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Google Blew a Ten-Year Lead

secondbreakfast.co

321–330 of 576 posts

Re: Google Blew a Ten-Year Lead

#321

I get the desire to abandon google services, and have done so myself for email and search, but there isn't much to this article. An old gmail account being noisy is probably more a function of it being old than it being a gmail account. I suspect he'd see a great improvement just starting a new email address. Airtable has some nice functionality, but I don't think it's head-and-shoulders above sheets and this article…

How did you transition your email address? I've wanted to get off, but I can't do that without wiping all of my previous conversations or losing contact with many people.

Re: Google Blew a Ten-Year Lead

#322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've switched to Big Sur because it's snappy? I just installed the beta and it's super buggy with periodic pauses for no reason. Are you using it every day now?

Yes, on my main work machine. MBP13, 2018. Once you don't use browsers for everything, the machine is cooler and more responsive. Seriously feels as if I bought new hardware. I close Safari when not using it, same for all other browsers (have Brave, Chrome, ...).

Yeah, I'm not sure why the author was so excited about web apps. I have a 12 core Ryzen 3900x and all web apps are slow pieces of shit. I want native apps for everything and no, electron doesn't count.

It's crazy how people all the time say on HN that performance doesn't matter and how optimizing code is a waste of time while I'm simultaneously frustrated about how slow the majority of software I use is.

Re: Google Blew a Ten-Year Lead

#323
This article comes off as woefully naive towards the average user and frankly quite elitist.

You're forgetting that Google does not optimize for power users like yourself. Instead, they are just interested in adding the most amount of people into their ecosystem. Free, easy-to-use, and familiar products like Docs and Sheets will no doubt garner the most amount of users.

Re: Google Blew a Ten-Year Lead

#324
post #294
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The thing of stuff just stagnating and no care to scrub the rough corners is crazy. On the outset, you might think with such ridiculously high compensation there would be an expectation of quality, but I think that's an error. Google operates as an ad-company that happens to employ ridiculous amounts of exhorbitantly compensated individuals to engage in market and technological research, particularly to open or exp…

Notice every G product with a decent level of ongoing support & development is in some form or another an ad platform.

To be fair, DFP sucks too.

Re: Google Blew a Ten-Year Lead

#325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So your contention is that because they check hashes of documents stored on drive for unlawful material, we'll say, that this proves that Google is lying about how it uses data from docs and drive? Or are you saying they don't actually share any data learned from docs and drive

how would they check the HASH of a document for unlawful material? I think the complaint was they scan your entire doc, for all it's content.

> HASH of a document for unlawful material

This is ~super common with things like copyright violations and child porn. You store a database of hashes of copyrighted or pornographic data. And specifically you can use visual-similarity hashing to detect even somewhat perturbed documents.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PhotoDNA)

Re: Google Blew a Ten-Year Lead

#326
post #163

I'm sure these alternatives work for some, but I really don't find "Hey" a suitable alternatives to Gmail, nor "Notion" to Google Docs. I think the innovation and updating in those Google products has stagnated a lot, but they're still better for actual work and business than the new hip things.

> but I really don't find "Hey" a suitable alternatives to Gmail I don't get why people need an alternative to Gmail. Email is already decentralized. Just buy a custom domain for a few dollars per year, and then use any email provider you want. You'll own your email address forever. I currently host my email on Protonmail, but if I ever decide to switch providers, I can do it without having to give people a new email…

A coworker asked me last night about a cloud but controlled email option and protonmail was my first thought, though I don't know the current competition. Own a domain, put some cash aside for paying for the service, and go from there.

Re: Google Blew a Ten-Year Lead

#327

No kidding. Early adopter of gsuite for domains (work and personal email). The google home devices CANNOT get your calendar from your google calendar. My Alexa device can easily. The thing of stuff just stagnating and no care to scrub the rough corners is crazy. They have some things they keep on improving. I think youtube is there (after the dumped plus thank goodness). Chrome seems to be moving along nicely. I used…

> Instead i keep hearing that google engineers are going on "strike" (ie, getting company paid days off). That is a really strange false equivalency. Not even the slightest bit relevant, yet it reads as if you believe that protesting for social change is a bad thing.

There are lots of people that protest for social change without the luxury of getting company paid days off!

Re: Google Blew a Ten-Year Lead

#328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If your “actual work” is designing documents for printing on dead tree paper, then sure I would reckon 99+% of most people's use cases for something like Google Docs falls into this category.

I highly doubt this. It might be, might be, a majority. But there are lots of academic, personal, and even business cases that are digital only or digital mostly.

And even for those use cases, Google Docs is sufficient.

Re: Google Blew a Ten-Year Lead

#329

For Google Translate you should check out DeepL https://www.deepl.com/translator It's absolutely insane, blows GT right out of the water with its accuracy.

Being in a relationship with a English/French language divide, DeepL was a total game-changer. I can't attest to its abilities in other languages, but it is obviously superior to google translate on correctness and "natural" translations for our use-case.

I recommend WordReference for that case also. That website has been essential in my relationship (language divide also).

https://www.wordreference.com/

Re: Google Blew a Ten-Year Lead

#330
post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stadia is a cloud gaming platform. Like Nvidia Shield, Microsoft xCloud, Sony PS Now, OnLive, and the rest. Gmail, maps, page-rank based search, and other pre-2010 Google tech were category makers. Every competitor has to massively step their game up to make something as good. Stadia is not a category maker. There's no massive competitive advantage or leading position for anyone else to catch up to. It's nowhere near…

This is getting old now. Tensorflow, TPUs, Spanner, Photos, Waymo. Just keep shifting the goal posts.

I've never spoken to you before and goalposts have always been. You just think every product is major. No, Spanner is not equivalent to Google Maps or Search.
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