[balakk]

I would argue that Google has had the largest impact on information dissemination , since the invention of pen and paper.

Advertising is just a means for providing comfortable livelihoods to these excellent people. There's no better place for these people to be working. We got some spectacular output when some bright folks ended up working together in a phone company, better than any university. Why not Google?

[minwcnt5]

> Advertising is just a means for providing comfortable livelihoods to these excellent people.

I'd say it's a bit more than that; what Google has done in advertising has benefitted millions of consumers and businesses. I'm not sure why people tend to look down on some of the work they do in advertising as somehow being less worthy than working on GMail or Search!

[OGinparadise]

Not the means, it's the end, and everything feeds to that. Especially search with their "updates," Chrome, Android, UI etc. Hinton has his work cut out, make users click on ads! Looks like playing with colors has been milked already.

"I would argue that Google has had the largest impact on information dissemination , since the invention of pen and paper."

Because they are a search engine and is used by most people. Now, however, Google is replacing information with ads and with sub-par information that is beneficial to their bottom line. That hurts creators, readers and society in general.

[Mahn]

Sigh.

[yuhong]

Ah, OGinparadise is the same one who posted that Expedia has lowest prices, despite it's problems: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4965868