This is How Google will Collapse

Hackernoon ^ | 24 April, 2018 | James Daniel Colin

[marktwain]

Google made almost all its money from ads. It was a booming business — until it wasn’t. Here’s how things looked right before the most spectacular crash the technology industry had ever seen.

The crumbling of Google’s cornerstone

Search was Google’s only unambiguous win, as well as its primary source of revenue, so when Amazon rapidly surpassed Google as the top product search destination, Google’s foundations began to falter. As many noted at the time, the online advertising industry experienced a major shift from search to discovery in the mid-2010s.

While Google protected its monopoly on the dying search advertising market, Facebook — Google’s biggest competitor in the online advertising space — got on the right side of the trend and dominated online advertising with its in-feed native display advertising.

[InABunkerUnderSF]

Google has some pretty good coders. Most are in Hyderabad, Dublin and Mountain View but basically scattered across the planet. If you are a CS grad in the top 10% of your class from one of the top 25 universities in the US or one of the best universities in Europe or Asia they will come looking for you. Of those who get jobs, basically it’s like everywhere else. 20% of the people do 80% of the actual work.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I can’t decide which is more evil...

[PJBankard]

Android. It’s a Google Product and is the OS for most non-iPhones. Google will crash when Microsoft and Apple Crash. Don’t get your hopes up.

[BBell]

Cool. I use Opera browser and bing for a search engine. I use the ad-block with Opera.

[moovova]

I use software to block ads as much as possible but generally, the biggest ad-block tool I use is...I ignore ads. I could count on one hand the number of ads I’ve clicked on.

I hate’em that much.

[joshua c]

Um no. Google makes it money by selling information about its users who often don’t even know they are using their services ...

---

I never use google but occasionaly visit Lucianne and they use google ads. The Lucianne ads would be based on other websites I visited. So I started shopping for bikinis and lingerie.

[adorno]

Android. It’s a Google Product and is the OS for most non-iPhones.

Android itself is not a money-maker for Google. Android was just a new method of ads distribution for Google. As we know by now, the online ads thing isn't working so well lately, not even on Android.

BTW, Apple is in much better financial health than Google, and Apple's product line is not about to disappear any time soon. Microsoft is not a one-trick pony, and its huge variety of products and services and software, will keep it healthy and alive even after Google has been dead for 100 years.

[aquila48]

And their market cap is quickly approaching 1 trillion (800 billion)

[sergeantdave]

How does Google make money from ad revenue if visitors to websites have the ability to block ads?

[DiogenesLamp]

Starve the Beast

Amen!

[upchuck]

Google got dumped for Duck Duck Go. Chrome got dumped for Slimjet.

Between Ghostery, AdBlock-Plus and Reader View*, I see very few ads.

My current pet peeve is web sites that have auto-start video and/or audio. I’m searching for a solution to this but haven’t found one yet. Suggestions are most welcome.

* This browser ad-on is awesome. Check it out.

[upchuck]

The Lucianne ads would be based on other websites I visited.

You are being tracked as you travel around the web. Install the Ghostery browser ad-on and put an end to tracking.

[Don W]

Now fakebook is putting ads into the middle of various “featured” videos. I immediately scroll past as soon as the “ad starts soon” blurb pops up, or if an ad starts before the video.

I think many forms of (anti) social media are dying, and are grasping for income of any sort.

[OldMissileer]

My current pet peeve is web sites that have auto-start video and/or audio. I’m searching for a solution to this but haven’t found one yet. Suggestions are most welcome.

Try NoScript. I have been using it for several years and it has eliminated those terrible videos.

[KevinB]

Is there any reason not to use Google if using a good VPN and a good ad blocker?

[NoLibZone]

Android users will keep Google going.

[upchuck]

Try NoScript. I have been using it for several years and it has eliminated those terrible videos.

Thanks! Do you know where I can find NoScript for the Slimjet browser?

[cynwoody]

Do you know where I can find NoScript for the Slimjet browser?

I haven't used Slimjet, but a quick google indicates Slimjet is based on the Chromium codebase. Chromium is the open-source version of Google Chrome.

Chrome allows you to disable or enable JavaScript on a per-site basis, using wildcards. No need for an extension, such as NoScript. The settings page is at chrome://settings/content/javascript (copy and paste the link, it should work if you are using a Chrome-derived browser).

Of course, the rub is, showing video almost always requires JavaScript. So, while disabling JavaScript will stop obnoxious ad rolls, it will also likely disable a site's non-ad video content.

One way around that is to write a site-specific extension that restores the playability of content video. But that means you have to know HTML, JavaScript, CSS, the ins and outs of browser extensions, and have the patience to reverse-engineer problem sites and fix them when they change.

One possible solution to ads in general, including video ads, is the Pi-hole ad blocker. It's a DNS server that works normally for most domains but dead-ends known ad-tech domains. You install it on your LAN (home or office) and configure all your machines (laptops, desktops, tablets and phones using WiFi) to use it as their DNS server (this can be done by changing your router's DNS server address). It's light enough to run on a Raspberry Pi, hence the name, but you can run it on any computer you might have lying around.

Pi-hole relies on the fact that ads are almost always served from third-party domains. Typically, a page will contain references to JavaScript from one or more ad-servers. When those scripts run, they orchestrate your ad experience. They download the ad content, ranging from banner ads to pop-overs to auto-playing videos. But if the ad-tech scripts don't download, they never run, and the ads never start. And you don't need to install any ad-blocking extensions or be running a special browser!

I haven't tested it, but it's on my to-do list.

[upchuck]

Thanks for all that good info.

[Chickensoup]

Of course not

goog and fb and amazon make their monies through information, selling to governments, NSA, clouds and police states.