# General Business Category > Technology Forum >  Long Bets, future predictions

## vieome

The Death Of Google 2014

Google will not die, but it has lost its ability to provide the best content on any given subject. My argument for this is simple, google can and is exploited by people who understand the how links and key words work. In doing so pages are getting rank number 1 when they are not the best source of content that one seeks. More and more I find that google searches are giving me less and less of what my search is after. Used to be time where google worked well, but now is works well for the who know how to exploit it.

In the begining after the command line, when search began to make its way into our world our digital lifes, google seemed to have the answer with high ranking links and key words, but exploitation of that by SEO is taking away the content that one might be searching for, I am begining to see that a new search type is needed. 

There was a time that one google search led you in the right direction, but now it takes several searchs to find the right door one is looking for. Google could re-vamp its search, but most times tech companies get lost in their own ego's, Bill gates believed 240mb was all the memory that one would ever need, he also thought the internet would never catch on. 

What long bets do you have ?

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## Blurock

I agree. My wife googles Italian cooking and ends up reading about some new cleaning product or how to get your shoes dry after you've been out in the rain. :Stick Out Tongue:

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## Dave A

The trouble is any potentially significant competitor that is going to knock Google off its top spot faces exactly the same problem.

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## vieome

I agree Dave but also my thinking is the younger generation are always in need of some form new fashionable technology, I was surprised when my daughter blurted out the other day that google is useless. My thinking is that google will not die but a new search engine will lead the search war, even if only for a short period of time. Was trying to watch a few videos on you tube the other day, and noticed since google took over, I have to watch some pointless advert first, things like that bug the younger generation and they move to and populated a new area. Even in terms of a Giant like Facebook, it seems that some ex-facebook employees are lauching a new network site, similiar to facebook, their plan is to simply leave the ownership of content photos info etc in the users hands,. I find it interesting the way tech companies can grow or how startups can come and with a simple idea change into the new leaders of the block.

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## Dave A

Here's an idle thought.

Today I got a call from Ananzi. You'd think they were trying to sell me their overpriced (only my opinion, of course) directory listing service. But no - they wanted to send a consultant to meet me and discuss how they could advertise my business with Google Adwords.

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## vieome

> Here's an idle thought.
> 
> Today I got a call from Ananzi. You'd think they were trying to sell me their overpriced (only my opinion, of course) directory listing service. But no - they wanted to send a consultant to meet me and discuss how they could advertise my business with Google Adwords.


That is my point exactly, Google is advertising company masquerading as a search Engine, and in this day and age, news about software spreads rapidly, over night their search clients can change, they will continue to have advertising clients, but the searches will move to another program. It is only a long bet.

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## tec0

My fear is that android phones will soon be consumed by the market advertisers and it is already showing the symptoms. Anyone that owns such a device knows that you cannot gat actual "free programs for it" It is almost always linked to constant advertisement.  This brings into question ethics from both the software developer AND our Telecommunications industry. 

Fact is our service providers are smiling all the way to the bank! These devices are essentially internet dependant thus the owner of the device consumes large quantities of data, giving the device a massive hidden cost. I predict that the android phenomena will go the way of the dodo and stable OS systems like your MS based phones/I Phones will stand the test of time.

So Unless Android finds a way to bring down the data consumption of its devices they will soon lose the market hold. Fact is how many people are on "prepaid" services and how many of them can actually afford to spend money on 2 GB of data per month alongside normal phone use? 

I too started to question Google lately, there market ethic is not what it was a few years back. I don’t use Google anymore and started to use Yahoo and MS Search. About 50% of the time I will find something with Yahoo or MS Search then on Google? 

Now I did a simple wallpaper search and I found that Yahoo and MS Search showed "slightly" different results then Google. Perhaps doing your own tests can confirm and or deny this. That said keep in mind that Google will just keep on loading results so I used only the first page of each site for comparison.

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## adrianh

> Android - These devices are essentially internet dependant thus the owner of the device consumes large quantities of data, giving the device a massive hidden cost.


BULLTWANG

I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10'1 and it is not dependent on the net for anything. I use it offline most of the time and I hardly even have a SIM card in it. The little ads imbedded in the software is fine, it doesn't get in the way and it doesn't distract from what you are trying to do.

