Three weeks ago—against all I hold true and noble—I was forced to take Google’s side in a dispute between them and the news media. You might suspect I’ve grown soft on Google but let me assure you that’s not the case. As proof, I offer this post on why Google search has entered dumpster fire territory.
At this point, just about everyone knows that Google search has deteriorated to the point that some say it is unusable. It won’t surprise any of you that the reason for this is the usual: the finance suits grabbed control and forgot about anything but growth and the stock price.
If you’ve been following my posts on Boeing, you won’t be surprised at the result. Yes the stock price has risen in the short term but the product responsible for that stock price is being destroyed. When the whole thing comes tumbling down, those responsible will be at a loss as to what happened and will say things like, “Who could have imagined…”.
Edward Zitron has a long and definitive answer to the question of what happened and who was responsible. The story is an old and sad one. The founders have quit active involvement with the company and the first thing the “professional managers” did was to sideline anyone still carrying the torch of the founding principles. As one of the commenters put it, Google moved from being a search company to being an ad company.
Zitron’s post is long and involved but worth a few minutes of your time if only as a cautionary tale. Google is big and powerful but the rot has already set in and it’s probably not outrageous to describe them as a dying company.