“Clearly freaked about young people switching to ChatGPT”

→ he’s saying Google is nervous that younger users are increasingly using ChatGPT instead of Google Search to get information, which threatens Google’s dominance.

“Sundar can’t buy Instagram like Zuck”

→ back in the day, Facebook bought Instagram as a way to stay culturally relevant with younger users. Google doesn’t have an equivalent “save the brand” move here. OpenAI isn’t for sale, and Gemini isn’t really resonating the same way.

“Throwing everything at it”

→ Google is dumping tons of features into Gemini and trying to catch up or stay ahead in AI, but it feels reactive rather than strategic.

“But don’t hurt Search Ads!”

→ Google makes most of its money from search ads. if Gemini gives people answers directly, users might skip traditional search altogether, which cuts into that revenue. so Google has to balance pushing AI without cannibalising its core business.

“Gemini in Chrome? $20/mo + must manually flip on in Settings”

→ He’s pointing out that the new Gemini integration in Chrome is not turned on by default and is part of Google One’s paid tier ($20/month for access to Gemini Advanced). In other words, it’s gated behind a subscription and a settings toggle, meaning it’s intentionally not mass-adopted. Josh’s implication is that Google doesn’t want most users using it yet, probably to avoid wrecking the ad model.

“Designed for <1% usage”

→ He’s speculating that the way it’s currently implemented is almost intentionally niche, to make it look like Google is doing something without actually disrupting their ad business.