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## irneb

> My fear is that android phones will soon be consumed by the market advertisers and it is already showing the symptoms. Anyone that owns such a device knows that you cannot gat actual "free programs for it" It is almost always linked to constant advertisement.  This brings into question ethics from both the software developer AND our Telecommunications industry.


Only slightly correct. Apart from adrianh pointing out that Android is not necessarily net dependent, you can actually turn off data connection for an Android (even a non rooted one).

But what you're on about is advertising in apps. That's definitely not an Andrid-only thing. iPhone & Win phones' apps have the same things - especially for their free apps. Usually, there would be 2 versions of an app: A "Free" add-ware version and a paid-for-add-free version. The whole point behind a programmer making an app is for HIM to make money (no matter where he's uploaded his app to or for what phone/tablet). So he gives a cut-down and/or add-ware app for free to get people using the app, add-ware so he can make some profit from even a "free" app. But then also gives a full version / app-free version if someone pays him for it. And this is on all smart phones ... even the old Nokia & BB's got similar. You do get open-source apps, e.g. Waze - in which case it's "truly" free, but these are scarce in all mobile OS's. It might have been different if one of the truly open-source mobile OS's were more prevalent (e.g. WebOS / Meego) - we might have seen a similar "community" as we see for Linux.

I've found that the add-ware tend to show the same adds in sequence, and that this causes caching on the phone. So re-downloading is less of an issue. I can easily say 80% of my phone's 500MB/month is due to emails & web browsing - not apps (I even use Kindle on my phone and this checks my Amazon account each time it's opened).

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## tec0

> But what you're on about is advertising in apps. That's definitely not an Andrid-only thing.


I dont know, I downloaded an application on an android device and it killed 75mb in less than a view hours? I can also proof this because I only disabled that application and did not delete it "yet" Every time I used this application the screen would lock and it will tell me that a full version is available? 

So maybe my "bad" experience is connected to this application? Also the advertising links was really aggressive?  After this single application I lost interest in the device and generalized that this application's behaviour will ring true for all of them.

Was I wrong? I dont know I didnt care enough to find out.  :Stick Out Tongue: 





> BULLTWANG
> 
> I have a *Samsung Galaxy Tab 10'1* and it is not dependent on the net for anything. I use it offline most of the time and I hardly even have a SIM card in it. The little ads imbedded in the software is fine, it doesn't get in the way and it doesn't distract from what you are trying to do.


Now the tablet and the mobile phone have a similar OS but that is where the similarities end. Can you use your android phone without a SIM card? To a degree yes but for the most part no. 

Factually it is not the same thing because people will actually try and phone you hence the need for a SIM card? If you have an android phone and you disable its internet many applications will fail to function. Example would be the GPS "Depending on make and model" 

Secondly if you have a look at how many applications are running in the background you will find a few of them are also net dependant. And this was after I used the manager to end "shut-down" all applications.  :Confused:  

So is it BULL TWANG? No Fact is your device can function only via its Wi-Fi if it needs too. Your "phone" can also run without a SIM but that would really be pointless now wouldnt it? 

I remember downloading an application on my Nokia from OVI store and it actually linked me up to website and it needs to be open all the time for the program to function. Now the website was questionable  so I deleted it.  :Mad: 

This is why I see this platform disappearing in the near future. It is about control You really need to know your device inside and out to manage it properly and because the advertisement is already very aggressive on some "free-applications" I dont think people will tolerate it for too long.

Now if you can walk in and buy the application at a store and load it up this may change but until then I fear the worst.

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## wynn

I tend to ignore the top block and the right hand column of a 'Google search' because most of the ads are from china.

When I do a search for a product I look straight at the body and only click on dot coza links, unfortunately there are a lot of gumtree and other directory links you have to wade through before you find a genuine supplier, usually on or about page three.

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## irneb

It's very possible that some apps would overdo this. I tend to rather think of it as the app creator being stupid, so for me it's a situation of those apps will die out. I think as more users use the apps, they'd start to figure out which ones are simply an immediate UNINSTALL!

