Video download link | md5sum 2a72ca9fc1fd697d429f6e42ad69a6e1 Monopolies Worsen Their Products Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: Monopolies lead to erosion; in the case of "GAFAM" (Google Apple Facebook Amazon Microsoft) we've been seeing products whose sole goal was to weed out competitors

THE simple fact is, just because some service/product exists doesn't mean it's viable or profitable. Over the years Google and Microsoft shut down hundreds of their own; it's hard to keep track of it all.

As noted in the video above, Google started with search and then expanded to other things. But nowadays Google's search is beyond useless; for a lot of terms it optimises for business objectives (of Google) rather than relevance. It wasn't always this bad; it used to be useful in the scroogle.org days, but now they optimise for revenue and many other "search" engines (that just aggregate and present results from Google et al) inherit the same bias. It is a real and profound problem.

"By selling rankings, they have killed the goose which laid the golden eggs."One person recently told me that he's not sure what they optimise for other than "sponsored" links both upfront and stealth. It's too bad because search would have been about the only long-term profitable activity Google has been into. By selling rankings, they have killed the goose which laid the golden eggs.

Aside from the discussion about profitability at Google (YouTube and "clown computing" lost a lot of money for Google) the above speaks about Microsoft killing off Cortana some more, having pretty much done the same to Surface. Apple boosters are boasting about it. We should remember Alexa (10 billion in losses) also failed as there's no real business model for such listening devices (which seem to mostly serve a political agenda, like putting microphones inside people's homes, implanted by those who are spied on). We've already included this in our daily links and older coverage can be found here:

• Microsoft is shutting down Cortana on multiple devices, including iOS and Android - The Verge





• Microsoft will stop supporting Cortana on Windows later this year - The Verge





• Microsoft shuts down Cortana, Apple should do the same with Siri





• Microsoft reportedly lays off team focused on winning back consumers - The Verge





• Microsoft Cortana Canceled in 2023? — Acer Corner

One can tie it to always-on surveillance and privacy violations, which are costly also to the ones doing the data collection. It's only the standalone version which is being discontinued for now, but that's usually the path or the trajectory towards complete shutdown. For instance, back in 2020 Microsoft "consolidated" about 50 stores (that it shut down), which it said would be a smashing success online. Now they have barely got any products. Peripherals and Surface, for instance, are kaput. Microsoft cannot sustain that anymore.

"Peripherals and Surface, for instance, are kaput. Microsoft cannot sustain that anymore."The above is also being euphemised as "consolidation of teams and programs".

Consolidation is the euphemism they have chosen. "Enshittification" at Google^* and more shutdowns at Microsoft don't bode too well, do they? Will Azure too shut down in the coming years given the mass layoffs and financial fraud there? Yes, Azure is a fraud. It's financial fraud. It has been like this for years already. "The important thing to note is that the fraud has been going for at least that long, possibly longer." one reader told us. "Investors should be showing up at HQ with torches and pitchforks." ⬆ _____ ^* As Cory Doctorow put it the other day: "Enshittification is the result of specific policy choices: encouraging monopolies; enabling high-speed, digital shell games; and blocking interoperability. First we allowed companies to buy up their competitors."