By 
Don’t be evil.
That simple (unofficial) slogan helped Google become a beloved company with many fans. They exploded onto the scene with a search engine that was simple to use and blew our minds with results. Then they started giving away great products like Gmail, Google Docs, and of course Android, for free. There was a time when Google could do no wrong, but fast forward to today and a growing amount of consumers don’t believe that famous slogan to be true anymore. What changed?
This sentiment was perfectly demonstrated over the weekend when the rumor that YouTube might be interested in buying Twitch.tv first surfaced. The news was met with negative reactions by a large portion of the internet, especially the gaming community. #RIPTwitch was trending on Twitter quickly after the news broke. Threads on Reddit were filled with complaints, disappointment, and this gif. The most remarkable thing about all of these reactions is how different they would have been just a couple of years ago.
YouTube is the best example. In the beginning people seemed to love everything Google did with YouTube. However, in the past few years many people have started getting upset with the changes Google has implemented. Things like the Google+ comment system are still being complained about today, which is exactly why some people are so worried about Twitch. Google’s once shining reputation has turned sour as consumers fear they will ruin their favorite services.
Google+ alone is a major point of contention among many users. When the social network was brand new and invite-only there was a lot of excitement. But the more Google has pushed it the more consumers have pushed back. For many internet users the first time they saw Google+ was when they needed to sign up to continue using YouTube. That’s not a good first impression. Unfortunately, this social network has turned into an arch nemesis for a lot of internet users.
Last year Google’s VP of Corporate Development said a third of their acquisitions end up failing. This is obviously the worst case scenario in the minds of Twitch users. A few notable Google products that have been shut down include Picnik, Aardvark, Dodgeball, Google Reader, Wave, and Buzz. Not all of these services were acquisitions, but it goes to show how unafraid Google is to shut down a service. Obviously users of Twitch don’t want that to happen.
Another reason that many consumers are wary of Google is how much of the internet they own. A user on Reddit had this to say:
“Google will control the largest video sharing service, the largest video streaming service, the largest e-mail service, a large social network service, 50% of the smart-phone market and is now even providing your internet – yet no one, including the government seems to care.”
They didn’t even mention the fact that most people use Google Search to find information, Google Maps to navigate, Google Chrome to browse the web, and their car may soon be controlled with Google technology. When one company owns so many popular services it makes people nervous. Just look at what happened to Microsoft in the 90’s. They were accused of creating a monopoly in web browsers by bundling IE with every version of Windows. Anyone that owns a Nexus device or Chromebook will see the similarities. Microsoft is still fighting the negative reputation it earned during that era. Could Google be on a similar path?
Something else that has changed their reputation is just the sheer size of the company. It’s easy to love an upstart that tries a bunch of crazy things and disrupts industries. They are seen as the anti-corporation. Eventually every successful company becomes a giant. Now that Google has become such a worldwide powerhouse they are no different from the likes of Microsoft, IBM, and Apple in the eyes of many people. Google will continue to battle this as they get bigger and bigger. The question will be how do they respond? It’s hard to be cool forever.
People are idiots.
/signed a G+ user.
Most people haven’t been offered enough of an incentive (read advantages of moving) to go through the effort of moving to Google+ from Facebook, Skype, etc. If Google marketed Google+ more extensively years ago (and gave people significant advantages it has over other social media if they exist) they would have done way better.
Would the reaction be any better had Twitch not turn down Microsoft’s offer?
I do not really know. It might be that it would be better. The reason for that would be that Google wouldn’t be the biggest player in this part of the market. YouTube is the biggest on-demand video service and Twitch is the biggest live streaming service. Merge that and what is there to stop it?
Having competitors in a market stimulates innovation and choice.
But chances are, Microsoft would have locked the service up with Xbox Live…
I don’t think there’s any chance in hell that the reaction would have been better.
I don’t agree with you. They’ve already announced that next month you won’t have to have Xbox Live Gold to use apps on the Xbox anymore.
After how many years did Microsoft stop making you pay for XBox Live Gold to use services you already pay for and other platforms let you do for free? Will Twitch be a Microsoft XBox exclusive? You better bet your bottom dollar Microsoft will charge. Microsoft has never been know for providing anything for free.
Careful with your wording. Microsoft has been giving things for free for some time.
E.g.