What does give me a bit of gripe is more in line with the thread's OP - the search on most of these App Stores (Android / Apple / Branded) tends to show reams of apps which are little more than single-website-browsers. Usually the user rating idea does allow for some "weeding the chaff out", but you still need to scroll through them all to find something actually useful. Both the Android Market and Apple AppStore sing the praises of having millions of apps, but perhaps 0.0001% of those are actually something I can see myself using. And perhaps 99.999% are simply "stupid" ... in between you get the 0.0009% of border-line cases which are usually duplicates of the 0.0001% (only lower rated).

As for data-leaking, I think it's more of an issue here. My sister in Dubai cannot understand what I'm on about (complaining about bandwidth) when she emails me a link to a 2GB video of a family gathering. Apparently that costs her nearly nothing. If such is the case overseas, then I don't think the 75MB download for adds is even going to register with most users.

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## irneb

Here's another sample of an app trying to force something down your throat: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/08/07/ios_glitch_/

Given, it's actually a stuff-up on their-side. What I do read between the lines: That bank obviously has a deal on (at least) with the makers of Rapport. Why should they enforce a particular AV on you (even if you're using M$)? Should it not be something like checking if your AV is sufficient, and if not give a list of acceptable brands? But then again, this is a bank, so they tend to think of their clients as slaves anyway!

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## adrianh

To tie in with tec0. I absolutely hate advertising and marketing. Advertising and marketing should be considered the cancer of modern life. It invades and infects every single aspect of our lives. There will come a time where you will first have to listen to a marketing schplurp before the toilet cover will open....I would just love to throttle sms marketers, telemarketers....well most marketers for that matter.

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tec0 (15-Aug-12)

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## tec0

> To tie in with tec0. I absolutely hate advertising and marketing. Advertising and marketing should be considered the cancer of modern life. It invades and infects every single aspect of our lives. There will come a time where you will first have to listen to a marketing schplurp before the toilet cover will open....I would just love to throttle sms marketers, telemarketers....well most marketers for that matter.


I wish that there can be a service that will just block the lot of them!!! To wake up at 2:00 AM!!!! via an SMS that wants to sell me life insurance is beyond any reasoning!!! I would happily pay R50 a month two have all of it blocked!!! "But clearly our service providers wouldn’t allow for that…  :Mad:

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## Blurock

> To tie in with tec0. I absolutely hate advertising and marketing. Advertising and marketing should be considered the cancer of modern life. It invades and infects every single aspect of our lives. There will come a time where you will first have to listen to a marketing schplurp before the toilet cover will open....I would just love to throttle sms marketers, telemarketers....well most marketers for that matter.


I actually love marketing. Visual ads can be interesting or humorous. Remember the original MTM disaster series where the bystander calls for help? Some exiting billboards or magazine ads have stunning art work. 

What I absolutely hate is invasive, unsolicited messages. Junk mail, brochures, SMS, tele sales, people cornering you at shopping centres etc. That is when I get rude. I have never ever purchased anything from these people and I do not think I ever will.

I have programmed my phone to switch off at night and to automatically switch on early morning. I will never be woken by a startling message at night. Man, I do not even have an alarm! An alarm means there is an emergency or something is wrong. It is not good for your heart to be startled. I do not want to "skrik wakker". I get woken by the sun and the "soothing calls" of hadedas.  :Yawn:

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## adrianh

Fair enough, it's not marketing per se, it is invasive advertising. I absolutely hate it. We need a bit of personal space where we can be alone without getting hammered with brands and slogans and needs and wants all the time. 

We get bible punchers, beggars, street sellers and and and... coming by the house 10 times a day.  I am seriously considering making a welcome sign that simply reads 'foxxof' Since we run the business from the house there are 2 phone lines and a fax line. People have no qualms about phoning at any odd time on the off chance they catch somebody at work. The you have the mass fax mailings that come in in the middle of the night.

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## wynn

> 2 phone lines and a fax line. The you have the mass fax mailings that come in in the middle of the night.


Adrianh
Speak to Nigel Hamilton about getting a free fax to email number so anybody sending you a fax pays a premium, this eliminates all spam faxes.
The beauty of the system is it is totally transportable and you can view the faxes from any computer before you print, if it does not require printing but you need to keep the info, file it, otherwise delete it, loverlee

PS it will save you the cost of the dedicated fax line???

