> Google will be considered "the new IBM" in 20 years.
They have plenty of great tech for consumers right now: Gmail, Maps, YouTube, Chrome, Android,..
You can perhaps argue that search might suffer because of AI but they've done a great job scaling horizontally into many verticals.
I don't think Google is going anywhere.
The newest of those are 20 years old.
Let’s be honest. Google was amazing back then, now they’re just an ad-business flailing around in other side quests.
GCP/Vertex, Firebase, Spanner, Waymo, Gemini + Nano Banana, Google Photos, TPUs, Pixel, Assistant, Google Fi, Taara...
Most of those are also at least a decade old, and some of them are acquisitions.
Every single one of these hemorrhages money from their ad business
Gmail is going to be Google's System/390 mainframes.
People used to say the same thing about Microsoft with Windows you know...
Once upon a time it would've been unthinkable for Google search to become awful and nearly worthless due, in large part, by Google's discretionary choices.
Related - interns these days don't seem to have any particular preference for using Google for finding information...
Can you explain this behavior a little bit more. Where do they seek information - is it a consumer chat app, social media app’s search functions?
^FTFY “interns these days don’t seem to have any particular preference for finding information”
I think it's a bit inflated to label Gmail a "great tech for consumers". Maps certainly, YouTube mostly, Chrome & Android for loyalists, but Gmail hasn't been "great tech" for well over a decade.
Additionally these are all old products - even the company's more recent products such as Gemini feel stale and on unsteady ground.