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Google has already pulled six products in 2023

toolhub.tech

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Re: Google has already pulled six products in 2023

#41

Post by Paul-Craft »

bigyikes wrote: post #6

Surely the people working at Google understand how all these shutdowns look to outsiders, right? I have to imagine so… they’re smart people, and a ton of them lurk here on HN. It’s interesting to me that they continue to spawn and nix products like this despite the reputation damage it causes. Anyone wanna bet on if/when Bard gets axed?

> Surely the people working at Google understand how all these shutdowns look to outsiders, right?

Yeah, about like this: https://killedbygoogle.com/

I don't really care if Google is unable, unwilling, or uninterested in supporting anything that isn't G-Suite, search, or ads. Their track record is more than enough for me to dismiss using Google Cloud Platform, or even saving anything of any importance to Google Drive. I'm occasionally involved some of those types of vendor decisions, and I imagine others in similar positions feel the same way, so I can't imagine this is all theoretical fake losses they've suffered from this MO. I don't know how you'd even begin to measure the amount of revenue opportunities lost in this way, but I will say this: I'm really glad I'm not a part of Google's marketing department.

Re: Google has already pulled six products in 2023

#42

Post by eviks »

ed_mercer wrote: post #28

Why does Google get grilled so badly for pulling products? Don’t other companies do the exact same thing, and isn’t it their full right to abandon projects when it no longer makes sense?

Isn't it person's full right to write blog posts listing said abandoned projects? Why do people get criticized for such simple observations re. the behavior of some giant company?

Re: Google has already pulled six products in 2023

#43

Post by onion2k »

LeBit wrote: post #34
onion2k wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s interesting to me that they continue to spawn and nix products like this despite the reputation damage it causes. I think the 'problem' is that reputation damage doesn't really impact Google's revenue. They get the overwhelming majority of their money from publishing adverts, with a significant amount on their own properties (search and YouTube). It really doesn't matter if a bunch of gamers decide Stadia screwe…

Google Search is in great perils because of ChatGPT.

It could be. I don't think Google are likely to just roll over and let OpenAI/MSFT take that market though. Obviously Google will try to compete. Maybe they'll fail, maybe they won't. If nothing else, as a user of these tools, it's going to be exciting to see some innovation in search UIs for the first time in decades.

Re: Google has already pulled six products in 2023

#45

Post by cultureswitch »

iLoveOncall wrote: post #24

The list is a bit dishonest. Google Code Jam was not a product, and it was an event that was a net loss in terms of revenue, which is hard to justify maintaining when you are cutting thousands of jobs. Google Street View is part of Google Maps, the post even says so. Google OnHub is a one time hardware product. Nobody is blaming Nintendo for killing the Gameboy Color when it stopped producing it. I don't see how any…

Extremely disingenuous point you're making about OnHub. Nintendo didn't remotely remove functionalities from the Gameboy Color. Google did that with OnHub.

Arguing "it's hardware" doesn't work when the features are cloud-based and the company shuts down the servers. It's bait and switch, pure and simple.

Re: Google has already pulled six products in 2023

#46

Post by Paul-Craft »

LeBit wrote: post #34
onion2k wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s interesting to me that they continue to spawn and nix products like this despite the reputation damage it causes. I think the 'problem' is that reputation damage doesn't really impact Google's revenue. They get the overwhelming majority of their money from publishing adverts, with a significant amount on their own properties (search and YouTube). It really doesn't matter if a bunch of gamers decide Stadia screwe…

Google Search is in great perils because of ChatGPT.

That's not a given, since they have their own LLM they presumably have plans to do *something with.

Re: Google has already pulled six products in 2023

#48

Post by criddell »

klabb3 wrote: post #16
cgio wrote: post #2

Is Fuchsia on this list too, even unofficially so?

If I had a penny for every time I hear this.. yes they had big layoffs, but they also hired like crazy for a long time. Fuchsia is maybe 1/4 product and the rest is a long term infrastructure investment. If Google had lost interest they’d have no problem shutting it down by now, for instance stadia rose and fell in a shorter time span than all of fuchsia. I don’t know whether fuchsia will “make it”, heck a frustrated…

> If Google had lost interest they’d have no problem shutting it down by now

It does feel like they’ve lost a lot of interest in Android. It’s too big for Google to just close, but I could see them selling it. If that happens, hopefully it’s to a Microsoft but chances are they will screw us all and sell it to Oracle or Xiaomi.

But there are a lot of things that will die before Android or Fuschia. Here’s a list of 270 Google projects (past and present)[1]. I learned about Google Sunroof through this list (rooftop solar calculator) and it’s pretty neat.

[1]: https://maheshone.com/google-products-and-services/

Re: Google has already pulled six products in 2023

#49

Post by creshal »

Paul-Craft wrote: post #41
bigyikes wrote: post #6

Surely the people working at Google understand how all these shutdowns look to outsiders, right? I have to imagine so… they’re smart people, and a ton of them lurk here on HN. It’s interesting to me that they continue to spawn and nix products like this despite the reputation damage it causes. Anyone wanna bet on if/when Bard gets axed?

> Surely the people working at Google understand how all these shutdowns look to outsiders, right? Yeah, about like this: https://killedbygoogle.com/ I don't really care if Google is unable, unwilling, or uninterested in supporting anything that isn't G-Suite, search, or ads. Their track record is more than enough for me to dismiss using Google Cloud Platform, or even saving anything of any importance to Google Drive…

Even G-Suite isn't really getting that much support, it's on life support at best. There's so many missing features and bugs and just painfully unergonomic workflows that have been ignored for 10+ years at this point; the long overdue and minimal UI facelift recently didn't really solve any pain points.

Re: Google has already pulled six products in 2023

#50

Post by jzb »

ed_mercer wrote: post #28

Why does Google get grilled so badly for pulling products? Don’t other companies do the exact same thing, and isn’t it their full right to abandon projects when it no longer makes sense?

They have a history of pulling projects that people like, and seem capricious / chaotic about it. How many different chat / messaging platforms has Google put out in the last ten years, for example?

Other companies cancel things, but I’m not aware of any that seem to do so as often. Google started developing a reputation for this more than a decade ago and has just kept doing it if not even doing it more often!

Is it Google’s right? This is always a weird question. Sure, it’s their right. It’s also people’s right to criticize them for doing so.

I do question anybody who adopts anything from Google these days. I just have zero confidence that I can expect any new Google product or service to stick around.

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