Thanks to OpenAI, it's never been clearer that Sundar Pichai is Google's Steve Ballmer
Thanks to OpenAI, it's never been clearer that Sundar Pichai is Google's Steve Ballmer
Every new development at OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, makes it increasingly obvious that Google is playing catch-up.
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It does feel like Google is on a nosedive with all its major products except for Gmail.
Gmail is no exception.
Maybe not but I haven't noticed any worse change at all.
They put ads in.
Oh, that's why I didn't notice lol
I'm an Apple user, for the most part, and I've noticed lately that in the last 6-12 months Google Maps has deteriorated significantly for me while Apple Maps has gotten better and better. Even things you'd think would be similar, e.g. satellite imagery, for my area Google's imagery is now a half-decade out of date while Apple's is current.
It really does feel like most of Google's consumer-facing products are languishing.
Google Maps has gotten worse and worse.
It's now actively bloating a map with random businesses, making it difficult to use. And worse, it's obscuring random businesses from search. I noticed it a while back if I googled "Chinese food", a few places aren't showing unless I zoom in really really close. And these are places with 100+ reviews.
Yeah it's started inserting "totally not advertisements" like "take a left in 300 feet, past the McDonald's". More enshittification.
Five years ago, I would have said, "Nah, they can throw money at it and make it better. So we should stay."
But now, Google has a massive history of giving up and killing products. Devs and open source are making comparable alternatives. The general public is turning on even Google Search. And even my own job is considering Google alternatives.
The next five years are going to be anybody's game.
Using Google products is starting to feel like watching season 1 of a Netflix produced show - I don't want to invest energy into something that'll just get cancelled.
I still have an existential crisis whenever im faced with the decision of giving out my google voice number vs my normal one.
Couldn't have said it better.
That's honestly good to hear!