Surprisingly few people in the tech media seem to be aware of this.
But I'm not sure I'm too mad about someone trying to take down Google a notch. My only worry is not that people are starting to believe Silicon Valley companies can do no wrong anymore, but that the government will exploit the situation to force backdoors, censorship, and other stuff like that on them. And we're already seeing that. Feinstein and others are now trying to take advantage of the "hate on tech companies" to push for encryption backdoors by also arguing about how "out of control" tech companies are, which is starting to ring a bell in people's heads.
I probably mentioned this a few times in the past few years, but Google and Facebook and others should not be taking advantage of the good will of people to constantly maximize their profits. Eventually that good will is going to run-up, and then they'll be in Uber's situation, where few people defend them anymore. And then they're in trouble, because if the people don't defend them anymore, then the government will have free reign against them.
But they've always ignored this, because they've always seen such warnings as only coming from a "vocal minority" so they didn't care. I remember even comments from here post-Snowden, about how Google doesn't care about end-to-end encryption just to gain the trust of a few HNers. But they've forgotten that Chrome built a reputation and a fanbase "on the backs" of people like that. Without people like that preaching how much better Chrome is than Firefox and IE, Chrome may have been relegated to Opera status.
Perhaps instead of seeing tech enthusiasts as a "vocal minority", Google should see them as an "army of unpaid PR agents", working every day either to raise them up or bring them down if they start doing nasty stuff. That might change their perspective a bit on how to approach the criticism coming from enthusiasts.
Google is a conglomerate like many before. At some point people will realise that it's better to split the company up and allow individual parts to focus more. Google's individual businesses often have very little overlap. But that's not only for Google. Amazon, for example, has no reason to keep AWS in the same company as ecommerce (except to subsidise businesses). Quite the opposite, keeping them apart would bring some clients back that don't want to support Amazon (such as Walmart). I'm not sure how long it will take but I'd be very surprised if they remain connected in the longer term.
Conglomerates are usually split up when they're under pressure. Tech companies haven't seen any crisis in the past decade, when the first one comes investors will probably push harder.
Interestingly, Facebook so far remains quite focused. The companies they bought (Whatsapp, Instagram) are very similar to their core product. That means they remain extremely reliant on the success of Facebook itself but also means there's not natural way of splitting up the company.
On your point, might be worth mentioning that Facebook is starting to lose its focus with acquisitions such as Oculus Rift - which Zuck considers a major strategic move
But I'm not sure I'm too mad about someone trying to take down Google a notch. My only worry is not that people are starting to believe Silicon Valley companies can do no wrong anymore, but that the government will exploit the situation to force backdoors, censorship, and other stuff like that on them. And we're already seeing that. Feinstein and others are now trying to take advantage of the "hate on tech companies" to push for encryption backdoors by also arguing about how "out of control" tech companies are, which is starting to ring a bell in people's heads.
I probably mentioned this a few times in the past few years, but Google and Facebook and others should not be taking advantage of the good will of people to constantly maximize their profits. Eventually that good will is going to run-up, and then they'll be in Uber's situation, where few people defend them anymore. And then they're in trouble, because if the people don't defend them anymore, then the government will have free reign against them.
But they've always ignored this, because they've always seen such warnings as only coming from a "vocal minority" so they didn't care. I remember even comments from here post-Snowden, about how Google doesn't care about end-to-end encryption just to gain the trust of a few HNers. But they've forgotten that Chrome built a reputation and a fanbase "on the backs" of people like that. Without people like that preaching how much better Chrome is than Firefox and IE, Chrome may have been relegated to Opera status.
Perhaps instead of seeing tech enthusiasts as a "vocal minority", Google should see them as an "army of unpaid PR agents", working every day either to raise them up or bring them down if they start doing nasty stuff. That might change their perspective a bit on how to approach the criticism coming from enthusiasts.