Hotmail/outlook.com/Onedrive/office web apps and a lot of other web services
Windows licenses for devices under 9″ (e.g. Windows Phone)
.Net compiler has been made open-source
Skype (before MSN Messenger)
Xbox Music
IT educational staff/students get Windows, Visual Studio Pro and more for free
Defender
Visual Studio express
About making it an xbox exclusive, don’t count on it. Skype is on almost every platform as well.
Most of these are free or became free because competitors offered free versions of their software.
For example, Microsoft previously made out like a bandit with Visual Studio in education, but free Java and Java IDEs made Microsoft less desirable. Microsoft risked students not using their software.
They’re unlocking third party apps from Gold.
If they bought Twitch, it wouldn’t be third party anymore.
And Microsoft has the biggest OS, video/internet call service, and console… Errybody got stuff
I, for one, welcome our new Google overlords.
people are idiots. yay google!
google is not doing wrong acquiring companies… if the users of acquired companies are unhappy, then it’s those in charge of the company that the users should be upset with for selling out.
Really though, all those 12 year olds barley out of diapers can probably stop WEH WEHING about their lame video game streaming website.
:)
I like Google+ and have been using it pretty actively since its launch, so the Google+ integration works well for me. But I can see how it might seem forceful and annoying to those who refuse to use Google+ for whatever reason.
How dare Google acquire these companies/service and then force you to use them for free.
Its simple to me. I being bias love most of the google products available. If you don’t want to use their services, then that’s your choice. I for one like android phones and android TV boxes. I use chrome on my PC despite the operating system is windows 8. I email everyday with my gmail account. I also stream movies from my phones and tablets to my Chromecast. If I didn’t like these services and apps I would find another one to use. Don’t be lazy people. If you don’t like Google, don’t use their services. Unless like my job a lot of your productivity depends on them. We switched from outlook to gmail a year ago. And we use their docs programs to create everything from documents to spreadsheets, daily. That is having no choice. And I’m not going to quit my job behind this. My new complaint is that in the last few min nths I don’t like random or search preferred ads popping up in my gmail inbox.
No one likes to have things pushed on them.
That said, waaaaaaaaa, google provides way too many free high quality services, waaaaaaa. Seriously people.
Exactly. It’s not an issue because they don’t have a monopoly on any of those services. They just happen to be the biggest. Especially in the ISP market, having Google in the running can only help the consumer. If people are afraid of Google taking over, stop using their products.
That being said, Google+’s UI is kinda clunky in regards to photo backups etc.
Don’t you love how some people complain about Google forcing them to use Google+
(A FREE SERVICE)
but have no problem being forced to BUY an Apple device to use ANY Apple service.
It sounds a little like this,
Listen here Google, I want to use your free Google+ photo service to back-up/view/edit but I should not have to have to go through Google+ to access these free services on my iPhone.
I’m only replying to your example here, because your point in itself is spot on. Most people would prefer to not have to use Google Plus as a photo backup service. Dropbox and One Drive both do it, so why can’t Google Drive?
Similar to Apple has replaced innovating with suing, Google has replaced product quality with forced bundling. That’s a surefire way to tick people off, and Google doesn’t have the cult mentality of its customers that Apple does, so they had better re-evaluate their course quickly. Their recent Google+ shakeup shows that they may be doing just that.
>>So why can’t Google Drive?
Because its pretty superfluous to have two different services that compete with each other under the same tent.
Google has multiple products that backup photos across multiple platforms (Drive, +, Picasa). They even have a mechanism for synchronizing photos between Drive and +. But here’s the problem with Google’s photo backup. They do not offer one single solution that will synchronize photos across multiple platforms. Dropbox and One Drive? I can upload to it and have it automatically download on my desktop/laptop complete with auto-upload functionality on mobile. Google? Drive doesn’t have auto upload and + won’t synchronize across platforms. Picasa is a complete mess that won’t even recognize photos of a certain size.
The bottom line is that you need 3 Google apps (at least two of them) and some wizardry to replicate what One Drive and Dropbox do seamlessly with one app apiece.
So again, with more clarity – why can’t they just have Google Drive do all of this within one app, like Dropbox and One Drive? Anyway, while Google figures that out, I’ve switched from Drive, +, Docs, Sheets, and Keep to using One Drive, Office, and One Note. I get similar or better functionality using only 3 apps as opposed to 5.
superfluous
Dropbox doesn’t have a social aspect or a broadcasting aspect. Dropbox it just a glorified digital hole in the ground with less security.
One drive, aka Skydrive, aka Hotmail, I would use One Drive but they are missing the social hangout that Google+ has.
