It’s fascinating that the enshittification is taking place on both ends of Google. I would have thought that the slow bastardization of search was for the benefit of advertizers but it’s bad for everyone except Google.
It’s very frustrating watching it happen as someone who is old enough to remember when it wasn’t always this way. It used to be common business knowledge that if you help your customers, then your business will grow, and you’ll be successful. But now these companies are so enormous, with such little competition, that their philosophy is “squeeze everyone until they’re dead and then squeeze the new people who are forced to walk into your lair”. It’s not just the enshitification of the Internet, or the consumer market. These are companies that provide products and services so intertwined with our lives that it has become enshitification of the world, our very lives.
You’re absolutely right. From this side of the fence, Google are clearly focused on short term profits above all else. They used to run on the fact they could make you a profit easily, now they run on “you have no choice!”
Thats the entire world anymore. Everyone wants to make wall street happy, and those assholes are more addicted to money than cocaine. There is no long term planning anymore, everything is next quarter’s profits. It is what is killing capitalism, short term greed.
Rolling Stone published a great article a few years back from a former trader, talked about how he got out of college, was super happy when he got his first bonus worth $100K. A few years later, he was mad, lividly pissed, his bonus was on a couple million, and not more.
It’s fascinating that the enshittification is taking place on both ends of Google. I would have thought that the slow bastardization of search was for the benefit of advertizers but it’s bad for everyone except Google.
It’s very frustrating watching it happen as someone who is old enough to remember when it wasn’t always this way. It used to be common business knowledge that if you help your customers, then your business will grow, and you’ll be successful. But now these companies are so enormous, with such little competition, that their philosophy is “squeeze everyone until they’re dead and then squeeze the new people who are forced to walk into your lair”. It’s not just the enshitification of the Internet, or the consumer market. These are companies that provide products and services so intertwined with our lives that it has become enshitification of the world, our very lives.
You’re absolutely right. From this side of the fence, Google are clearly focused on short term profits above all else. They used to run on the fact they could make you a profit easily, now they run on “you have no choice!”
Thats the entire world anymore. Everyone wants to make wall street happy, and those assholes are more addicted to money than cocaine. There is no long term planning anymore, everything is next quarter’s profits. It is what is killing capitalism, short term greed.
Rolling Stone published a great article a few years back from a former trader, talked about how he got out of college, was super happy when he got his first bonus worth $100K. A few years later, he was mad, lividly pissed, his bonus was on a couple million, and not more.
That was always part of the enshittification formula. The final stage after exploiting users is to exploit business customers to the breaking point.
https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys