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by crazygringo 447 days ago
For general knowledge questions, sure.

But there are going to be huge network effects in terms of your personal data, which includes communications with friends.

If you use Gmail/Google Calendar/Docs/Drive, and ChatGPT can't tell you anything, but Gemini helps you with all the data in your life... that's a gigantic network effect.

Network effects aren't just about friends. They're about file formats, productivity suites, and ultimately compatibility.
2 comments
rtkwe 447 days ago
That's a point in Google's favor but it's not really what "network effect" (traditionally) means.

Network effect is a specific term about the increasing utility of a service as more people use compatible services, it's explicitly about users other than yourself.

You're describing something more like having an integrated ecosystem a la Apple's walled garden where things work great with other Apple products (notification hand off etc).

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nukem222 447 days ago
> but Gemini helps you with all the data in your life

None of my data is in google's cloud (for obvious reasons) except gmail, which contains far less of my life than you might think. Most of my friends outside of work use icloud. google will need to figure out how to access other silos if they want their chatbot to move forward.

Google has no access to what music I like, what movies I like, what books I read, who I am friends with and why, what values I have and why I pursue them. That's a rough place to start as this is the center of my personality.

Gmail is google's ace in the hole. If they can't figure out how to exploit that gemini will just be the android version of siri (which is already the case, right?)

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crazygringo 447 days ago
Well sure, that's why Siri is going to hold an advantage with iCloud users (if Apple can catch up), and Microsoft will have an advantage with Office users. Those are the three major ecosystems.
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nukem222 447 days ago
A slight advantage, sure, but apple is trapped by the same thing. Neither of their products actually required full buy in of the ecosystem to exploit until now. It was just nice (eg airpods have a nicer pairing experience than other bluetooth devices—infuriating, but ultimately ignorable)
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