“I think Google is the most successful attention merchant - profitable attention merchant in the history of the world, most successful advertising-only based company - most profitable. They started a very idealistic, beautiful company in many ways, but they didn't have a business model.” ThinkingWorldWayBeautifulAttentionCompanySuccessfulModelsAdvertisingGoogleWorld HistoryProfitableMerchantsIdealisticBusiness Models Author:Tim Wu
“I think, year in, year out, Google is starting to get worse instead of better. I think this is happening to a lot of the web companies, is as their demand to increase the payload they deliver in ads increases, they end up degrading and corrupting their own services. And you can see it with Google Maps, you can see it with Google Directions, where somehow Uber is, you know, always one of the options. And it's becoming exactly what they said was what they never wanted, which is a pay-for service where the highest bidder gets the best results.” ThinkingKnowsYearsSaidEndsWantedResultsPayCompanyBecomingDemandHighestHappeningsIncreaseStartingMapsAdsGoogleThey SaidDegradingUberGoogle Maps Author:Tim Wu
“I do think the best thing for companies like Google and Facebook, if they are afraid of this ethical trap of advertising, is they should start letting people pay who want to pay and avoid some of the advertising.” PeopleIfsThinkingWantShouldPayCompanyAdvertisingBest ThingsEthicalGoogleTraps Author:Tim Wu
“I am the most concerned that we end up in a situation where your - everything is known about you and so therefore, not only Google, but Google, Facebook, Twitter - the whole set of companies - essentially knows all your weaknesses and therefore how to manipulate you in subtle ways in order to have you do things you might not otherwise do.” KnowsWayEndsWholeMightOrderCompanySituationKnownWeaknessConcernedSubtleGoogleManipulate Author:Tim Wu
“I'm kind of concerned the combined effect, not only Google, all these companies is kind of to make us more boring and that seems the opposite of what the Internet was supposed to be.” KindSeemsCompanyEffectsInternetConcernedOppositesBoringSupposed To BeGoogle Author:Tim Wu
“When you decide to like something, I mean, you may feel you're sort of innocently putting out your preferences, but actually you're delivering something of enormous value, which is indicating that, you know, you'd essentially like to be advertised to by this company.” KnowsFeelsMayMeanValuesCompanyEnormousPreferenceLike SomethingDelivering Author:Tim Wu
“The breakup of Bell laid the foundation for every important communications revolution since the 1980s onward. There was no way of knowing that thirty years on we would have an Internet, handheld computers, and social networking, but it is hard to imagine their coming when they did, had the company that bured the answering machine remained intact.” WayYearsImportantHardSocialCompanyKnowingImagineCommunicationRevolutionInternetComputerMachinesFoundationThirtyBreakupBellsNetworkingThirty YearsSocial NetworkingSocial NetworkAnswering Machines Book:The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires Source: The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires
