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Average product lifespan of Google products before it kills them

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Re: Average product lifespan of Google products before it kills them

#31

Post by Pxtl »

underwater wrote: post #20
cookie_monsta wrote: post #12

Not a Google fanboy by any means, but couldn't this be read with the opposite conclusion as well - that the average time that Google keeps marginal products alive is 4 years? Of course it's possible that everyone has some personal favourites amongst those 164, but if an idea really has legs what's to stop people from exhuming it from the Google graveyard?

It's probably more like a year with actual support and updates, two years where it's left to whither and slowly die, and then a year of notice before sunsetting it.

Yeah. By that logic MS has eternal support for everything, because MS has a legendary hardcore approach to backwards compatibility that they will release a product, push it hard, and then abandon development on it... but still have it "officially supported" for a decade while it bitrots into a nightmare... but never tell their users "stop using this, it's deprecated".

As much as I hate Google sunsetting products, I hate even more the companies that keep their zombies shuffling along in a state of undeath forever.

Re: Average product lifespan of Google products before it kills them

#32

Post by cperciva »

privateSFacct wrote: post #26

Meanwhile on AWS I was using SimpleDB until recently on a small project - I make AWS NO money - but they seem to still support SimpleDB even though it is not actually marketed? It's 12 years old and can't be generating a lot of new signups because it doesn't actually show up anywhere I don't think. Does anyone know how AWS handles depreciating items on AWS. I've yet to be bitten despite beng a long time user (S3 stil…

SimpleDB is indeed still up and running. Considering how it was described from the start as "retail store product catalogue" I wouldn't be surprised if AWS is keeping it around due to demand from a single large customer which starts with "A" and ends with "Retail".

I wouldn't be surprised if SimpleDB has been reimplemented on top of DynamoDB though.

Re: Average product lifespan of Google products before it kills them

#33

Post by jedberg »

nfriedly wrote: post #24
jedberg wrote: post #15

I noticed in the "recent deaths" section, YouTube for 3DS. This made me laugh, because at Netflix, supporting the 3DS was always a big pain. Regardless, Netflix still supports it to this day. In fact, as far as I know, Netflix has only ever killed support for one platform -- The PS2. And that was only because there were only about 10 people left using it. So we sent them all Rokus and told them we're discontinuing PS…

That is impressive. I've seen it have hiccups before, but I just tried again on my (old) 3DS XL and it did indeed still work. Not being able to switch users is pretty aggravating, though. (Both for me and the family member who's account the 3DS forces me onto.) That issue alone prettymuch keeps me from using it :(

> Not being able to switch users is pretty aggravating, though.

It should be noted that the final version of the 3DS app predates multiple users, hence the limitation. The app can't be updated.

Re: Average product lifespan of Google products before it kills them

#35

Post by nodja »

sct202 wrote: post #23
jedberg wrote: post #15

I noticed in the "recent deaths" section, YouTube for 3DS. This made me laugh, because at Netflix, supporting the 3DS was always a big pain. Regardless, Netflix still supports it to this day. In fact, as far as I know, Netflix has only ever killed support for one platform -- The PS2. And that was only because there were only about 10 people left using it. So we sent them all Rokus and told them we're discontinuing PS…

Netflix is the last app that works on my Sony Google TV from 2011. The YouTube app shut off after like 2015, but 8 years later Netflix is still trucking.

Funny that it has google in the name of the OS and a third party app was supported for longer...

Re: Average product lifespan of Google products before it kills them

#36

Post by jedberg »

kylec wrote: post #27
jedberg wrote: post #15

I noticed in the "recent deaths" section, YouTube for 3DS. This made me laugh, because at Netflix, supporting the 3DS was always a big pain. Regardless, Netflix still supports it to this day. In fact, as far as I know, Netflix has only ever killed support for one platform -- The PS2. And that was only because there were only about 10 people left using it. So we sent them all Rokus and told them we're discontinuing PS…

Netflix support for the Wii is also being discontinued: https://www.polygon.com/wii/2018/11/11/18085282/wii-netflix-...

I didn't count that one because Netflix didn't actually discontinue it -- Nintendo did. They removed all support for streaming services.

Re: Average product lifespan of Google products before it kills them

#37

Post by [deleted] »

lubujackson wrote: post #25
heavymark wrote: post #3

I imagine Google views this as a positive thing, trying a million ideas, so that hopefully it increases the chances of having at least one good and popular idea. The downside is, a lot of products they killed were good ideas, but its sink or swim and they don't get the products the needed love and attention so they don't take off and thus they kill them. And now even when releasing a good idea or good piece of hardwa…

For all the fun people made of Yahoo back in the day, this is more or less the trajectory their many products went through. With the difference being a lot more of the internal discussions, consolidations and "new direction" decision-making was known, making them seem headless and chaotic. There seems to be a general problem supporting employee-led innovation at scale, when the bean-counters start to control the prod…

[deleted]

Re: Average product lifespan of Google products before it kills them

#38

Post by dogprez »

ethbro wrote: post #8
JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #2

Does no one at Google HQ ever have the guts to raise their hand and bring this up? It's a meme by now.

There have been some comments on here about how career advancement optimization at Google involves hopping between projects, staying long enough to launch, and then moving on. Whereas doing good work on product maintenance or evolution is much less rewarding. True or not, it would explain a lot about how Google (as a whole) behaves towards products.

That's not a Google only problem. It's a cultural problem in Silicon Valley (ex drive to disrupt) and America (ex not respecting stay-at-home parents).

See the artwork of Mierle Laderman Ukeles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mierle_Laderman_Ukeles

Re: Average product lifespan of Google products before it kills them

#39

Post by bnjms »

jedberg wrote: post #36
kylec wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Netflix support for the Wii is also being discontinued: https://www.polygon.com/wii/2018/11/11/18085282/wii-netflix-...

I didn't count that one because Netflix didn't actually discontinue it -- Nintendo did. They removed all support for streaming services.

Why doesn't Netflix support Switch? If you can't answer I will accept Nintendo politics as the answer.
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