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Blurock (17-Aug-12)

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## adrianh

..and here I thought I've got my first orer for my 'foxxof' sign :-)

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## Blurock

> Adrianh
> Speak to Nigel Hamilton about getting a free fax to email number so anybody sending you a fax pays a premium, this eliminates all spam faxes.


Way to go! There are many free fax to email services available. Saves you a lot of paper as you can read and electronically file the document without printing.  .... and you can see the fax on your mobile phone! :Cool:

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## vieome

Future Prediction

I predict that Sir Bob will win the election, his competitor comrade Morgan will cry fowl, but the AU and SADC will say the elections are free and fair. Comrade Morgan will continue to cry fowl, very soon after the result, CDE Morgan and  his cronies will be arrested.  The west will cry not humanly right, but Africa will say here look at my finger. They will then be a small uprising the size of a match stick fire, which will be put out with the force of water it takes to put out forest fire. 


Closer to home Vav will look like he is beginning to give an EFF, and the commander in chief will be seen bowing down to him.  

In other News African leaders will smile as they watch the old fox, jump over the dumb dog, yet again. Knowing they can learn from a fox. 

LOL

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## Dave A

Talking of the Vavi case, I did have a quiet chuckle reading this:




> However, in the event that the inquiry continues it is unclear which guidelines Cosatu will use as it is yet to show evidence of an existing sexual harassment policy and a finalised gender policy. The only clear document that Cosatu could produce to the Mail & Guardian is a four-page staff and leadership code of conduct and a draft gender policy.
> 
> The biggest labour federation in South Africa claims to have a finalised gender policy, but its whereabouts are unknown. Bhengu insisted there was a finalised gender policy, but his attempts to find it proved fruitless. 
> 
> All other Cosatu policies are available on their website, except for this one. According to the department of labour, "the condition for any policy is that it must be made available to all those that are affected by it," said Page Boikanyo, spokesperson for the department.
> from story on M&G here


DoL sticking its oar in  :Confused:  Is Vavi actually an employee of COSATU, or an elected office bearer?

Anyhow, the real chuckle was the irony of a labour union being commented on in the capacity of an employer...

All of which is a long way of saying - I'm not even going to try making a call on either the Zim vote or the Vavi issue. I *do* look forward to seeing the results though.

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Blurock (31-Jul-13)

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## vieome

Words have no meaning!

The truth is that there is
something terribly wrong with Africa
, isn't there? If you look
about, you witness cruelty,
injustice and despotism. But what
do you do about it? What can you
do?

You are but a single individual.
How can you possible make any
difference? Individuals have no
power in this modern Africa.


Our lifes will  continue to be a world with
curfews, with soldiers and
surveillance systems. A world that
is  run by other men, who control the men with guns
We dont stand a chance


Africa defies the morality norm
There is no kharma 
there is no justice
We have no hope 
No promises,
Forever slaves
We remain. 

It is not the man in the mirror 
to blame for fear is justified 
its in our political DNA

Good evening citizens of the world.
This is the voice of Fear. Your
fear I have given you...

And Africa will never be saved... 
Do not think that is what the future holds
That is only smoke and mirrors
there is no miracle... there is no
path... upon which we must
learn to rule themselves.

Since independance dawn, a handful of
oppressors have accepted the
responsibility over our lives,
responsibility that we should have
accepted ourselves. By doing so,
they took our power. By doing
nothing, we gave it away
Never to get it back.

Africa will never change.
Our corrupt leaders will  never be gone and 
we will never choose what comes next. 
Always we return to the chains of others 
never lives of our own. A world of the
past or one of the future.

Always the Same
Always the Same

No amount of votes can remove a man with a gun. 



Next Future Prediction
The extinction of the of the white african will happen before the extinction of the white Rhino.

Take my words with a pinch of salt I am after all a science fiction writer.

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## vieome



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pmbguy (01-Aug-13)

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## pmbguy

> Next Future Prediction
> The extinction of the of the white african will happen before the extinction of the white Rhino.
> 
> Take my words with a pinch of salt I am after all a science fiction writer.


Hi vieome, I took some salt, may I just add my condiment. 

Worrying is like a rocking chair, it might give you something to do, but it's not going to get you anywhere. 

I don’t prescribe to the full-on dooms day scenario. We got some big f***** problems, sure. I accept in my mind that things might get worse before they get better. This is a natural state of affairs given our history. 

