I know, I know, it’s really hard having these insights. We all have our crosses to bear. <giggling emoji>
A bunch of config management DSL startups, and web scale data storage solutions, not so much
From the pure software side, Macromedia got acquired. RedHat was doing fine before IBM gobbled it up. But I honestly can't remember any other "picks and shovels" software companies from pre-dotcom.
Netscape - dead (server) and/or dying (Mozilla)
Intel - almost dead
Palm - dead
Qualcomm - still around
Who else? Borland quietly withered away, but it had never been focused on tools specifically for the Internet.
ViktorRay•1h ago
morkalork•1h ago
bigyabai•1h ago
parineum•1h ago
Why?
bigyabai•42m ago
echelon•36m ago
They turned this into "search".
Every brand or product has to competitively bid for its own identity in a monopoly competitive bidding market.
It's downright evil.
Look at Google's AI rivals having to spend hundreds of millions just so customers can find them. Google Anthropic or OpenAI and see what you get.
The next admin needs to break Google up horizontally (not vertically) into competing browsers, clouds, and search products. They all need to fight. Healthy capitalism is fiercely competitive. Not whatever this invasive species that preys on everything else is.
They also need to make it illegal to place ads for registered trademarks. The EU should get in on that too.
majormajor•4m ago
I frequently see calls to not intervene if there's not bulletproof evidence of existing abuse, but why wait? Would you want Google to own a bunch of nuclear missiles just because they might not have misused them yet?
pixelpoet•1h ago
j16sdiz•20m ago
You can hyper-target your ad or scam to vulnerable individual.
Unlike traditional media, like newspaper, you can post an ad with no visibility outside your target group -- which is hard to discover.
The report button is just some generic "second look" and automation within the same organization, there are no oversight.
SilverElfin•29m ago
We need new antitrust laws and heavy taxes just on the megacorps worth $500B or more. And aggressive enforcement.
IncreasePosts•20m ago
georgemcbay•14m ago
The problem is how to get to the point where there is enforcement.
It definitely isn't going to happen with Republicans in power, and it also isn't a sure thing with Democrats in power either.
Lina Khan was a good start for a bit there, but she certainly didn't have universal Dem support. Establishment Democrats are going to have to grow a spine and tell the Reid Hoffmanesque donor class to get fucked.
i_love_retros•16m ago
https://www.dsausa.org/