Larry leaves, Sergey splits: Google lads hand over Alphabet reins to Sundar Pichai The co-founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, have announced they are stepping down from their respective CEO and president roles of parent company Alphabet – and handing over to Google's current CEO Sundar Pichai. “We’ve never been ones to hold on to management roles when we think there’s a better way to run the …
Considering that- almost without exception- everything you post (#) is an espousal of your crank views on AI at odds with Google and other similar large players, this can't *not* be a reference to that.
I know I really, *really* shouldn't start you off(!), but curiosity is going to kill the cat- I'm genuinely curious as to how (in your head) you believe this has any connection to your work or how it counts as a "win" for you....!
(#) And here for older stuff going back years.
"We are deeply humbled to have seen a small research project develop into a source of knowledge and empowerment for billions"
These blokes genuinely created a thing ... a bloody big thing. What a crass, shit, spineless, wanky, twatless, knobless, fucked up, fucked down, unexceptional way of describing their departure. Colour me a lot of very, very nondescript grey and boring adjectives grade: unimpressed.
"do no evil" wandered off and was grabbed by the throat, thrown on the ground and a bullet put between its pleading eyes a while back. That is when these herberts struck their colours. Before that point might have been the time to retire from their creation, which had outgrown them, rich beyond belief, yet still able to cling to being cool and an example.
Oh well.
Do you remember watching Bambi the first time? Specifically the scene at the waterfall. That was over 40 years ago for me and yet it still strikes a chord.
Now, Brin and Sergei didn't even bother with a green vanity hide when they donned green steel toe-capped wellies and put the boot in.
I would say that the current state of "now be serious real evil" is a reflects them 2 giving too much leash and handing it over to ordianry moneymakers who squeze it out to the max for shareholders benefits and dump staff opinions and rights as well as and customers aka victims.
If the cool rebellion teenager have had to mature now to a strong slave driver with the whip in his hands, whipping all the poor staff who were foooled by a vision, then let it be ....
So what's the 3rd one of the trio doing, the one that bootstrapped it with his money and management expertise?
The guy that says teens should get a new ID when they become adults.
He hardly ever gets mentioned.
Hasn't Eric always been in control?
Have the other pair done much other than create the search engine?
Alphabet/Google has developed less than you'd think.
"This incomplete list is frequently updated to include new information."
Yeah : billions of dollars.
You can leave comfortable in the knowledge that whoever uses your search engine to search for information, no matter where they are or what they are interested in, will always be able to find an unending list of shopping websites where they can buy something possibly related to it. As for actual information, well the wikipedia entry is still just about on the first page of results most times.
"...an unending list of shopping websites where they can buy something possibly related to it"
amazon.co.uk/...
amazon.co.uk/...
amazon.co.uk/...
amazon.com/...
amazon.co.uk/...
amazon.co.uk/...
amazon.co.uk/...
ebay.com/...
amazon.co.uk/...
ebay.com/...
amazon.co.uk/...
< repeat for 5-6 pages >
an-actual-shop-actually-selling-it-cheaper-with-knowledgeable-staff.com/...
Well, I do remember when they were still cool and Google was just a search engine which worked astonishingly well (compared to others). A pity nobody knew the monster it would grow to become.
They clearly realized it themselves, way before anyone else: Who else would have a motto "Don't be evil" but somebody who needs a constant reminder to not yield to the Dark Side? But a simple motto was clearly not compelling enough: The world saw the rise of Darth Page and Darth Brin and their invincible Death Star...
I remember a science fiction short story I read in the early-to-mid 2000s where the world was set upon by a bunch of disasters and the main surviving connection was between bunches of datacenters with working backup comms and power. Google was one of the primary sources for information, connection, and community while the world got back on its feet, and I found that reasonable characterization for the scenario (at the time). I don't know if I've ever had my opinions of another company, person, or concept change so radically. Nostalgia's fun sometimes, isn't it?
... if the company were a person "it would be a young adult of 21 ..."
It is a long long time ago since Google was a fresh faced young adult of 21.
Today, if Google were a person, it would be more of a grabby uncle with a creepy smile, bad teeth and a string of previous convictions.
I'm thinking Sir Les Patterson equipped with an extensive network of advanced surveillance technology.
Larry Ellison is worth billions....and can't walk away.
Bill Gates was worth billions for twenty years before his wife DRAGGED him away.
Go back a few years....take a look at the biography of Julius Drewe. He was worth serious money and he RETIRED at thirty three. I've always admired his detachment from the business that he and a partner founded and built.
So........am I likely to admire Sergei and Larry in the coming years (for the same reasons I admire Julius Drewe)? Let's wait and see.
"He was worth serious money and he RETIRED at thirty three."
The National Trust could have done with some of that serious money or wished it had been spent a little more carefully. Castle Drogo must have cost them a fortune fixing its leaks.
Thanks to them, we have a timeless mission, enduring values, and a culture of collaboration and exploration.
Timeless mission and enduring values? 'Don't be evil' didn't exactly endure. And while they may have started off with a culture of collaboration and exploration, it quickly turned into monopolisation and exploitation.
Maybe Pichai should have done a bit of a search before writing that. Or maybe he did and Google showed him the results it thought he needed to see.
The problem is that these things worked because of one thing, the vision and drive of the people who started it. The minute you handover a company to someone who only ever sees dollar signs, you can almost bet that that company will be dead in the water within 15 years.
Serge and Brin, whom I think are utter ratbags, but they drove Google, made it into what it is. Jobs and Ive ( and Woz obviously in the early days ), they made Apple into what it is now, Tim Cook is a spineless wally who is just coasting along on what those others have done. Larry Ellison, Gates, Balmer, they all drove the companies they set up but once they start to step back those companies are taken over by commitees of money-men and women, you never achieve anything revolutionary by committee.
Mark my words, Google will be a Yahoo in 20 years time and something else will have stepped in to take over....
So when exactly did Google become evil? Is it when advertising became the big revenue, and advertising corrupts? Is it because of the lies advertising and propaganda spread, and Google's (and Facebook, etc) revenue now depend on that? Is it because when you are funded by advertising you don't have to have good products anymore because that is not where your revenue comes from? Is it because the majority of people want to have the bad beliefs propped up by the lies that can be propagated on these platforms?
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