Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline • Hacker News Board

Re: Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#181

Post by zmmmmm » Tue, Jun 22, 2021, 11:48 PM UTC

rektide wrote: post #165

zmmmmm wrote: post #40

Amazingly Hangouts is still the most cross platform, generally usable and useful chat app I have ... it even still accepts XMPP connections. And of course, they are trying to kill it. (at least that is what the message I got last night said) ... sigh.

Had no idea Hangouts still had XMPP connectivity, wow! I really feel like the article is massively missing out for not mentioning that Talk/Hangouts had interoperability, that you could Bring Your Own Software.

Yes, I feel like its something Google receives insufficient credit for. Amongst all the the massive propriety / walled garden orgy going on with messaging systems it is a real stand out differentiating feature and something they have maintained for nearly 2 decades now without interruption.

Google does plenty wrong, but I have to say it's noticeable that when tech companies actually do something right they often get zero to negative credit for it, so from that perspective it is hard to blame them sometimes.

Re: Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#182

Post by ibdf » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 12:41 AM UTC

Have used all of them services and at the end I gave it all up because of their lack of commitment to their products. Tired of so many features that eventually lead to nothing.

Re: Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#183

Post by bscphil » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 12:52 AM UTC

koheripbal wrote: post #177

bscphil wrote: post #74

This mostly skims over two additional issues that add whole additional dimensions to the mess that is Google's messaging services: * How / whether you're allowed to integrate SMS / phone messages with web based chat (what we used to call instant messaging). E.g. can you get your text messages and voicemails on the computer? At some points you could, at some points you couldn't. At one point there was Google Voice, at…

The removal of SMS and voice calling from Hangouts is hands down the most infuriating move. I'm really just waiting to have a free weekend to de-Google most of my connections to Google.

It really was the most convenient messaging has ever been with Google. Basically equivalent to iMessage, with the added convenience that I knew way more people on Hangouts than iMessage anyway. Plus the Google Fi integration was perfect.

Re: Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#184

Post by NicoJuicy » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 7:14 PM UTC

gonehome wrote: post #170

NicoJuicy wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows never failed in desktop OS. And didn't succeed in mobile in the first place. Nadella could quickly release office cross-platform because of work during Ballmer.

Desktop operating systems as a differentiating feature started being a strategic failure because of the web. Ballmer doubled down on Windows at the expense of other stuff. There is a common HN trope that Ballmer was doing everything perfectly and Nadella just continued it. I don’t buy it and neither did the market. (Neither did Microsoft’s board presumably) I think Ballmer’s entire strategic direction was long-term w…

> I don’t buy it and neither did the market.

I suppose you didn't check the stock...

Re: Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#185

Post by simonh » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 10:15 PM UTC

zeusk wrote: post #180

simonh wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>What? Windows, Office ( cross-platform since recently) and dev tools are totally different cash cows. Office for Windows was released in the same year as Windows 3.0, supporting all the new core technologies including OLE. Before then MS desktop software products were also-rans. From this point on they dominated, because they had been engineered natively for Windows right alongside the development of Windows itself…

> It was part of a single coherent integrated platform strategy for Windows. Now it's grown beyond the platform, but the reason it matters is because of it's privileged position on the Windows platform. Just like iOS and Apple apps or Chrome and Google sites? > XBox just doesn't matter. It's not big enough. If it died, Microsoft's bottom line would barely shift. Office does matter, we just see it's strategic position…

Is it existential in the way that Windows is, or AWS is for Amazon, or iPhone is for Apple, or search ad revenue is for Google? That’s what I’m talking about.

Re: Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#186

Post by simonh » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 10:18 PM UTC

zeusk wrote: post #172

simonh wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All utterly peripheral, they could wither and die and have no noticeable impact on the bottom line, which is exactly the point I'm making.

Surface is already ~$8B of revenue/year business, not sure how or why you think a business of that size is unnoticeable or nobody would notice that if it were to wither away. Not sure how specific revenue figures I'm allowed to express here publicly but Dynamics and Hololens have also been big cashcows lately. Research, sure it isn't a direct revenue generating group but their patents portfolio is immense. Heck, even…

They’re nice businesses, but losing them would not substantially change or harm the company the way losing Windows or Azure would. The way losing AWS would harm Amazon, losing Search Ads would harm Google, losing iPhone would harm Apple. If Microsoft lost XBox or LinkedIN they’d walk it off. That’s the point I’m making.