Google - The old edge is back.By Dec ’24, in AI, I had written Google off. Now, the balance has shifted
- Amar Harolikar
- Sep 23
- 2 min read
Horrible models. Gemini 2.0 Flash Experimental was a disaster – more than 50% error in my schema detection and structured output tests.
Then in Jan ’25, they pushed it into production as Gemini-2.0-Flash-001.
I laughed. Tested it anyway.
• First run: 100% accuracy → luck
• Second run: 100% → coincidence
• Third run: 100% → that's a trend.
That was the instant that Google changed.
I even published my first post on it: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/amarharolikar_gemini-ai-schema-detection-activity-7270621175974062080-9d6m
And just for context – this wasn't casual testing, and I have used Google from day one. My first investment analysis webpage went live the same month Google did.
Today, ~20% of my workflow is Google-powered.
Can Gemini become the top LLM, beating Claude Sonnet-4?
A year back I would have laughed. Now – very likely.
If Google gets this right, it might reign over AI the way it does over Search – lawsuits and congressional committees notwithstanding.
The old Google is back.
As much as I love them, I wouldn’t want to be in Microsoft, OpenAI, or Anthropic’s shoes at this point in time.
2.0-Flash is like the old Nokia 3310
I’ve tested it across workflows. Schema detection + structured output in my live Mutual Fund Portfolio Processor (India) still runs on Gemini 2.0 Flash. GPT-4.1 and Sonnet-4 both miss at times. Flash hasn’t failed.
👉 Try it live: https://app.tigzig.com/mf-files-ai
This model is like the old Nokia 3310 - low-cost high-performance. Break it, drown it, throw anything at it, it works. Huge free tier.
Google kept shipping
▸ AI Studio → I built 70% of my Quant Reporting Suite UI there (rest with Cursor). Live at https://quants-suite.tigzig.com
▸ Gemini CLI → 75K GitHub stars. I use it for FastAPI servers, xlwings Lite, simple web apps. https://github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli
▸ Flash-2.5 & Pro-2.5 → solid upgrades (Pro is a token guzzler).
▸ NotebookLM → my YouTube time-saver (auto action items + guides). https://notebooklm.google
▸ Google Search AI Mode → very new. Replaced Perplexity & ChatGPT for me for research tasks. Blazing fast.
▸ Opal → for mini-apps + n8n-like workflows. https://opal.withgoogle.com/landing/
▸ Database Toolbox → web layer to connect agents to DBs. This could replace my custom connector. https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/ai-machine-learning/announcing-gen-ai-toolbox-for-databases-get-started-today
▸ Code Interpreter → sandboxed Python for LLM. https://aistudio.google.com/app/prompts/new_chat/code_interpreter
▸ URL Context → fetch and analyze live pages. https://aistudio.google.com/app/prompts/new_chat/url_context
▸ Google ADK (Agent Development Kit)
▸ Google LangExtract → structured output from long docs. https://cloud.google.com/vertex-ai/generative-ai/docs/multimodal/langextract/overview
▸ Gemini with browser use → https://aistudio.google.com/app/prompts/new_chat/browser
Performance charts, technicals & CAGR reports → built with my open-source Portfolio Analysis tools at https://quants.tigzig.com
. Valuation metrics → Yahoo Finance.
