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Google is building a new augmented reality device and operating system

arstechnica.com

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Re: Google is building a new augmented reality device and operating system

#121

Post by dvh »

dehrmann wrote: post #76
peterangular wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> their messaging platforms and failure to leverage Google voice for 10yrs after the acquisition are too The Hangouts > Chat transition is exactly this. Objectively, they've made it worse and more buggy on their own Android platform. Ever since the transition I talk to friends less on Google services. Many of us jumped to Discord Don't even get me going on the Gmail rollout... Google was once an innovator (search, Gm…

> Google was once an innovator (search, Gmail, Docs) Docs was from an acquisition.

I used to use Google docs because it was faster that starting libre office. Now Google docs starts 15s for empty document.

Re: Google is building a new augmented reality device and operating system

#122

Post by mwattsun »

People laughed when Steve Balmer went on stage and started dancing around like a crazy man singing "Developers, developers, developers!" but that's what Microsoft gets right and Google gets wrong. As a developer, I have no confidence that Google will stick with anything. With Microsoft, I can still create a Windows Forms program. Heck, I could write a DOS program and it will still work in Windows 11. I'm currently learning Microsoft's Blazor because I have no confidence that Google will keeping putting resources into Flutter and Dart (once their internal needs are met, they tend to stop is how I perceive it.)

Re: Google is building a new augmented reality device and operating system

#123

Post by ksec »

Andrex wrote: post #14

Whenever I transpose my comments to HN, I usually do some light editing. The following comment is unedited because this headline kinda fired me up. Considering how Google’s treated AR and VR in the last 10 years, hyping people up then quietly pulling back support and finally cancellation after just 2-3 years, I don’t see this going well. They had a toehold 6-10 years ago which they could have easily kept iterating on…

>Google, you’re charging into battle with Apple and Zuck and you got a dildo made of American cheese. Good luck.

This is rare on HN. But true. Google's new CEO still have a lot to prove. The problem with Google was they were not found upon a product DNA. They have very little if any product sensibility.

At this rate, Google search may be first to be disrupted before Facebook. Apple has its cracks but still far too minor.

It is also interesting this is finally the mainstream view, at least the top HN comment. Prior to 2016, people still believe AMP in good faith, Firefox compatibility was not Google's fault, ads by Google were Ok.

Re: Google is building a new augmented reality device and operating system

#124

Post by potatolicious »

AlwaysRock wrote: post #33
gonehome wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google seems unfocused - AR is an example of this, their messaging platforms and failure to leverage Google voice for 10yrs after the acquisition are too. I’d bet on Apple, FB, or some new entry (harder without the underlying OS). DeepMind is the most interesting thing coming out of Google imo.

It's not impossible to "focus" Google but lets not pretend Google is making these decisions to focus on something or not. It's small groups of people or singular people who make these decisions and those visionaries can easily change their focus or be offered a more compelling role at a start up doing the same thing after they spend 12 months learning how to do it at Google. I don't love Facebook/Meta but it looks li…

The two statements don't really work together:

> It's small groups of people or singular people who make these decisions and those visionaries can easily change their focus or be offered a more compelling role

True! All companies face this problem. Smart, capable people have options and frequently will decide to leave and do something else/go somewhere else.

> but lets not pretend Google is making these decisions to focus on something or not

This is where the disconnect is. As a company you decide what things are priorities, and you build teams to pursue those priorities in a way that is resilient to people leaving - even extremely senior leadership individuals.

If a project withers and dies because a key player leaves, then it never had the company's focus. Part of effectively managing a company is to ensure your most important things don't have a low bus factor (or in Google's case, a bug factor of exactly one).

MS, FB, Apple, etc, all have a record of being able to relentlessly pursue a particular goal despite being subject to the same workforce attrition forces that affect Google.

Re: Google is building a new augmented reality device and operating system

#125

Post by ksec »

hiptobecubic wrote: post #59
gonehome wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google seems unfocused - AR is an example of this, their messaging platforms and failure to leverage Google voice for 10yrs after the acquisition are too. I’d bet on Apple, FB, or some new entry (harder without the underlying OS). DeepMind is the most interesting thing coming out of Google imo.

Google is unfocused. That's the how the company is designed. It's a federation of VPs, each trying to build a little fiefdom and buy a third bay area house. Sometimes this works well because it fosters competition, but there's a definite lack of coherency.

They wanted a letter starting with A to be the parent company of Google. It should have been ADHD and not Alphabet. /s

Re: Google is building a new augmented reality device and operating system

#126

Post by Zak »

Andrex wrote: post #14

Whenever I transpose my comments to HN, I usually do some light editing. The following comment is unedited because this headline kinda fired me up. Considering how Google’s treated AR and VR in the last 10 years, hyping people up then quietly pulling back support and finally cancellation after just 2-3 years, I don’t see this going well. They had a toehold 6-10 years ago which they could have easily kept iterating on…

It seems to me that Google only iterates on things that are immediately successful. That doesn't work for something like consumer AR that hasn't really been done before; multiple iterations will be required to get it past the toy/demo/beta phase.

Re: Google is building a new augmented reality device and operating system

#127

Post by cwkoss »

3maj wrote: post #9

We're going to get to a point where instead of advertisers paying per click they'll pay per look since the glasses will be able to track eyeballs. Hell, there might be a premium that pays "x" per every millisecond spent looking at the ad.

Click farms are going to be soooo creepy. Bunch of disembodied heads on a shelf with the eyes flicking back and forth

Re: Google is building a new augmented reality device and operating system

#129

Post by rl3 »

Andrex wrote: post #14

Whenever I transpose my comments to HN, I usually do some light editing. The following comment is unedited because this headline kinda fired me up. Considering how Google’s treated AR and VR in the last 10 years, hyping people up then quietly pulling back support and finally cancellation after just 2-3 years, I don’t see this going well. They had a toehold 6-10 years ago which they could have easily kept iterating on…

>Google, you’re charging into battle with Apple and Zuck and you got a dildo made of American cheese. Good luck.

Zuck's vision is trash to the point I question whether the man's had an original idea in his life, so I'm not completely discounting the American cheese monstrosity as somehow prevailing.

I don't really care for Apple either, but I suspect they're going to "win" by virtue of focus and culture alone.

Of course, if any of these three entities win, it is the world that loses. Rather, continues to lose—depending on how you look at it.

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