Is Google taking 'Be Evil' to next level

Ishan jain June 20, 2019 21:16

Recent changes in the web space, and behavior from Google is not only getting on my nerves, but may be ultimately really bad for the web in the long term.

Disclaimer: Currently I am employed by Microsoft, but my views and thoughts are still my own. The reason I joined Microsoft was, the work Microsoft have been doing for last couple of years in Open Source Space. Today I am a advocate for Open Source representing Microsoft.

We all know how dependent we are on Google now. Most of us have a GMail for our primary email. Probably you watch at least a video per day on YouTube. Plus I can almost say, you cannot live without Google search.

Plus with the decision change from Microsoft, to use Chromium as the rendering engine for Edge, will make Blink the only relevant engine (for most developers).

We have seen anti-competition practices from Google for a while now. I stopped using Hangouts, when it stopped working in Firefox. Using YouTube on Firefox is not a pleasant experience. And so on...

I can see, from a business what Google is trying to do. But as for usability and long term strategy, my guess is these practices will ultimately harm the web. I feel like, Google has embraced a modified version of three EEE; Embrace, Extend and Extinguish. Is it just me or have Microsoft and Google changed their roles in the tech world.

From what I can see, Web Applications, (almost are) will be de facto for any application development. We have JavaScript almost getting same performance (well better in some cases) as native desktop. A lot of applications today use Electron to render the application as a desktop application.

I remember the time, I as a Web Developer had to have an (almost) alternative version of my site to be served on Internet Explorer 6. Will I have to do that for Blink in the future.

We never know what is the next big thing, which company will replace Google in the future. It might just be you hobby project today that will take over the Internets and replace Google. And then we Web Developers are going to be stuck with Blink, and will need to create alternative versions of our sites and applications.

I just hope that Google (rather Alphabet) would stop these bad practices and go back to their old ways. "Don't be evil."