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Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

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Re: Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#101

Post by arvindamirtaa »

brongondwana wrote: post #44
arvindamirtaa wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 I've been looking for a sane calendar service that's not Google calendar and there's just nothing that's open-standards compatible.

Fastmail's calendar is built on the Cyrus IMAP server's CalDAV support, which does all the open-standards. It also has the upcoming JMAP Calendaring support and JSCalendar (soon to be an RFC) format. There's a couple of other good CalDAV servers out there too, though of course as Fastmail CEO I can't really advertise anybody else :p

If that ain't the way to sell something, I don't know what is!

Will check it out right away :)

Re: Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#102

Post by simonh »

gonehome wrote: post #26
COGlory wrote: post #7

I tried so hard to integrate into the Google ecosystem. I had a Gmail account and Google Talk to start. Eventually an Android phone, on Project Fi, with Hangouts and SMS (so I could send SMS over the internet). I upgraded from Gmail to Inbox. Then when they ditched that for Allo and Duo I tried to switch to those. Then I lost SMS on my computer because it got removed from Hangouts. Then I tried to switch to Google vo…

I used Google Voice when they first acquired it - it was years early and really ahead of things back then. Texting from the web, voice transcription for messages, could ring multiple numbers. Then they did nothing with it for maybe seven years? MMS would silently fail so people inviting you to events via group chat or sending you a photo would just think you were ignoring them. Hangouts came and the mess with that an…

Google has the same problems Microsoft has always had. They have one huge cash cow that funds the entire company, and everything else is peripheral (a first world problem of course). Arguably MS now has more than one, but they've existed twice as long as Google and it's taken many decades to get to that point.

It never really mattered if PlayForSure, Zune, Bing, Windows Phone etc were big successes or not, the company was absolutely fine anyway. XBOX is a success, but the massive billon+ write off they suffered back in the day means even now overall it's probably not made a profit, and if so not much. IE has floundered for over a decade. They do have many successful products but most of them could die and it wouldn't matter.

It's the same with Google. As long as they're awash in a torrent of search advertising money nothing else matters. Like Micorosoft they do have some successful non-core products. Chrome, Android, GMail, Google Docs, Chromebooks. However all of those could drop stone dead and they'd be A-Okay.

This is why Amazon is so impressive to me. Bezos built two world class mega-businsses simultaneously from scratch. I can't think of a single other example of this anywhere.

Re: Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#103

Post by rawland »

But what's the situation for most people? Many people's personal messaging eco-system looks like this:

  - Out of use: AIM
  - Out of use: IRQ
  - Out of use: IRC
  - Insert your old messanger: here
  - Privacy nerds: Signal
  - Feature fans: Telegram
  - Lonely people: Tinder
  - Parents-Generation: WhatsApp / FaceBook / deprecated
  - Brick phones (the real privacy nerds): SMS or E-Mail
  - Ahead of time people: delta.chat
  - Grandparents: E-Mail
Is this any better?

Let's have a different take on this: This company likes to experiment and innovate. :) Glad that this is still possible.

Having said that: Probably naming the messengers in a different manner could receive an overhaul to confuse less people. And: Wouldn't route my chat traffic neither over Apple, Google or any other FAANG+.

Re: Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#104

Post by ttt0 »

gman83 wrote: post #30

It hasn't been all that confusing to me. I was on Google Talk, then I switched to Hangouts, which I have been using with my family until about a month ago, we've since transitioned to the new Google Chat and it's been fine. I like that it works on every device just by logging in. I also use Signal if there's more confidential stuff I need to send. I haven't used SMS in years and I really hope they don't try to bake t…

> Nobody I know in Europe uses SMS

I do. I don't own a smartphone though.

Re: Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#105

Post by Al-Khwarizmi »

danuker wrote: post #33
gerash wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Phone lines have this solved. You don't need to be on ATT to call someone on ATT. I don't get what's the deal with the messaging platforms. I hope some regulation forces interoperability.

Meanwhile you can move to Matrix; it breaks into quite some walled gardens: https://matrix.org/bridges/

Interesting, but it seems that in order to make it work, I have to know about various different types of "bridges", "plumbing", and whatnot. So, really, quite different from the simplicity of calling someone on a different phone network. Or at least the descriptions on the website make it seem that way. As someone rather busy that cannot spend a few hours configuring I'm not even going to download it...

Re: Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#106

Post by dagw »

CodeGlitch wrote: post #70
gman83 wrote: post #30

It hasn't been all that confusing to me. I was on Google Talk, then I switched to Hangouts, which I have been using with my family until about a month ago, we've since transitioned to the new Google Chat and it's been fine. I like that it works on every device just by logging in. I also use Signal if there's more confidential stuff I need to send. I haven't used SMS in years and I really hope they don't try to bake t…

> Nobody I know in Europe uses SMS, it's just for receiving codes and stuff. I still use SMS in the UK if I'm in an area with poor data connection. SMS will work over 2G even.

The very best thing about SMS is that it will work even in places where the signal is so bad you can't make a phone call.

Re: Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#107

Post by cmrdporcupine »

JimDabell wrote: post #85
esprehn wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maps was entirely rewritten to use WebGL and support 3D. Gmail had the entire backend rewritten to scale much larger, priority inbox and categories, rich content emails, auto suggest as you type. Docs was completely rewritten, and they're working on another rewrite using canvas. Spreadsheets was rewritten twice, and a huge number of excel features ported over. It's true they don't overhaul the whole product every yea…

> Maps was entirely rewritten > Gmail had the entire backend rewritten > Docs was completely rewritten > Spreadsheets was rewritten twice I think I’m starting to understand why these products very rarely receive new features, which I believe is the point di4na was making.

All these products have improved incrementally, adding new features in an unobtrusive way. Which is from my perspective as a user how it should be done. I was just yesterday building spreadsheets and charting from hundreds of thousands of rows of data, something you couldn't do with sheets a few years ago, it just crumbled under the load. Usually when I look up a way to do something, Sheets and Excel are feature parity. That's a pretty big accomplishment. And I respect that they've kept the interface pretty consistent over the years in all these products, unlike in some others where I get constantly frustrated with superfluous changes or deprecations (I was a heavy Google Play Music user, sigh)

Disclaimer: Work for Google, but not on these products or anything user facing.

Re: Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#108

Post by ForHackernews »

Ndymium wrote: post #34
arvindamirtaa wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 I've been looking for a sane calendar service that's not Google calendar and there's just nothing that's open-standards compatible.

I use mailbox.org that has CardDAV and CalDAV in addition to email. I use DAVx⁵ for syncing to my Android phone. Mailbox.org's web UI is clunky but I rarely use it for anything other than extending the subscription. The calendar/contact sync and email have worked well.

+1 for DAVx⁵. It was free on F-Droid, but I've paid for it anyway because I want to support the developer (and also I think it's a nice touch making it free on F-Droid but charging on commercial app stores).

Re: Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#110

Post by brongondwana »

arvindamirtaa wrote: post #101
brongondwana wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fastmail's calendar is built on the Cyrus IMAP server's CalDAV support, which does all the open-standards. It also has the upcoming JMAP Calendaring support and JSCalendar (soon to be an RFC) format. There's a couple of other good CalDAV servers out there too, though of course as Fastmail CEO I can't really advertise anybody else :p

If that ain't the way to sell something, I don't know what is! Will check it out right away :)

It's definitely a sell, no freebies (well, apart from the 30 day trial)
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