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Comment by thingsilearned | Hacker News Reader

The worst is http://www.google.com/transit.

They released a beta that works for a small list of cities. Years later there is still no released progress and in my opinion its killed a lot of competitors.

Its a great, though obvious idea. Local bus systems have the worst and least helpful web sites ever. A simpler global app would be invaluable. Except no one makes it because who would go out and start a mobile "When will my bus come to this stop" application with the probability of google transit launching at any moment? No one, and so a lot of innovation has been held back.

I get angry about that every time I sit at a bus stop. :)

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My boss has been complaining about this for at least a year. He's said, on multiple occasions, that this would be a profitable market for a startup to go into.

My reason for not going into it has nothing to do with Google: it's that a.) I don't want to deal with dozens of municipal goverments and b.) if some bureaucrat decides he wants to expand his turf, I could find myself competing with the government. Now there's a monopoly - with the power to tax and the lack of accountability to shareholders, governments can waste far more money than Google.

It sounds like a good business for an older entrepreneur though, preferably someone with local government experience.

i agree with you to an extent, but one part of me says that if somebody really has the guts, (s)he can just go ahead, and do such a good job of it that google _has_ to acquire it. clearly, it's something a lot of people need.

Oddly enough, Google transit hasn't stopped the government. I use nextmuni.com nearly every day, and it's a life-saver. How did I ever use public transit without it? If even the government can compete in this area, a small startup could wipe the floor with both of them.

I agree. The "threat" from Google is highly overrated. Gmail didn't kill their competitors. Nerds use it, but most users still uses Hotmail or Yahoo mail.

The same can be said for "Froogle". This is a search engine from the world's most popular search engine company, but their competitors are still very much alive (and provides a better product).

Youtube was far more popular Google's alternative video service, so they forced Google to buy them

If you have an idea you shouldn't worry about Google. The real threat comes when Google buys one of your better competitors, then you might begin to worry.

if you're in SF, nextbus.com is the way to go. nextbus uses gps to tell you how long 'til the next bus at your stop.

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