Here’s the skinny, nothing out there can complete with what Google has to offer for the moment. They have more services, better integration, and an indisputable grasp on the “your data” market. Even Apple knows they can’t complete so they don’t.
We can continue to debate how to make a better widget better until the cows come home. The reality is, Google was once just a search engine and now they have grown, changed and improved their own services countless times. They have the momentum and that’s what you should weight heavy in your calculations.
Cool story bro. But that had absolutely nothing to do with my post.
I’ll simplify. Google does not have a simple way of synchronizing photos between multiple devices that also allows for local storage of the photos. Dropbox and OneDrive do it automatically.
Your post has excellent information, just not information relevant to the post that you replied to.
To simplify even more, Dropbox and OneDrive don’t have a DropBox+ and no OneTube. Ok now we know they all are missing something.
It sounds like “synchronizing photos between multiple devices that also allows for local storage” is a very important feature for you. I have a friend that does not use G+ backup and has a 3rd party app that syncs to Google drive, and Google drive can sync to PC/Macs. problem solved, although I know it’s not simple because the use of one 3rd party app on your phone and a couple Google services that already exist.
Not trying to push a G pill on you. OneDrive is great, I have one. don’t use it but I would if Google went belly up. Better than drinking the Apple juice.
And I can respect all of that. Google does offer a lot of services. However, their products are starting to have the same disconnect that Microsoft’s products had prior to their Metro/Modern UI overhaul. As I stated before, photo syncing with Google involves 3different apps (Drive, +, and Picasa). And none of them on their own offer the ability to do what Dropbox/OneDrive do, except for Drive when used with third party software to force sync.
Clearly, Google’s broader approach will appeal to more people. But, they’ve forgotten simplicity. I’ve tried going all Google. I have a Google Play edition device, and I tried using ONLY Google apps for my needs. Here’s why I switched out a few:
-Keep had to switch to One Note because it doesn’t allow collaboration nor is there an iOS version for my wife to collaborate with me on (mostly shopping lists/simple tasks)
-Drive – I have 25GB free with Drive and 110GB free with One Drive. One Drive allows me to automatically sync photos, Drive does not. Both allow me to use a web-based office suite, with the added advantage of One Drive’s natively working with my school/work Word/Excel files without conversion.
-Docs/Sheets – Without using Drive, I have little to no use for this.
-Google Plus/Photos – I don’t use social networking (not even Facebook). So, I was only using this as a photos app. Doesn’t launch into Album view and requires swipes/clicks to get there, whereas Gallery opens straight to it. Doesn’t allow for offline sync (neither does Gallery, except through Picasa, with limitations). While it can view photos from Google Drive, it doesn’t upload to that source, thus splitting my photo storage. It’s the antithesis of simplicity.
I still use Google for a lot. I think they just need to sort their cloud storage options, as they’ve really fallen behind the competition in that regard.
Man you replied so fast. remember when we had to mail a letter wait 3+ days to reply. It’s amazing that anyone could ague back then, probably forgot what they were talking about before the letter would arrive.
I used to love Google. They were different back then. Made different promises and acted differently. Now they just close off projects because it was ‘not profitable’ (e.g. Google reader) while they didn’t invest in it for years and it still had a lot of users. Android used to be the ideal open source os. Now they close off more and more. They publish it in the play store, but you can no longer see the source of the apps.
Android is a big income for Google. They get a lot of money from sales in the play store, yet they do not provide real support for developers (I’ve tried) nor consumers. You just get standard mails which do not answer the question. Microsoft offers chat or telephone support for all their developers. You don’t have to pay anything extra for it.
They said search results would he unbiased, yet now we have paid ads in the results.
YouTube’s (false) ContentID claims that are messing with content creators.
Google also did not abide by do not track. One of the bigger issues there is that Google analytics does not comply with Dutch and possibly other laws, yet they do not so anything about it take it compliant.
I used to love Google, but especially due to how they treat Android now and keep oem’s in a stranglehold in regards to Android, I just do not know.
Possibly an interesting read: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Google
Great article. Sums up my personal feelings a lot. Something happened with Google. I find myself not using Search as much, looking at other email accounts, etc. I can’t distinctly put my finger on it though.
Meh. Same thing happened when Facebook bought Oculus. Next month the Internet will find something else to pitchfork.
This is about much more than just “Pitchforking” one specific event. It’s about an attitude toward a company changing over time. The Twitch rage will die down, but these attitudes will remain for a lot of people.
