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Google is Dying (Not about ChatGPT!)
Google is one of the juggernauts of the tech industry. Its chief products (search and email) dominate our lives so much that “to google” has become a common verb.
But something is very wrong.
Let’s look at innovation. Google was once famous for the sheer number of products and apps it created. Remember Google Labs? At one time, there were hundreds of products in the Google stable. There are still plenty, but when was the last time they did anything noteworthy? Chrome was back in 2008 and the Pixel phone was in 2016. OK, we can count Google Drive too, from 2012.
But nothing of interest in the last 6 years. That’s an eternity in the tech sector. Stadia was looking promising, if a long time maturing, but it strongly looks like that is being cancelled in the current round of layoffs.
In fact, the last 6 years have featured more negative events than successes. They restructured a couple of times and faced antitrust claims from the EU and the US DOJ. Public sentiment is not on their side like it was in the early days. It’s been a long time since they were the golden child, with most users today recognizing them for the data bandits they are. So…