back to article Sergey Brin REALLY ADMIRES Apple, Facebook

Open is a word so overused and abused that it is now impossible not to switch off when yet another tech titan or politico comes along with their very own interpretation of what the term should actually mean. But it's also a word that Google seems unable to resist repeating. Sergey Brin, co-founder of the Chocolate Factory, …

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  1. W.O.Frobozz
    Meh

    Google...

    ...really needs to lose their Facebook envy. It will be the death of them. They've already lost sight of what made their company work thanks to their new policy of trying to out-Facebook Facebook.

    1. Craigness

      Re: Google...

      What made their company work was being able to index the most important/relevant data on the web and present users with the more relevant result. Today they improve relevance by giving us the option of "social searches" but more of the important data is being kept out of the open access web.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Data Thief Chief!

      Previous BS misrepresented he wails, try this BS instead.

      I'm using a Mac (running Backtrack Linux with the zero day exploit we helped develop - we'll get those pesky 'many eyeballs' in the community)

      We have more eyeballs everywhere

    3. Giles Jones Gold badge

      Re: Google...

      They're still a bit of a follower when it comes to products.

      Google was not the first search engine, Android was not the first smartphone OS, Google+ is a response to Facebook , Gmail arrived after Hotmail. See the pattern?

      While they have developed lots of interesting technology behind the scenes, the most ground breaking work they have done is on Google Maps with Street View.

      Google has taken over the role of Microsoft, which is to wait for innovators to release new products that fail, find out all the flaws and why it failed and release their own take on it with the flaws fixed (often at a lower price). But of course, web based and advert supported.

      1. Duncan Idaho

        Re: Google...

        Plenty of companies do a lot of following. Even Apple wasn't the first at a lot of things they have done (and I'd argue they didn't even get it right a lot of the time but somehow they're still successful).

        Sometimes the follower gets it right though, although sometimes getting it right isn't enough to be successful. It worked with the Google's search engine and with Gmail. Android seems to be working if they can keep it going but Google+, which to me seems nicer than Facebook, is a ghost town (I check but don't use it).

        Of course Google has innovated more than just with maps. Consider how they've monetized search and what they've done to internet advertising. They have had their hands in a lot of other innovative pots but not all have been as high profile.

  2. Forget It
    FAIL

    great, super

    the bill gates adjective GREAT - as in great software etc - has crept into Brin's

    vocabulary - clearly a sign of ideas vacuum in there.

  3. El Presidente

    Dave Neal @ The Inq ...

    "[Brin] has taken to Google+ with a bucket of sand and some fresh comment."

    Best précis EVAH

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Dave Neal @ The Inq ...

      Never quote 'Teh Inq' here.

      Begone foul spawn of microsofts right hand

  4. NoneSuch Silver badge
    Alert

    Maybe he should learn the meaning of "'Open' source" and release the ICS source code like he should have done months ago.

    1. Craigness

      It was released on 14th November. That's more than 5 months ago.

      http://source.android.com/source/downloading.html

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        That's not open source. Try contributing upstream. The privacy bashers don't want anyone seeing what they're up to until they've done it

        1. Craigness
          WTF?

          He should have released it months ago, he DID release it months ago.

          Try contributing upstream to any project. In any open source project they don't have to make their code public at the end of every day, they don't have to accept your changes, you are not allowed to release branched software under the same name as the main branch. Android is open source.

  5. DF118
    Black Helicopters

    Graun

    That Grauniad "article" made me wince. It's a fucking abomination written on the side of the biggest elephant it's possible to fit inside a room, and I said so in the Graun's comments on Sunday. Sadly by Monday morning my comment had been censored.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What Sergey Brin REALLY said ..

    "Readers might have noticed that The Register wasn't at all excited about Brin's disappointment in Facebook's closed network"

    This is the second time you've chosen to ignore his comments regarding interference from governments and the entertainment industry.

    "Today, the primary threat by far to internet freedom is government filtering of political dissent .. regardless of how you feel about digital ecosystems or about Google, please do not take the free and open internet for granted from government intervention. To the extent that free flow of information threatens the powerful, those in power will seek to suppress it".

    https://plus.google.com/109813896768294978296/posts

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      You're drunk on the Koolaid

      The real threat to internet freedom is Google

      They bailed on net neutrality when it suited them

      http://arstechnica.com/telecom/news/2010/08/google-verizon-unveil-net-neutrality-lite-to-government.ars

      And they are lobbying hard to get laws changed in their favour

      http://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-increases-lobbying-budget/39168/

      Google is not yours or anyones friend.

      1. SuccessCase

        Re: You're drunk on the Koolaid

        @AC Agreed. You, me, each and all of us, are their product.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: What Sergey Brin REALLY said ..

      "If we could wave a magic wand and not be subject to US law, that would be great;" - learned recently from Google co-founder Sergey Brin

      http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/15/web-freedom-threat-google-brin

      No respect for you or the law

  7. Blarkon
    Meh

    "Breaks The Internet" - Google speak for Competition

    Anything that doesn't suit Google's business model is tagged as "breaks the Internet"

  8. Tony Paulazzo
    Happy

    Google+ Double plus good, Governments bad, corrupt, hate freedom. Facebook flash in pan (geologically speaking), Apple bad (secrets and lies). Future of humanity = Freedom, ergo Google the best of a bad lot (Google Earth, Mars, Moon, trying to digitise the worlds books, links to torrents, better phone than iphone, better search than altavista, better TwoFaceBook, etc etc etc)

    IMHO.

    To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour. Blake (and in the end isn't that all that matters?).

    Sent from my iPad.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Grammar Nazidom

    "...during the 90’s [sic], the boom time..."

    Good sic-ing!

    Now, can El Reg apply a similarly zealous defence of the English language to all the "colors", "centers", "flavors" etc. that your transatlantic reporters inflict upon the rest of us.

  10. IGnatius T Foobar
    Thumb Up

    Google has a valid point here.

    Google has an absolutely valid point here. Facebook helps itself to all of the data Google makes available -- users' contact lists, all of youtube, etc etc but then locks all of its own data up inside proprietary API's and walled garden, so Google can't make any data flow in the other direction.

    Facebook is a cancer on the Internet and must be killed in order for its host to survive. I am absolutely serious here.,

  11. Danny 5
    Happy

    and to think

    i actually believed Google was one of the good guys..

    Ah well, i'm mostly sticking to evil Microsoft now.

  12. Duncan Idaho
    Trollface

    Wait a minute

    We're missing the important thing here. He likes typing on an Apple keyboard?

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