Ask HN: Is it worth competing with Google?
They continue to dominate search. Bing seems to exist just to exist. There's no viable competitors.
The new Google Photos (coupled with the existing Google Drive) pretty much kills Dropbox/Box/etc at consumer level. Can Dropbox or anyone else match the search power in the new Google Photos?
Self driving cars are fast approaching. Will anyone beat Google at this?
Maps will have offline navigation soon. Why use Bing or Apple maps?
Android is everywhere. Google Now and their new Google Now features look great.
Is there any space that they are not in / won't enter?
My main point for asking is because I want to make a news website similar but not identical to Google News. If I made the site and IF it was a roaring success.. Google could just replicate it and because they have mountains and mountains of data they could probably do it better.
20 comments
[ 58.8 ms ] story [ 1766 ms ] thread[1] http://googlenewsblog.blogspot.com/
> The new Google Photos (coupled with the existing Google Drive) pretty much kills Dropbox/Box/etc at consumer level.
Google Drive, imo, has an abysmal user experience. Dropbox, on the other hand, is great (though it does have its own set of issues).
> Android is everywhere. Google Now and their new Google Now features look great.
Android hasn't even managed to get scrolling working smoothly, after like 5 years. I've used Android devices before, and this is my biggest annoyance. That, plus getting lost in features. I just want stuff to work, which is the main advantage of iOS.
To answer your question: yes, it's entirely possible to make a superior product compared to Google News.
News is the other end of the scale: Google arguably could and should do it better considering how close it is to their core competency, but it's a lawsuit minefield rather than a cash cow for them.
It takes more than just being better when you are late to market.
> Self driving cars are fast approaching. Will anyone beat Google at this?
Uber? They are the fresh blood and moving fast in everything.
> Maps will have offline navigation soon. Why use Bing or Apple maps?
I use Nokia Here Maps. They have offline navigation today. On my device. Which is not Android.
> Android is everywhere.
Not on iPhones. Not on content-producing devices.
> Google Now and their new Google Now features look great.
2015s version of Clippy. Predictive analysis is not ready. Beware of the hype curve.
> Is there any space that they are not in / won't enter?
Their business is still revolving around ads. They are lagging in enterprise. They cannot beat Amazon at shopping. They cannot beat Apple/Microsoft at premium device design quality. They are not perfect.
PS: It's great that Google exists, but don't put it on pedestal.
Here's how I see google's typical attempt:
1. Close but no cigar. 2. Waiting to be killed off. 3. Perpetual Beta (see #2). 4. Screw yesterday, THE FUTURE is where it's at. 5. Fall back to the search fortress!
And while Larry Page is trying to become a cyborg that drives himself to work, Sergey is off heli-skiing-board-diving to test google glass.
Maybe I am just different from the masses. If you think News is defective, then maybe other people will agree with you, but not enough to cause Google to want to copy you.
I never understood this one. What do self-driving cars have to do with Google's core business (search and advertising)? It sounds more like Google executives wasting money on a cool-sounding research project, than something related to their other products.
Self-driving cars are an interesting and important problem. I don't see why this would be something Google would be doing better than anyone else.
Regarding OP:
Making a news website is going to be HARD. Even if Google doesn't copy your site, why are people going to go to your website instead of Google/Yahoo/CNN/etc? It's going to be very hard to make enough money with ads to cover your expenses.
But it isn't going to be that easy for Google to steal your product if it's successful. One word: Google+.
Like most free web services, Google makes it's money from people's personal data. With an increasing number of people, that's a pretty unpopular business model. Especially in places like Germany, many people do actually care about their privacy - and Snowden has additionally done a lot of damage to the image of American companies in that respect. As a personal example, I have been virtually "Google-free" for over a year, and am doing great. I switched from GMail to another email provider, and started using DuckDuckGo as my search engine (which, in my opinion, is technically superior as well as more privacy-aware).
Even if every single one of their products was the most technically advanced on the market (which is not the case), there would still be a significant market share for companies who cater to people who do not want to sell their digital souls to Google.
"Is it worth competing with Microsoft? Is it worth competing with IBM? Is it worth competing with Yahoo?"
In hindsight, it obviously was! But I do wonder what they thought at that time.