I don’t think “attitudes toward a company” are changing as much as attitudes toward privacy are changing, which just so happens to directly impact a company. (but not just one company, there are a lot of services caught up in the privacy debate)
Never even heard of twitch until the articles started popping up about the buyout.
I think Google owns so much because it does a great job with so much. They offer so much to us, for free, and we complain when they want to make a profit. We use Gmail, Maps, Chrome, Android, and so many other services that are spectacular, cost us nothing, and therfore they owe us?
This is a company that prides itself on treating it’s employees incredibly well. This company treats it’s customers incredibly well too. They are fair, open, transparent, but they are a company. We cannot stand up and say “they’ve changed, Google ‘is’ evil now” because they make business decisions. If they buy a company they have every right, and they will usually do their best to give us, their customers, a good experience. If they choose to shut a service down, it’s their right too. Is Mitsubishi evil because it stopped making the Eclipse? It wasn’t profitable to produce, but I liked them, should they still make them because of that? Of course not. Google is no different. It’s a business. But it’s a good one. One that more than Apple, Microsoft, Walmart, McDonald’s, name any other company, cares about people.
Apple fans can drop dead. Their beloved company was run by asshat #1 and is now run by the runner-up asshat.
That’s the problem! Right there! People are so angry at anything that doesn’t meet with their option. “Apple fans can drop dead.” That is an incredibly intense reaction to a group of people who like a different company.
1. I didn’t mean that literally (and I thought I had a poor understanding of the concepts of subtlety and sarcasm). 2. The company they love overcharges and brainwashes people into buying devices that are the “coolest thing ever to happen to the human race” while millions of amateur Android modders can use Android devices to do things Apple lovers can only dream of making their devices do.
3. Stop trying to be the “good guy” by attempting to make it seem that realists are evil and cynical. Your idealism is neither required nor desired.
“They offer so much to us, for free …”
You know it’s not actually free, right?
You’re right. Those Gmail bills are really adding up. I can barely afford to keep using Keep, and Chrome.
I know right. I’m having to decide between my Google voice number in use for voice mail and texting or gmail.
Nothing in really free. You have to pay for any goods or services. Whether it’s your money, time or as some consider more valuable than the first two…information .
Exactly.
I guess he thought before cable…TV was free. Local TV or just non premiul cable TV has so many ads, commercials….we dont hear complaints about that now do we…
It is free because no money is coming out of my pocket to pay for it.
I love all of Google’s services except G+. Not sure why they are complaining. YouTube’s comment system could be better but everything else is fantastic.
*Google Finance is terrible compared to Yahoo Finance (it’s prettier, but links to nothing but spam articles for most stocks).
*Google Apps work well, but the interfaces need to be much more configurable because Google is terrible at deciding what I need to do with their software.
*Google Play Music used to be a lot more useful, before they took away various sort and metadata edit features.
Google Play Books added an upload feature, but the storage offered is pathetically small (and still doesn’t offer a text color option, which is the most valuable feature of Aldiko Reader. If you’re reading in a dark room, changing the color to red or orange is really, REALLY useful).
*Google Tasks is improving at a glacial pace, so much so that I expect it to be killed off at any time (otherwise, what’s with the half-assed Drive integration?)
*Google Maps used to make it much easier to update routes while driving. Now it’s a real PITA.
*Google Images is still censoring “adult” content, even when Safe Search is turned off. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to have any idea what is and isn’t adult content, and so misses WAY too much.
Seriously, instead of buying up new properties, Google should spin off nearly everything and keep permanent ad contracts with all the resulting companies. That way those new entities can hire some decent UX guys — which Google has never had — and good ideas can actually GROW instead of just languishing.
I love G+, it’s just I can’t get my real life friends to use it enough for me to use it daily. I hate facebook so much, but I am forced to keep coming back to it since my friends keep contacting me there.
Yes, it most definitely has. The past year has been terrible for Google’s reputation. Snowden was a real problem for them because it led to many people being incredibly concerned about privacy and Google didn’t do anything about it. Google Now certainly didn’t help. Second was of course Google+ integration into everything which wasn’t voluntarily, it was forced and even though there were very few users, people were forced to sign up and forced to publish comments they made on Youtube on to it. But I think security and privacy is Google’s biggest issue, every Android device for example is presented with the message: “Turning on Location Reporting lets any Google product that uses this feature store and use this device’s most recent location data in connection with your Google account” when it’s first turned on. Sure, this makes Google Now possible but it’s clearly way ahead of its time.
