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Why I Left Google

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Re: Why I Left Google

#21

Post by AmericanOP »

Google should focus on their product- the search bar.

Google Plus Me should mean I can find anything of mine via the search bar. If I want to find a file on my computer, I should be able to search for it using google.com instead of spotlight. I should be able to do this even if I'm not on my normal machine.

It's not just desktop files. If I want to show my dad pictures of my trip to Cabo, I shouldn't have to log into Facebook, find the always moving Photos app button, find the album, find the picture.

I should be able to search 'My cabo pictures' in Google.

The omnibar should really become omnipotent. That would be compelling, cool, futuristic must-have UX. That's what Google Plus Me means to me.

Re: Why I Left Google

#22

Post by yanw »

vibrunazo wrote: post #14
yanw wrote: post #6

Between attack ads and blog posts it seems like Google is all that Microsoft have to discuss lately. Not sure if Google is flattered by this obsession. Wonder why the author chose not to post on his personal blog, a Microsoft employee bashing Google on an official Microsoft blog rings hollow, specially with the use of the same generic talking points. And using engineers as PR people isn’t the most sepathetic thing ei…

I avoid making generalization and try to stay away of anthropomorphizing companies. But this isn't the first, nor second, nor tenth time I watch Microsoft trying to smear the competition. Which doesn't seem to be common among other companies. It does gives us outsiders the impression that it's part of their company culture to try to sell more by smearing the competition instead of by building better products. How doe…

Not sure about the logistics but when the IE team announced that P3P circumvention "story" through a PR agency, it got me thinking that it's PR initiated. They are in the habit of hiring these firms: http://falkvinge.net/2012/03/02/how-microsoft-pays-big-money...

Re: Why I Left Google

#23

Post by huxley »

pessimist wrote: post #8

Valid reasons to quit Google, but then he joins Microsoft?

He used to work at Microsoft before he joined Google, here's his farewell blog from MS:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/james_whittaker/archive/2009/05/21/t...

He used to work for the Developer Division, was Architect for "Visual Studio Team System – Test Edition", and Chair of the "Quality and Testing Experts Community at Microsoft", so going to MS isn't such a stretch.

Re: Why I Left Google

#24

Post by talmand »

Is it me or does several of his complaints about the overly-aggressive targeted marketing apply to Facebook as well? He must really hate Facebook then. Personally, I think all this targeted stuff is not as good as stated by the people selling it.

I can understand that he felt the need to leave because something changed for him and his attitude towards his employer. But I seem to remember the big statement someone made not too long ago that Google+ was the future of the company and if you didn't like it you were welcome to leave. I suppose he took their advice.

As for any meaning or message one could get out of this about the future of Google, Facebook or even Microsoft; I see very little substance. It's one guy explaining to anyone who wishes to know why he left Google. That's it, let's not make more of this than what it is.

Re: Why I Left Google

#25

Post by talmand »

AmericanOP wrote: post #21

Google should focus on their product- the search bar. Google Plus Me should mean I can find anything of mine via the search bar. If I want to find a file on my computer, I should be able to search for it using google.com instead of spotlight. I should be able to do this even if I'm not on my normal machine. It's not just desktop files. If I want to show my dad pictures of my trip to Cabo, I shouldn't have to log into…

You want to be able to search the files on your computer from another computer over the internet using Google? If such a thing exists, what would you do with it? Are you willing to open your entire hard drive to Google to transfer the found files to the second computer? Really?

Re: Why I Left Google

#26

Post by vineet »

redthrowaway wrote: post #19
vineet wrote: post #12

I am not a Google Employee - but I do want to defend Google here. Yes, Google used to be a technology company that empowered its employees to innovate. However, in the process they built a huge amount of UX Debt. Bad UX was forgivable a few years ago, but that is no longer the case. Google has not figured it out yet, but with the web maturing, I am glad that they are trying to evolve to be a more UX focused company.

I disagree. Search used to be fast and clean. Ditto GMail. Even Maps has gotten slower and more cluttered. Google's recent UI changes are about branding , not UX.

I agree with your points. I categorize them under growing pains. Good UX is not easy - especially when you have such a large number of users and products.

If you look into the reasoning for many of the cluttered items, you will see things like "doing X would make it more readable/useful/etc for the general population".

Perhaps I am just an optimist. My fingers are crossed.

Re: Why I Left Google

#27

Post by mbreese »

pessimist wrote: post #8

Valid reasons to quit Google, but then he joins Microsoft?

Well, say what you will about Microsoft, but their business model is primarily to sell technology. Google's business model is to use technology to sell ads.

Re: Why I Left Google

#28

Post by yanw »

arkitaip wrote: post #18

I think people here are being ungenerous towards the author. Too me this story sounds genuine and not like a pr move dictated by Microsoft. It strikes me to be a personal account by someone who's trying to make sense of the past and actually mourning what he believe is the death of old Google. This deserves our respect as professionals because inevitably we are all going to find ourselves in a similar situation, tryi…

Doesn't seem that genuine posted on a corporate blog.

Re: Why I Left Google

#29

Post by jdpage »

AmericanOP wrote: post #21

Google should focus on their product- the search bar. Google Plus Me should mean I can find anything of mine via the search bar. If I want to find a file on my computer, I should be able to search for it using google.com instead of spotlight. I should be able to do this even if I'm not on my normal machine. It's not just desktop files. If I want to show my dad pictures of my trip to Cabo, I shouldn't have to log into…

They have that: Google Desktop. If I recall correctly, it even lets you do it from your other machines. Admittedly, it's been a while since I've used it, so I might be wrong there.

(Methinks that it would be vastly improved if they got simply got rid of the big clunky desktop widget engine. Possibly even got rid of the search box and just let you use a web view -- as you described above.)

Re: Why I Left Google

#30

Post by JS_startup »

taylorbuley wrote: post #2

> App Engine fees were raised. APIs that had been free for years were deprecated or provided for a fee. From where I'm sitting Google has been pretty rough on independent developers recently. I think their lack of caring (or understanding?) indy devs is best summed up by the Google+ API. Read-only is understandable as they get off their feet, but you can't even get a user's profile stream (you can only fetch profiles…

Google's recent behavior was central in our decision not to embrace their technologies and APIs. If they're going to either be suddenly shut down or have prohibitive, anti-startup pricing applied to them then why should we hitch our wagon to their horse?
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