We can’t compare the fate of Zim with that of SA, we don’t walk on parallel lines....... thank god.
We are somewhat different to other African countries in many respects, including Geo politically. In the same way that the west and china exploit Africa (and others) *our* foreign policy exploits conditions in other African countries, including ZIM. (For right or wrong)

Remember SA is the strongest country in Africa so we will never just collapse and we will always remain a big player on the continent. 
The CANCER will become weaker over time, as an organisation and in popular vote. In the next 15 years or so they will fall from power, too fat, old and irrelevant to take the ballot. Until then they gonna eat the pie and shit in the house. 



All and all, I believe our long term prospects are good. 
You mlungu’s must relax  :Console:

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## vieome

LOL I am not a mlungu, or am I?.  I just like rapping about what is cutting in the world around me.

Is the glass half full, or half empty? The zen master says no, there is something wrong with the container.

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## Dave S

> Next Future Prediction
> The extinction of the of the white african will happen before the extinction of the white Rhino.
> 
> Take my words with a pinch of salt I am after all a science fiction writer.


From some vantage points it seems to be so...

It is said by some, that the overall view of cANCer is to build their "black force" (BEE) to take over business etc. and then to oust the white males and take white females as sex slaves... This could simply be the fiction of the negative, and though it is food for thought, I wouldn't place too much money on it being possible.

We are, by far, not the worst country as far as racism goes, the USA takes the prime spot there, difference is they never made it legislation. Here in Sunny SA. however, we did. There was "Apartheid" (and possibly others we don't know) and now there's "BEE", all designed to pit one race group against another. We may strive for peace and tranquillity, but as long as we're making laws that benefit one race group above another, we have little hope of ever achieving a true democracy.

And there's the pepper...

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## vieome

The easiest way to make women sex slaves is to put them into poverty. I agree that we are by far not the most racist, but we are heading to the number one spot, the easiest way for any corrupt ruler to keep power is to create hatred, Sir Bob also had his rainbow nation in 1980, with over 100000 whites, today the population of whites is estimated to be 5000. 

I like to think of what is happening in Africa as the African Gold Rush. To create wealth one needs to invest, but why invest when you can take wealth from what others have invested in. And if you take a mans wealth and take away the means for a man to create wealth you put him on the extinction list.

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## Dave A

Vieome, you were disturbingly spot on with your Zimbabwe election prediction.

Well done.

(Err... I think, given the end result  :Confused:  )

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## vieome

Lucky guess one might say. So now the idiots from MDC take the battle to Sir Bobs courts, makes me LOL. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. :Rant1:  

Adolf Hitler
<quote> The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one. </quote>
<quote> All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach.. </quote>
<quote> How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don't think.. </quote>
<quote> It is not truth that matters, but victoryd. </quote>
<quote> The very first essential for success is a perpetually constant and regular employment of violence. </quote>

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## Blurock

> Is the glass half full, or half empty? The zen master says no, there is something wrong with the container.


...and the engineer says the glass is under-utilized. So we have to design a new glass to replace the flawed one.

The flaw is of course BEE, which is another way of saying " you are not accepted, because you are not black enough". This is racism in its rawest form, but disguised as helping the "previously disadvantaged". Bullshit! Only the connected and the rich ANC cadres benefit from BEE. e.g. Khanyi Dlomo's reported R34 boutique funded by the NEF. 


> http://www.timeslive.co.za/ilive/201...m-pretty-ilive


The NEF is supposed to facilitate job creation. They are sitting on a mountain of cash that they are battling to give away, yet they will not fund any business where there is even a minority white shareholder. Their racist attitude has resulted in many ideas and businesses not coming to fruition and therefore not creating the jobs that it was intended for.

Instead of working with skilled people who can transfer those skills to black people so that they can grow into sustainable jobs that will benefit their community and our economy, they would rather fund another spaza shop where the poor guy will battle to make a sustainable living. Or they will fund a R34 million boutique for an MBA graduate from a wealthy family who does not need the money. :Banghead:

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pmbguy (07-Aug-13)

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## vieome

> Future Prediction
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Closer to home Vav will look like he is beginning to give an EFF, and the commander in chief will be seen bowing down to him.  
> 
> 
> 
> LOL


http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Po...-Vavi-20150502

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