Google used to be fairly “Independent”. Meaning little influence from ads and marketing of companies and/or interest. Maybe it’s just me, but search is returning LESS and LESS relevant results for the obscure or specialized stuff and now about every other “search engine” is DEAD. Google Shopping used to REALLY get you the best price. NOW, it’s AD supported and WORTHLESS with “sponsored links” that sometimes don’t even render let alone work. Again, other price engines that were useful have DIED OFF. So to me this is Google’s Mantra “Innovate and provide superior service for free, wait for the competition to DIE OFF, and then go to a normal “for profit” model”. Just like when Walmart comes to a small town and cleans house. In 5 years the other businesses are gone, quality and selection go down, prices go up. American Capitalism 101 which Google now fully particulates in. Goggle is ALREADY “evil”, it’s just becoming blatantly obvious now.
I wouldn’t call them evil. Amoral is more than fair though.
Okay, then let’s shut it down! Try to go a week without using any Google stuff. Good luck
That is EXACTLY the problem!
That is precisely the problem many people have. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to use the internet without Google.
Are you serious? I mean, really. That has got to be the silliest thing I’ve read. You can use the internet just fine without using any Google products or services. Your winsource roots are showing.
I never said you can’t.
If you’re someone that likes to use popular services or watch videos online you can’t avoid Google. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, just the way it is.
Who WANT to use the internet without Google? NOT ME! GOOGLE4LIFE, yo. ;)
calm down folks, google has brought to the table things that would never of been created…WITHOUT GOOGLE WE WOULD ALL BE ON IPHONES!!!! that thought alone is terrifying
Good point actually my home page is Google search, I own a Nexus 5, Nexus 7 2013, a HTC One M8, and a Samsung galaxy note 10.1 2014 edition oh yeah and chromecast. I actually love Google. I wish I could get Google fiber.
me too! I have google everything and im sure they do things to bother people BUT my mother bothers me also lol that dosnt mean im ready for her to kick rocks lol
Google HAS brought things to the table but HAS is the key word there what people are complaining about is Google is starting in a direction that M$oft and Apple have been in and that controlling content.
“Just look at what happened to Microsoft in the 90′s. They were accused of creating a monopoly in web browsers by bundling IE with every version of Windows. Anyone that owns a Nexus device or Chromebook will see the similarities.”
This example is really just FUD.
How is what Google is doing any different from what Apple is doing with Safari on every one of their computers, phones, and tablets? They all come with Safari and you even have to buy their hardware to access their services.
Google isn’t preventing OEM’s from using their own browser in Android if they want either. Amazon is using their own for example.
This is nothing at all like what Microsoft was doing in the 90’s.
Microsoft wasn’t preventing people from using 3rd-party apps either. You could install Netscape Navigator back in the day. The problem was a lot of people didn’t because IE was already there.
They didn’t get in trouble simply because they were pre-loading IE onto machines though. They got into trouble because they embedded it into the OS such that even OEM’s couldn’t remove it even after they paid to license the software.
Conversely, Android OEM’s aren’t paying Google to license Android and are free to install whatever default programs they want, including the browser.
There just aren’t any similarities.
Wasn’t Microsoft also threatening to not license Windows to OEMs just for installing Netscape alongside IE?
Joe doesn’t Google allow us to install whatever we want at our own risk?
Apple can get away with this because they do not hand out their OS to manufactures but themselves. Microsoft and Google do not have that same advantage.
They have a hugely popular OS for which millions of companies write applications, yet they have locked themselves into being the sole hardware provider. It’s just a different type of monopoly in my opinion.
+1 to this. I hear this comparison a lot, and they’re not the same. It’s simply lazy writing, without any willingness to do basic research.
Exactly. Even when Android was starting to take off….OEM’s were allowed to have custom browsers on their phones. HTC and Samsung did this alot early on. Moto just started doing it in the last few years. It didnt say Samsung or HTC browser but it was custom.
Google needs to go back to it’s roots, their search engine.
It used to be my “what do you need, i can find everything”. now it’s my “no, google, i (expletive deleted) didn’t mean that!”
Google’s search sucks so bad right now, it isn’t even funny anymore
And yes, they brought us a lot, but don’t you think they planned from the start to rule all devices, so they could do whatever they wanted?
Wealthy companies are always scary, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely”
Try and do any kind of research by using other search engines ! They are years behind Google search. Yesterday i was trying to fix my grandfathers laptop (80+ years old and still rocking technology) and just because it was the default homepage i made some searches using Bing … it was as it didn’t even want to use the terms i was searching for ! and the solutions i was looking for were all on Microsoft websites !!?? with google – one search first result straight to the solution. Google has it’s shortcomings but search isn’t one of them
Thats the problem with bing its run by microsoft and microsoft is trying to direct traffic to their sites especially to buy products not really findd you answers
the solutions to my searches were on Microsoft websites !!! that’s the thing, and Bing couldn’t find them while Google did and it was the first result ! Do please give an example of a search that returned results not in the correct context
Ever since google tried making it harder for accidental porn site clicks it really has messed up their algorithm. Because if you have to try to find porn by saying exact metrics of what you are searching for I’m sure the same stance has taken over into the rest of the results as well so instead of blindly asking google a vague question you have to phrase your question with a lil more knowledge and know how.
here’s a result “it’s fine” now do please tell me what i asked …. close to impossible ? the porn thing just means adding keywords that focus the context of the result(like adding “nude”) which is normal. What’s a vague question that now is not returning correct answer while before it did? It’s called context; you do need some general know how to define it correctly then through repeated queries you construct a usable context which will return usable results
The problem is that people have realized that Google is too far beyond its search engine roots. It all started with YouTube changing since 2009. But the real problem was the Snowden scandel that pointed most fingers at Google since they make their money off of personal info. What was the final nail in the coffin for them was the Google+ integration on YouTube. Google is turning the entire internet into their playground without regard for the web users.
This is a perfect opportunity for companies like MS to make a comeback while Google is vulnerable with all these negative changes.
Their playground you say?
“Google is turning the entire internet into their playground without regard for the web users.”
This quote bothers me. Do you know how many pieces of the HTML5 Standard are being actively developed by current Google employees? Do you know how much better the web is for everyone because of things like the JavaScript V8 Engine? Google is probably the main company that is constantly contributing to the architecture of the web itself with the sole goal of making the Web a ubiquitous platform, providing everything you need everywhere you are.
Now, does that benefit them? Of course it does! They are a company built on The Open Web (let us not forget the real name of this thing we use daily) and the company that is pushing it forward at an accelerating pace.
It also bothers me that you see these things as “negative changes”. If half of the stuff that happened online happened in the physical world, there’d be a lot more people in jail. I understand and appreciate the need for cyber-security as well as privacy, but there is a difference between protecting anonymity for the sake of privacy and protecting anonymity so that you don’t get caught doing/saying something you ought not to have done/said.
I do apologize for the rant, but the problem with your viewpoint is that it is the bandwagoner’s viewpoint. As the article above said “[i]t’s easy to love an upstart that tries a bunch of crazy things and disrupts industries” but once that upstart becomes the big company, people get suspicious. This is a classic case of overactive paranoia and frankly it is just dishonest, disingenuous, and a little bi-polar. Surely I’m not the only person on this planet that has watched people cheer for the little guy and then arbitrarily call him a villain once he reaches a certain size?
^ This
Exactly. How about Google was the last mobile platform to use Adobe Flash…even with it being on its way out Google was still making room for them. Moving HTML5 along while at the same time dealing with Flash….
Well what bothers me is that Google is buying all these companies I have zero interest in, c’mon Google, buy Impact Confections and make that logo up there a reality. I would so eat sour candy called GOOGLE haha
The problem is that people complain too much
bingo!
I never win at Bingo. =.[
lol too funny!
Complain about freebies.
Freebies? If it’s free, then you’re not the customer, you’re the product being sold. Once you’re aware of this, if you can live with it, then Google is great. That applies to other “free” companies like Facebook, etc.
So, you’re complaining about people complaining?
Twitch started operations in 2011, under the umbrella of Justin and offers online game streaming to a global audience. The startup, which is rapidly growing its user base, announced earlier that its unique monthly visitors grew to 45 million in 2013, twice the levels recorded in 2012. The company also boasts one million members, who create and broadcast videos on the website. http://bit.ly/googlenewsyoutube
Just get a Google+. Everything will be solved. =.P
But on a serious note, Google has always been known to do wild and crazy things. This doesn’t surprise. me. If they ruin it, I’m sorry. Hopefully they don’t force a Google+ integration like they did with Youtube. I’d prefer my online alias and not my name there. Though I still spell my name wrong. =.P
I think a large part of the problem in people’s minds is the fact that Google has become a massive omnicorp sort of company, and lots of people, us Americans especially, don’t like it when things get too big. We sort of can’t wait for the fall as someone new comes along to shake things up. That said, with regards to the random Reddit user above, people also forget that most things they use from Google are free, and no one is making them use them at all. It isn’t like it’s the only email provider, or unsocial network, or mapping service, or search engine, or whatever out there.
google only enhances technology… admit it
Can you blame Google from wanting to take over everything with all of their money?
