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Killing Good

Insightful read about how Google search turned into the hot mess that it is. The villain of the story is the archetype of the leaders who run large companies after the founders have made their billions and sailed into the sunset with more money than their ten generations would know what to do with. The point of the product that the company was known and loved for is completely lost once professional manager types take over: 

This is the result of taking technology out of the hands of real builders and handing it to managers at a time when “management” is synonymous with “staying as far away from actual work as possible.” And when you’re a do-nothing looking to profit as much as possible, you only care about growth. You’re not a user, you’re a parasite, and it’s these parasites that have dominated and are draining the tech industry of its value.

The most fascinating bit about the story  was how there were at least three different VPs with overlapping turf. Search and Ads was part of more than one title. The two domains are inherently at odds with each other and the thinking might have been to make one leader be responsible for both so the decisions are more centered than skewed. There could be some passable sense in that. Now to make three leaders with various portfolios to also co-own search and ads is wildly dysfunctional. Nothing good could possibly come out of such arrangement and so no surprise that it did not work out for Google. Its been long overdue for users to have choice in search and not be forced to be billable eyeballs for ads they don't want to see.

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