past.. by Anonymous Coward · 2011-02-22 05:25 · Score: 1, Insightful
  
  Compared to the other products on the market, Apple's only advantage is hype, losing their figurehead Steve Jobs, will put a damper on it.
4. Re:Just because the "best days" are in the past.. by Lumpy · 2011-02-22 05:27 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  but their search is getting useless. link farms are still not being squashed, and they are allowing SEO scumbags to move results up the list for their clients who 9 times out of 11 dont have anything to do with the topic.
  Google needs to do the Iron fist thing on search SEO's and put any SEO trickery or linkfarms at the BOTTOM of all search results. My exclude list for Google searching is getting ridiculously long.
  
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5. Re:Just because the "best days" are in the past.. by Anonymous Coward · 2011-02-22 05:40 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Good products that "Just Work" sell themselves.
  if only there was a company that sold those
6. Re:Just because the "best days" are in the past.. by vux984 · 2011-02-22 06:28 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  There is no solution to that problem.
  There are solutions to that problem. A human being can spot a link farm within seconds.
  And when seo can produce websites that I can't tell are link farms, good, because that means they'll have the useful information that I want on them.
Fried Potatoes and gravy with garlic and spices by Anrego · 2011-02-22 05:00 · Score: 5, Insightful

My perception:
They are no longer the cool new guys tearing up the internet and being a company for the people. They are big, diversified, making money hand over fist, and have attracted the requisite controversy, criticism, and bad press that comes with being big and diversified and making money hand over fist.
Despite everything, I still see them as one of the good guys. I think there’s always a severe whip back when you suddenly discover something that you thought was awesome is now merely ok. Google looks terrible when compared to what it was, but compare it to everything else and it looks pretty damn good.
And (flamewar time) I continued to be baffled over all the flack they got over the stupid wifi thing. They came clean, admitted everything, co-operated with the investigations and people still tore them 12 new ones. Personally I think they should have been commended for admitting they made a mistake rather than going into full on cover up mode.
To get back to the topic, it really required a definition of “Best”. Are they ever going to be the cool trendy upstart they once were: probably not. Are they going to continue making money hand over fist and growing like a spider until you shave with google razor blades: entirely possible.
As for not innovating I still think they’ve got it in them. They’ve had a string of bad luck, and they’ve failed in the social area but I suspect they’ll pull something killer out in the next little bit.
1. Re:Fried Potatoes and gravy with garlic and spices by Anonymous Coward · 2011-02-22 05:14 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  And (flamewar time) I continued to be baffled over all the flack they got over the stupid wifi thing. They came clean, admitted everything, co-operated with the investigations and people still tore them 12 new ones. Personally I think they should have been commended for admitting they made a mistake rather than going into full on cover up mode.
  Maybe that reaction is why companies tend to go into cover up mode. If they really did make an honest mistake, what do they gain by fessing up and cooperating vs trying to hide it? The answer is nothing, and I think Google probably learned a bad lesson from the whole ordeal.
  I hate to say it, but most consumers and voters are short sighted idiots.
2. Re:Fried Potatoes and gravy with garlic and spices by Anonymous Coward · 2011-02-22 05:24 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Bad press means, they kick the ass of competitors willing to pay persons to smear them. In the beginning they had no real competitors.
  Just look at the Smartphone. For Google that is just a trick. For Nokia it was vital.
  If they want an open confrontation with Microsoft they can, just for fun. Put 30 Mio annually on Wine development and Windows is obsolete within 5 years. Or 50 Mio annually on Libreoffice and the Microsoft Office cash cow would get slaughtered.
Gee! by hjf · 2011-02-22 05:03 · Score: 3, Insightful

Gee! Some attention-whore journalist/blogger (I think that's redundant) claims google is dead, it MUST BE TRUE!
I won't believe it until Netcraft confirms it.
Whats with the google articles today? by Reapman · 2011-02-22 05:08 · Score: 4, Insightful

To answer the summary: No
I'd elaborate, but decided to go with the same depth this "summary" provides.
WTF? by doubleplusungodly · 2011-02-22 05:09 · Score: 4, Insightful

A pretty large majority of the article went into arguing that just because Google lacks good social networking tools, it is declining. What kind of logic is that?

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that is what happens... by Mr.Fork · 2011-02-22 05:14 · Score: 4, Insightful

...when you have the best search engine, tied to the best internet ad support, tied to great free thought-provoking-industry changing office products, map tools, tool bars for your browser, chat tools, phone tools, and it all comes from ONE company. What else can you do when everyone is watching every move, ever senior management comment, every action?

Then again, it does beg to ask, is this typical media bullsheit with typical negative stories that are solely geared towards making money rather than a balanced approach to news reporting? When does the news cross the line when it starts focusing on areas that it's owners have a vested interest in ensuring their 'enemy' is bashed at every opportunity? Is this really a sponge-worthy story?

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Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. - Peter F. Drucker
Re:Depends on what Google does. by 0123456 · 2011-02-22 05:27 · Score: 4, Insightful

Google's not dead yet, and as long as they continue to dominate search and a few other niches(Maps, email), they'll be alive.
The problem is that they're trying to dominate search by making it 'smarter', with the end result that it increasingly sucks. Most times I look for anything out of the ordinary using very clear search terms I end up with 90+% of the results being crap I don't want because it 'intelligently' decided that I wasn't looking for what I was asking it to search for.
So I'm definitely looking for a better alternative for searches which isn't trying so hard. Yeah, I know I can put magic characters in the search thing so it actually searches for the thing I asked it to search for, but I shouldn't have to do that.
Re:Best Days... for who? by dudpixel · 2011-02-22 14:58 · Score: 3, Insightful

exactly. I'd say their best days in terms of users worshipping them are behind them...but their best days in terms of their company's success are still to come.

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