I don’t understand the rising hatred for Google. Do they data farm? Yes, but they used the data to make our life easier. On top of that, they’re one of the only companies left that truly try to innovate and drive technology forward. They’re building cars that drive themselves and Glasses that can read and interpret your surroundings. Who the hell else is doing stuff like that? They created Google Fiber for the sole purpose and driving down prices. People just want to hate Google because people like to join the mob. Even if they don’t know why they’re apart of the mob, misery loves company.
I see everyone here doesn’t really care about game streaming. Here’s the real issue, it doesn’t have to do with the apps involved on what platform or what account you have to log into because those can be worked around. It has to do with Youtube’s ContentID and that’s what streamers are afraid of.
ContentID is an unforgiving system and can take days to weeks to resolve when you’re on the bad end of it. ContentID also has a tendency to not only match (and sometimes mismatch) small portions of copyrighted music and trailers but also classical music, sound effects, and music from the video games themselves which makes for an interesting situation for someone trying to present a video game even with given permission. This is already a problem for users on Youtube not behind the big shield of a partner, and even then under partnership your videos can get taken down by someone with a vendetta. However with standard videos, the issues are at least isolated to that video, and you can hopefully eventually get that video back up even if it takes time. With streaming you have much less control over what goes on because it’s live (you can’t always control that guy playing music really loud over voice chat) and when you get taken down it stops your stream and in the streamer’s case their livelihood and that is what streamers fear.
Yea..this too. This and gaming related things is the biggest problem ppl have with Youtube right now. Its gonna be the same for Twitch too I fear.
For the complainers: shutup and use Bing then…I didn’t think so! Sheesh.
Simple solution: don’t create an account with your real information……
See…I wish I had known this when I joined Facebook many years ago. Back when it was just for colleges. I learned, and when I joined Google +…its not fake but it isnt telling so much. My main issue is my whole name on Facebook. I went with First name, first letter of last name on Plus.
No.
You either die a hero, or live long enough to become a villain.
I prefer Google over the other big companies. I like their services and products and their growing interconnectivity because it makes them more useful over all. I like the founders and their vision. People have other options if they want them so it’s not like Google is all powerful. I just use what I like and encourage others I know to use them too. Competition is great though because it pushes them all to do better. I get excited when I think of what is possible in the future. If Google keeps innovating and changing, I’ll continue to stick with them. I think many people just like to find things to complain about and Google is a nice, large target for them.
How will there be competition when google just buys or crushes everything else?
Another issue that people have with this is the whole Youtube ContentID mess that has shown its fangs this year
I like Google’s “We’re open to anything” policy, so I don’t see why this is bad.
The problem is all the comments in this thread starting with “The problem is..”
What did Google+ ever do to anyOne?
Someone has to own these things. One company can’t do it all? Why not? If it wasn’t Google, it’d be another company that everyone would hate.
I doubt that they’re evil but I suppose it’s human nature to assume a superpower is evil??
Consider the company getting picked up. It isn’t against their will. They want to get picked up. What’s wrong with that? It might have saved a dying company… Who knows.
If You don’t, like it you could use Windows of safari
I just started liking twitch…. I’m just tired of G+.
Oh no! A bunch of cry-baby gamers are upset about something that _MIGHT_ happen! Whoever heard of such a thing?!
Gamers are haters of epic proportion, they will get pissy while hiding behind their computer screens at the drop of a hat. Far all anyone knows Google will buy twitch and make it a thousand times more awesome than it is today. It’s not like they have a history of ruining things, if they did they wouldn’t be where they are today.
Perceptions change when you aren’t the underdog anymore.
I don’t see what the big deal is. So G+ is being integrated into other services, I actually find it easier having a universal user name and password. If they are not happy, they should just shutup and leave.
Or here’s an idea: Don’t use any Google services. Shocking, I know.
I dont understand just using google+ plus for youtube and google services puts you off. Its FREE and it works. If you dont like it go back to Apple oh yea you have to use google maps , you tube, gmail, google docs there too nm. ..nothing comes close to google eco system. ..
