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Paul Buchheit: Four Reasons Google is still Awesome

paulbuchheit.blogspot.com

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Re: Paul Buchheit: Four Reasons Google is still Awesome

#21

Post by daniel02216 »

nostrademons wrote: post #16
amichail wrote: post #3

BTW, when is Google going to allow third party developers to enhance its core search results via a search API? Such an API would allow third party developers to add Wolfram Alpha like features among other things right into the core Google search.

I think they used to do this - I could swear that I used to have a third-party plugin that I "installed" on my Google account that would show me JavaDocs whenever I Googled a Java class name. It hasn't shown up in about 3 years, though, and I haven't found any trace of it in the code I work with (which should be right around that area of the page...), so maybe it was discontinued.

http://www.google.com/preferences

At the bottom is 'Subscribed Links'. I recall having the same java search thing enabled, but it looks like there's only a lame javacio.us thing now that doesn't work the same way. They still have a manpages search option which is nifty, though it doesn't show up at the top anymore, unfortunately.

Re: Paul Buchheit: Four Reasons Google is still Awesome

#22

Post by moultano »

nostrademons wrote: post #12
amichail wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a risk that Instant won't enhance the search experience for most users significantly, but it won't make it worse. That's not much of a risk.

When Instant was under development, we had an office pool for "How long will it be before Instant is rolled back, and why?", and two of the most popular answers were "2 days - user revolt" and "1 month - global search outage". Of course, anyone who voted there has egg on their face now because it was a successful launch with relatively few problems, which is mostly a credit to the teams involved and the hard work the…

Just watching that process from a distance internally was a good lesson for me in product development. Normally I'd expect that if an idea is generally good, people will kinda like the first version, until after gradual iteration eventually they love it. For some things, that's just not true. With the iterations of Instant over months, I saw coworkers go from "argh I hate this I hope it never launches" to "wow, this is cool." They spent most of that time hating it, and only started to like it once it was near perfect. It wasn't a gradual switchover from "meh" to "awesome." It was a sudden shift from "HATE" to "WOW."

Re: Paul Buchheit: Four Reasons Google is still Awesome

#23

Post by nostrademons »

bmm6o wrote: post #20
nostrademons wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When Instant was under development, we had an office pool for "How long will it be before Instant is rolled back, and why?", and two of the most popular answers were "2 days - user revolt" and "1 month - global search outage". Of course, anyone who voted there has egg on their face now because it was a successful launch with relatively few problems, which is mostly a credit to the teams involved and the hard work the…

There wasn't user revolt, but is Instant widely regarded as a success? I find it mildly annoying myself, but maybe I'm in the minority.

By public comments, help forum feedback, and press reaction, it was perhaps Google's most successful search launch ever, and certainly within the last year or two. I personally find it mildly annoying too, but I'm apparently in the minority.

Re: Paul Buchheit: Four Reasons Google is still Awesome

#24

Post by mattmanser »

I think equating Wave to a 'big' risk is a bit much, financially there was no risk. All they lost was face.

Also Chrome and Android are not successes, Google Adwords is a success, MS Office is a success, MS Windows is a success. The key ingredient to a success for a company is some MONEY. Anything else is just showing off.

I'm still very disappointed with the follow through on Wave and Buzz, a bit of PR and a few man years of engineering is pretty minor compared to the profit they make. The 'oh well, it didn't work, we're giving up' attitude Google has been displaying recently is pretty disconcerting.

We may all hate MS, but at least they tend to follow through with some serious chops when the going gets tough (I'm thinking Silverlight rather than Danger).

I'm actually getting a little worried about Google's follow through on certain projects, as an external company I wouldn't be putting any investment in any of their new products given their recent track record.

I'm also not keen on Google 'competing' in the 'oh, we'll make money through search advertising' way they're doing recently. It's stifling innovation in certain markets imo.

Actually, rereading my post, I really don't agree with Paul very much.

On the other hand, I still think they're great, if a worrying monopoly. It could be worse though, Google could be run by Zynga.

Re: Paul Buchheit: Four Reasons Google is still Awesome

#26

Post by paul »

zackattack wrote: post #19
aristus wrote: post #6

Not to stir the pot, Paul, but was google the only place where your criticisms were welcomed? What about Facebook?

ycombinator?

Y Combinator and FriendFeed don't count, naturally. Somehow, they don't go in the "job" category the same way other jobs do.

Re: Paul Buchheit: Four Reasons Google is still Awesome

#27

Post by sriramk »

gfunk911 wrote: post #4

Great article. Choosing a place where people appreciate honest criticism works for friendships as well. My biggest criteria for friends is that the person is cool with honesty, including telling them when they're wrong. Interesting point about how if you never fail, you're too conservative. The same idea applies to poker. Microsoft fails constantly and people accept it, yet every Google failure means they've lost the…

Microsoft fails constantly and people accept it? :) I would argue the exact opposite - Microsoft succeeds consistently in a lot of very measurable ways but isn't given enough credit for it (that a Google/Apple would get for doing the very same thing).

Re: Paul Buchheit: Four Reasons Google is still Awesome

#28

Post by jdp23 »

mattmanser wrote: post #24

I think equating Wave to a 'big' risk is a bit much, financially there was no risk. All they lost was face. Also Chrome and Android are not successes, Google Adwords is a success, MS Office is a success, MS Windows is a success. The key ingredient to a success for a company is some MONEY. Anything else is just showing off. I'm still very disappointed with the follow through on Wave and Buzz, a bit of PR and a few man…

I was really surprised to see the parent voted down. I thought it made some interesting points quite articulately and added to the conversation not matter whether or not you agree.

Re: Paul Buchheit: Four Reasons Google is still Awesome

#29

Post by paul »

mattmanser wrote: post #24

I think equating Wave to a 'big' risk is a bit much, financially there was no risk. All they lost was face. Also Chrome and Android are not successes, Google Adwords is a success, MS Office is a success, MS Windows is a success. The key ingredient to a success for a company is some MONEY. Anything else is just showing off. I'm still very disappointed with the follow through on Wave and Buzz, a bit of PR and a few man…

Chrome and Android are both a huge success. Google takes a long-term view which doesn't require every product to immediately pay for itself, which is very smart. The long term value of owning these platforms is immense.

Also, your notion that "Wave was not a risk" is similarly mistaken. The opportunity cost of having a large team of smart people working for several years is enormous.

Re: Paul Buchheit: Four Reasons Google is still Awesome

#30

Post by numbchuckskills »

smokinn wrote: post #15
nostrademons wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instant?

Also, that preview window thing you get when you click in the description text. Personally, it annoys the hell out of me because I'm a compulsive clicker and I really wish there was some way to turn it off permanently but it's definitely another example of a change made to core search.

I use this to hide the magnifying glass: http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/90222
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