

Why Google Isn't In It To Win - pchristensen
http://www.pchristensen.com/blog/articles/why-google-isnt-in-it-to-win/

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tx
Google maps and gmail are "dysfunctional" and behind MapQuest and hotmail or
yahoo mail?

I don't know (personally) a single hotmail user, AFAIK people only use it for
spamboxes. And MapQuest? WTF?

~~~
pchristensen
I know, I love Google products and use them extensively, but they all trail
their competitors. Probably inertia where people won't change even though
there's a much better, equally free alternative. I think it comes from Google
seeing a useful online service and building their own better version. By the
time Google's offering is up, users have already developed habits on other
apps.

I guess rather than dysfunctional I meant "relatively unpopular". The fact
that you don't know a single hotmail user is a reflection of the kind of
people you know, because hotmail and yahoo mail have multiple times more users
than gmail. Technical superiority doesn't always (or even usually) win. Heck,
IE7 crashes on my wife a couple times a day and she still refuses to use
Firefox (which is installed on her computer with a copy of her bookmarks).

By behind, I _definitely_ mean in # of users, not technologically.

~~~
tx
Peter, where do you get your data from? Just curious.

Among our users gmail addresses are by far the most popular with yahoo being
distant 2nd. In my opinion google seems to dominate every market they wish to
enter, with one notable exception (orcut).

~~~
pchristensen
I've seen it enough different places to believe it. Here's one:
[http://www.marketingvox.com/archives/2007/05/14/gmails-
users...](http://www.marketingvox.com/archives/2007/05/14/gmails-users-fewer-
but-younger-richer-than-yahoos-hotmails-2/) or this
[http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/11/09/single-ajax-
interface-f...](http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/11/09/single-ajax-interface-
for-yahoo-mail-im-coming/)

Here's one about maps: [http://manojjasra.blogspot.com/2008/01/mapquest-vs-
google-ma...](http://manojjasra.blogspot.com/2008/01/mapquest-vs-google-maps-
google-closing.html)

Just google "[google's product] vs [competitor 1] vs [competitor 2]" and
you'll see the same pattern. I think most Hacker News readers can't believe
this because most of the people we know (heck, even our customers) are
technically savvy. Go pick any random group of non-geeks (like say school
teachers, firemen, visual artists, secretaries, parents of college students,
etc) and ask them which site they use for email.

Take you for example. In order to use PikLuk, you have to a) have kids, b)
have computer/internet, c) know that bad stuff is on the internet, d) be
concerned about your kids finding bad stuff on the internet, and e) be willing
to spend time screening sites and setting up a whitelist (or however it
works). Pretty much all of those skew towards upper-middle class educated
people.

Besides, how worried can you be about your kids finding bad stuff if you can't
even find a mail program better than Hotmail?