Heres the crazy thing…I cant remember the last time I browsed around Google+. I login only if its needed. Like I barely use Facebook….and I only login if a comment section forces me to. Even then alot of times I dont.
We still have a choice: login in or dont.
I think people are more concerned with not being able to stream anything without getting in to some sort of trouble after Google takes over!
I can’t claim that i came up with this conspiracy, but i do agree with it. Google will indeed one day take over the world. They will be the one’s making the calls but standing behind the ones with the pretty face with the title.
Shame on anyone who believes a corporate slogan. They’re in it to make as much money as they can, same as everyone else. They’re no better and no worse.
Wait, an advertising company is not really altruistic?
The gaming community is very difficult to please. Ask any game developer anywhere ever. It’s always an uphill battle even if change makes sense.
“We want ________ but with better graphics” is the mantra.
Google is fine, their reputation with the masses is likely “okay”. Touch a gamer’s property, though and you’ll hear discontent about it all over the web.
Source: I’m a gamer.
I think this is the bigger picture here. Youtube as a whole isnt hated on…its the gaming side, things associated with gaming thats taking a hit right now.
People tends to follow the popular opinion. But Google was never safe, I remember the trouble with Google search and the search terms grouped by IP (that is from the 90).
Personally, I still feel like Google is one of the, if not the most, trustworthy tech companies out there.
This made me chuckle, just because they spell out in their legal docs how they are going to take your data does not make them trustworthy. lets just say we have a mutualistic relationship.
You are proof that marketing works.
At least you get free stuff
“Picnik, Aardvark, Dodgeball, Google Reader, Wave, and Buzz” actually were all part of or “enhanced” by an acquisition.
Most of these people are bunch of whiney faygs with no life and look like disgusting monsters who live in their moms basement. #RIPRetardedWeirdosWithNoLives
most people like you are pretentious douce bags who have to make fun of other people to feel self worth! but you are probably right.
Damn Joe.
The redditor had it wrong. The largest streaming service is Netflix, Google provides internet to a handful of cities, compared to comcast > nothing.They might have a large social network compared to myspace they are tad bigger than twitter because of youtube.. 50 percent of the smartphone market is like saying warren buffet and bill gates both own 50 percent of the charity market, they give it away! it may be in hopes of getting advertising revenue, but iphones use google search too.
Youtube is largest, Google owns Youtube.
graph
“Buy’n’Large is your superstore, they got all ya need, and so much more…”
I don’t understand the hatred for Google, especially from a consumer standpoint. Every large company in the tech industry data farms, acquires other companies, and incorporates these into their products to make them better and monetize. Google, however, is the only company I can really think of that makes their products better and gives so much for free. I look at Facebook and their product has gotten progressively worse (thanks to advertisements, privacy policies, and strange UX decisions) despite their increasing profits. Apple buys up many smaller companies and is stagnant due to lack of innovation, yet almost everything they offer is priced at the premium or exclusive to their ecosystem, meaning you buy your way in, via devices, to access the free products.
Google, on the other hand, is creating product after product that seems squarely aimed at making peoples lives easier or better. Yes, Google will charge for Google Glass, Self Driving Cars, and Project Aria phones but these are largely innovative products. Google Drive is free. Maps is free. Helpouts is free. YouTube is free. Google Earth is free. Google Voice is free. Blogger is free. G+ is free and isn’t crowded with ads or product placement. Then you have Google Fiber, which you have to pay for but them you can have free internet which is of comparative speeds to what regular ISPs offer. We also can’t forget about Android!
I’m sure Google is just as dirty as any other company when it comes to making money but Google doesn’t bother me as much because they do more for their users with their dirty money than the others.
Yet no one cares about all the evil MS and Apple are doing. Why because google is the new flavor of the month. Its life, people like destroying idols more than making them.
Sure Google’s fine if you don’t mind them knowing EVERY little thing you do on the Internet. Yeah yeah, no privacy issues here people. Move along. Sheep.
Just came back from Wikipedia to see what twitch.tv was.
Here is a thought, don’t like Google search use bing, don’t like Google Chrome use any other browser, don’t like YouTube use other video sharing sites, don’t like android use ios instead and the list goes on. Nobody is forcing us to use one service, nobody is forcing us to use Gmail we just do. I don’t see why all the hate, also the article is useless since it attacks Google but failed to mention that we have other choices.
I personally love google, because they tend to contribute more to the market than larger companies, and do awesome stuff with their acquisitions, and often use open source innovation.