Google passes Microsoft's market cap, becomes second largest tech company

[Dolorian]

From Phandroid:

"Today marks one historical event that Google will probably be celebrating. For the first time ever, Google now has a market cap higher than rival Microsoft’s. Investors pushed Google about $1 billion ahead of the Washington tech giant with $248.82 billion for Google and $247.23 billion for Microsoft as of the time of this writing.

Google is said to have reached this point because of their ability to offer a multitude of successful computing products, most of which are designed to drive internet traffic back into Google’s bread and butter: ads and search."​

Congrats, Google! Glad to see them continuing their way up

I think Larry Page has been doing great ever since he took over as CEO. Has made things more focused for Google. Which is something the company definitely needed to do, focus on key strong/services and products and axe out any extra baggage. A leaner and meaner Google is a good Google.

 

[TSE]

Not even an Apple fanboy, but am I the only one here that just overall dislikes Google's products and technologies besides Google Search and Gmail?

 

[APlotdevice]

Not even an Apple fanboy, but am I the only one here that just overall dislikes Google's products and technologies besides Google Search and Gmail?

I have mixed feelings. A lot of their recent products... ChromeOS, GoogleTV, Nexus Q... seem half-baked at best.

 

[garybUK]

Google make most of their money in Advertisements based on information it collects from you whilst you use their 'free' services such as Chrome Browser, GMail, Search, Android, Docs etc. etc. Scary how so many people are willing to give them this information to become so rich.

Personally, I don't use any Google products and never will do. But I can see their appeal to people who want to use a Free service and don't bother about security / privacy, however there are much better alternatives out there.

 

[roadbloc]

Nobody does search or maps better than Google.

 

[Renzatic]

Google make most of their money in Advertisements based on information it collects from you whilst you use their 'free' services such as Chrome Browser, GMail, Search, Android, Docs etc. etc. Scary how so many people are willing to give them this information to become so rich.

I don't find it all that scary because the information they collect isn't good for anything except advertising. It's a similar model to the way advertisers used to use TV back in the day, just considerably more specific. Such as "people who go to website X or search for Y tend to prefer Brand Z" and whatnot.

I'll admit that Google does have a tendency to take things a little too far on occasion. Scanning my Gmail and using Google+ is a little on the creepy and overbearing side, but it's still fairly benign in practice. The only information they'll gather out of it is my love of electronics, scary movies from the 70's, and pie.

 

[Tinyluph]

Google make most of their money in Advertisements based on information it collects from you whilst you use their 'free' services such as Chrome Browser, GMail, Search, Android, Docs etc. etc. Scary how so many people are willing to give them this information to become so rich.

Personally, I don't use any Google products and never will do. But I can see their appeal to people who want to use a Free service and don't bother about security / privacy, however there are much better alternatives out there.

How is it scary? What do you people expect to happen? Larry Page is going to find your street address and murder you?

 

[Dolorian]

People just exaggerate things when it comes to the information Google collects to present targeted ads and their privacy. In truth, your bank, insurance company and telephone company have far more information about yourself and what you do than Google ever will. Yet, you don't really mind going about your day making calls and using your credit cards. Nor do you mind that the government has a bunch of information about yourself.

Yet people get all worked up because Google registers words you search for or have in emails and uses them to serve you targeted ads on webpages? I don't get it.

For all the years I've been using Google's services/products, I've never received calls, emails or anything of the sort from advertisers who got access to my data from Google. Nor have I ever received any sort of notification due to something I did on the internet because of Google collecting my data. I do get targeted adds that appear in a rather unobtrusive manner in Google Search and Gmail but they never get in the way and I barely notice them anyway, they are really not a problem (and I'd rather see targeted adds instead of random adds which have nothing to do with what I usually look for).

On the other hand, I've gotten plenty of calls from my bank, carrier and other companies who want to offer me some service or product, and they are incredibly annoying/persistent most of the time, interrupting me with a call while I work and just trying and trying to sell me their stuff even after I say I am not interested. And in many cases these are companies I've never given my data such as my contact info.

In the end I think it just boils down on what company/service you trust with your data, very much like how it goes with a bank that you trust with your money.

For my part I trust Google with it, I think they are a great and ethical company who offer amazing products and services that despite a couple of blunders (which all companies have made, and even worse than Google), adhere to their motto of "do no evil". I think people hating on the company or "boycotting" it due to targeted adds are just paranoid and overreacting, much ado about nothing.

----------

Not even an Apple fanboy, but am I the only one here that just overall dislikes Google's products and technologies besides Google Search and Gmail?

What about Google Maps, YouTube, Chrome or Android? The recently released Google Drive which is very much a new version of Google Docs is very nice and works on Mac and iOS like Dropbox, creating a folder that syncs. Google+ is great as well and I find it much better than Facebook or Twitter.

 

[Renzatic]

People just exaggerate things when it comes to the information Google collects to present targeted ads and their privacy...

...I think people hating on the company or "boycotting" it due to targeted adds are just paranoid and overreacting, much ado about nothing.

Exactly. Nothing Google collects is tied to your name directly. To them, you're nothing more than an anonymous node that generates keywords and link maps.

If you, TSE, and APlotdevice go to Google and search for "fat boobies", they don't gather any information pointing that search directly to you. All they know is three people searched for fat boobies. From there, they can see what sites you clicked on, and what sites you linked to from that initial click, but it's still anonymous. All they're able to gather from all this clicking and searching is a map showing search trends and web traffic. No names, addresses, or personal preferences are attached to it.

From all this information they're gathering, they'll be able to generate targeted advertising. People who tend to search for this and visit these sites also tend to go here, here, and here. Since you, random node number 1,024,553,971 searched for this or are currently visiting this site, might I suggest these, these, and these based upon the viewing and clicking habits of other random nodes who visited this site.

There's no conspiracy. It's all pretty harmless.

 

[APlotdevice]

APlotdevice

Uh excuse me, I never said anything about data gathering. My complaint is that Google has been throwing incomplete products onto the market.

 

[Renzatic]

Uh excuse me, I never said anything about data gathering. My complaint is that Google has been throwing incomplete products onto the market.

I wasn't using your name to point out anything you said specifically, I only threw you in there because I needed a third name from someone in this thread, and yours was the first I ran across when I scrolled up a bit.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

Google make most of their money in Advertisements based on information it collects from you whilst you use their 'free' services such as Chrome Browser, GMail, Search, Android, Docs etc. etc. Scary how so many people are willing to give them this information to become so rich.

Personally, I don't use any Google products and never will do. But I can see their appeal to people who want to use a Free service and don't bother about security / privacy, however there are much better alternatives out there.

And the rich part is you some how think Apple is not doing all the same thing.

Apple is collecting all the information as well for things like iAds.
Now Google does not turn around and sell anything. They use all that data to create metrics for different user profiles so they advertisers can sell to their target group with out having to blast everyone.

Android I could see as being they saw Apple and MS both trying to control the mobile web standard and Google sure as hell could not allow those 2 companies which have a history of trying to lock everyone out to have that control. Android more or less forces everyone to go to some type of standard.

 

[TSE]

I should say that I do not like a lot of Google's products because of the algorithms they use and saving your searches.

I just don't like their products. Android just isn't good. It reminds me a lot of Windows 95 when it was new. A lot of great features and widely supported, but overall slow, terrible memory management, and almost all the hardware it comes on is ugly.

I prefer Bing maps over Google Maps.

Chromebooks are a great idea delivered in a terrible package by Google.

Google's TV setup is half-baked.

Google+ was doomed to fail and doesn't offer any advantage over Facebook.

It just seems they do a few things extremely well, and throw half-assed products out the door hoping they stick or become a fad. Kinda like Google Smart TVs.

 

[Mr. McMac]

Google products I use and love:

Google Voice along with my ObiTalk Obi110 works very well as my home telephone provider, and it's free. (I still keep a minimal Vonage account active just in case Google decides to pull the plug)
Chrome
Google Search
Google Maps
Google Earth
Gmail

Am I worried that Google might be collecting information on me? A BIG NO! I don't do anything illegal, so why should I care?

 

[smoledman]

Google is the ultimate 1-trick pony with 99% of their profits from online advertising.

