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Google’s constant product shutdowns are damaging its brand

arstechnica.com

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Re: Google’s constant product shutdowns are damaging its brand

#241

Post by nerdjon »

theandrewbailey wrote: post #83
nerdjon wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am still upset about that. That single service being shut down is what started me to distance myself from all google services except search when possible (including making the decision to actually pay for services when necessary)

You don't want to use anything Google except search? That was about the easiest one to step away from (using duckduckgo now).

I want to love and use duckduckgo as my primary search engine.... But every time I try I am disappointed by the results. Unfortunately I realize that is mostly because of the profile they have already built on me.

Re: Google’s constant product shutdowns are damaging its brand

#242

Post by bradstewart »

jfasi wrote: post #61

Warning: Personal opinion ahead To understand why this keeps happening, you need to understand the product and engineering culture at Google. As a group, Google engineers and PMs are obsessed with promotion. At the heart of every conversation about system design or product proposal lies an unspoken (and sometimes spoken) question: will working on this get me promoted? The criteria for promotion at Google, especially…

Any thoughts on whether Google Photos will stick around? I find it's far better than any alternatives I've come across, and the recent Inbox shutdown made me realize how "dependent" I am on it.

Re: Google’s constant product shutdowns are damaging its brand

#243

Post by tyfon »

Guillaume86 wrote: post #136
duality wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Google would prefer you spend more time fighting the interface in Gmail and seeing ads [...]". What ads?

Gmail app on Android has ads in the mailbox.

And even more ridiculous, since they now have ads on the gmail app I get ads in my G suite account on android. They also constantly try to "unify" my email accounts so that they mix personal g suite email with my work exchange email and I have to click the top right to switch accounts.

I'm quite close to removing the whole damn app too and go for K9-mail or something again (does that still get updated?)

Also the web interface for gmail is absolute trash when you are using firefox, so is youtube creator studio beta. Even the "feedback" button is broken so I can't tell them it doesn't work.

Re: Google’s constant product shutdowns are damaging its brand

#244

Post by orasis »

criley2 wrote: post #10

Closing inbox has really made me re-evaluate if I want to continue using Google for email, as the clusterf--- of garbage that Gmail has turned into for people with long-standing accounts is untenable. The kitchen-sink approach of gmail has created a website/app that wants to meet every need and honestly meets none. In the next 24 hours or so I'll be forced from a clean and clear perfectly rolled up and ideal notifyin…

I’m with you. I’m putting off switching away from Inbox until they kick me off.

Re: Google’s constant product shutdowns are damaging its brand

#245

Post by dlubarov »

bad_user wrote: post #232
jfasi wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The metric you need to keep in mind here is revenue per employee. Keeping one product up and running necessarily means withholding engineers from another. As an extreme example, ads engineers make Google many times their salary, benefits, and ephemeral costs, and even non-revenue-generating services like Photos and Assistant indirectly drive traffic to the money makers. Meanwhile, consider Reader. A product with only…

I disagree. Google killing Reader was very shortsighted because they’ve hurt the open web in an effort to promote Google+. And it was all an effort to promote Google+, nothing more. Reader was perfect the way it was and could have been left unmaintained. Don’t tell me that Google couldn’t spare an intern for the occasional fix. And I don’t have any numbers however I’m willing to bet that Reader was, as a social netwo…

> Reader was perfect the way it was and could have been left unmaintained.

Google products like Reader tend to use internal APIs for storage, authentication, request routing, deployment, logging, builds/tests, etc. It can be a lot of work just to keep up with those internal changes.

Re: Google’s constant product shutdowns are damaging its brand

#246

Post by mtnGoat »

sunsetMurk wrote: post #128
meddlepal wrote: post #35

Google's two (maybe three) core Google-branded products to non-tech people are Search, Gmail and maybe Chrome. I don't think non-techies could even tell you what some of the other products are or did. I would also wager most people outside of tech don't realize YouTube is owned by Google. Tech people pay a lot of attention to this stuff, but casual user's don't notice or don't care.

Google Photos seems to be a core for non-tech people too. ...and actually, is one of my favorite products that they've released in recent years.

agreed, i know a good number of non-tech people that use Google Photos.

Re: Google’s constant product shutdowns are damaging its brand

#247

Post by mtnGoat »

Retra wrote: post #114
malvosenior wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You forgot probably their only actually good product: maps

It gets worse every year. Like every 8 mos they add an extra thing you have to touch/click past to actually see the map. But maybe that's just the mobile app...

yea, now when i open it, half the screen is ads and off topic stuff that i have to close on mobile. frustrating.

ive found bing's maps to very good and user friendly, ive been switching over.

Re: Google’s constant product shutdowns are damaging its brand

#248

Post by rock_hard »

bradstewart wrote: post #242
jfasi wrote: post #61

Warning: Personal opinion ahead To understand why this keeps happening, you need to understand the product and engineering culture at Google. As a group, Google engineers and PMs are obsessed with promotion. At the heart of every conversation about system design or product proposal lies an unspoken (and sometimes spoken) question: will working on this get me promoted? The criteria for promotion at Google, especially…

Any thoughts on whether Google Photos will stick around? I find it's far better than any alternatives I've come across, and the recent Inbox shutdown made me realize how "dependent" I am on it.

That’s gonna be an interesting one to watch.

Hosting the worlds photos costs many billions of dollars each year!

That said it’s a key driver to sell android phones (“infinite storage”)...so for the time being you will be good.

Re: Google’s constant product shutdowns are damaging its brand

#250

Post by frosted-flakes »

clebio wrote: post #219
frosted-flakes wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially when driving. Super thin, low contrast lines with hardly any labels at a weird angle make trying to read the map while driving super frustrating. I have a Garmin unit mounted on my car windshield that comes on with the ignition, and the user experience is just so much better. The route lines don't blend in with the background and it has large labels that are actually readable. The low angle of the 3D map a…

Any particular Garmin device you recommend?

Honestly, any of them. They're all good. The one I have is three or four years old, and it still works as well as it did when it was new, except for the battery (but it stays plugged in so that doesn't matter). I could easily keep using it for 3–4 more years if it keeps getting map updates. Every few months I plug it into my computer and leave it to update for a few hours (it's a one-click process), but I think some of the newer ones have Wi-Fi so they can auto-update.

It really depends on what features you want. I've found the voice commands to be quite handy. It has a hard time understanding some addresses, but for stuff like "go home", "turn down the brightness", "navigate to the nearest Tim Hortons", it's great. I wish mine had a built-in dashcam like the newer ones, but they're not cheap. Mine has Bluetooth as well, so it can get more frequent traffic updates from my phone (instead of through the FM receiver), as well as take speakerphone calls.

It's pretty much a single function device, which is perfect. I never have to mess with it, it's always there, and it leaves my phone free for audiobooks or for me to use if I'm in the passenger seat.

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