[famouswaffles]

>Except it's not. Remember how everyone switched to Altavista in 1996 because it was so much better? Remember how Yahoo took over in 1999 because it was so much better? Remember how people switched to Google in 2003 because it was so much better?

You already have the answer here you said it 3 times - 'so much better'. People switched because it was 'so much better'. Not on par, not slightly better, just so ahead of the competition, it became a talking point all on its own.

If this mass isn't reached then why would you switch ? How would you even know that Search Engine 26 is quite a bit better for most of your queries ?

Do you genuinely think most people are performing lengthy evaluations before they switch default back to google ? so how do they know Bing or whatever isn't better for them ? The answer is that they don't. And it doesn't matter because unless something blows it out of the water and gets people talking then people will not switch.

Familiarity and Trust is basically branding and that's a huge reason people stay on platforms even when there are no network effects.

[crazygringo]

I honestly don't know what you're trying to say anymore. Your original comment was:

> Lock-in for search engines should be near zero and yet people won't bother switching to or even trying potentially better options. At the end of the day, people don't leave what they are used to easily.

Now you're admitting people do switch when something else is much better. And they do so easily. Which was my point.

So I think we agree then?

(And no, people aren't individually trying out 26 search engines. But experts in these things do, and they write articles and post YouTube videos etc. when a new search engine is better, and then people try it out and switch if it really is better. Surely you don't think people should be wasting their time personally comparing every new minor search engine entrant?)

[famouswaffles]

>Now you're admitting people do switch when something else is much better. And they do so easily. Which was my point.

I'm saying people don't bother trying potentially better options and that they don't easily leave what they are used to. What part of that statement implies they would never leave for a much better product? I'm genuinely baffled.

>But experts in these things do

Yeah.. experts in...search engines? Lol. Those guys aren't making videos for marginally better products and even if they are, it doesn't necessarily mean anything.

If it was as simple as better model > gets all the users then Anthropic Usage wouldn't still be dwarfed by GPT.

Network Effects are not the only thing that creates stickiness for customers.

[crazygringo]

> I'm saying people don't bother trying potentially better options and that they don't easily leave what they are used to. What part of that statement implies they would never leave for a much better product? I'm genuinely baffled.

The part where you say "they don't easily leave what they are used to".

They do. They leave, easily, when there's a better product. As I gave examples of. I don't know what further evidence you could want. You're positing some supposed stickiness that simply doesn't exist. You've given no evidence of it.