 

[garybUK]

And the rich part is you some how think Apple is not doing all the same thing.

Apple is collecting all the information as well for things like iAds.
Now Google does not turn around and sell anything. They use all that data to create metrics for different user profiles so they advertisers can sell to their target group with out having to blast everyone.

Android I could see as being they saw Apple and MS both trying to control the mobile web standard and Google sure as hell could not allow those 2 companies which have a history of trying to lock everyone out to have that control. Android more or less forces everyone to go to some type of standard.

Where did I say Apple isn't doing the same thing? I'm sorry but you seem very ill-informed and the fact that this is a Google discussion, stop bringing Apple and 'my so-called views' into it. I'm well aware that all the big manufacturers are using data but the fact is that Google isn't targeting you with anything they want to sell personally, they hook you in and SELL your data to other companies, who's to say those other companies are benign. You seem to know everything so please tell us.

 

[ixodes]

People just exaggerate things when it comes to the information Google collects <snip>

For my part I trust Google with it, I think they are a great and ethical company who offer amazing products and services that despite a couple of blunders (which all companies have made, and even worse than Google), adhere to their motto of "do no evil". I think people hating on the company or "boycotting" it due to targeted adds are just paranoid and overreacting, much ado about nothing.<snip>

The recently released Google Drive which is very much a new version of Google Docs is very nice and works on Mac and iOS like Dropbox, creating a folder that syncs. Google+ is great as well and I find it much better than Facebook or Twitter.

Kudos for an excellent post!

You've summed it up very nicely. I concur.

 

[KnightWRX]

Android just isn't good. [...]terrible memory management,

This leaves me speechless. How is Linux memory management terrible exactly ?

 

[Dolorian]

...they hook you in and SELL your data to other companies, who's to say those other companies are benign.

This is a common misconception but Google doesn't sells your personal data to anyone. The advertisers don't know anything personal about yourself, just that you searched for a keyword, or visited a link about something related to the product or service they are advertising. You are just part of a list of millions of users who search for x, y and z. The advertisers do not get your data (Google would be shooting themselves in the foot if they sold your data to them), they just get a public for their ads.

Kudos for an excellent post!

You've summed it up very nicely. I concur.

Thanks!

 

[KnightWRX]

[Google] SELL your data to other companies, who's to say those other companies are benign.

Google doesn't sell your data to other companies. They would be insane to do such a thing. Your data is their money maker, quarter after quarter, why would they just sell it away ?

Some of you just don't understand how ad targetting and placement work.

 

[TSE]

This leaves me speechless. How is Linux memory management terrible exactly ?

I am not a computer scientist or engineer, but I believe it's more about the terribly coded Apps, and the fact that a lot of Android code is Java-based.

There's a reason why even with more powerful processors and double the memory the iPad 2 still runs more smooth than most Android tablets.

 

[rhett7660]

http://www.pcmech.com/article/does-google-sell-your-personal-information/

 

[KnightWRX]

I am not a computer scientist or engineer

Yes, that was quite evident.

but I believe it's more about the terribly coded Apps, and the fact that a lot of Android code is Java-based.

Java based has nothing to do with memory management on the OS side. Also, modern VMs like Davlik have very efficient garbage collection routines, something even iOS lacks (Apple having first implemented autorelease pools and then ARC to facilitate memory management for developers, but OS X remains their only platform with actual garbage collection in the runtime), and the actual memory management (user/kernel pages allocation and paging) has nothing to do with the Java Language or the Davlik VM.

There's a reason why even with more powerful processors and double the memory the iPad 2 still runs more smooth than most Android tablets.

Yes and none of it has anything to do with Java, memory management or even process scheduling.

iPad 2 runs more "smooth" because it has a fully hardware accelerated interface on a very limited set of GPUs that Apple can optimize their rendering code to the fullest for.

 

[TSE]

iPad 2 runs more "smooth" because it has a fully hardware accelerated interface on a very limited set of GPUs that Apple can optimize their rendering code to the fullest for.

And that's a major reason why Android sucks.

 

[G51989]

And that's a major reason why Android sucks.

Because it runs on more than 6 devices?