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Google is about to learn a tough lesson

blog.calbucci.com

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Re: Google is about to learn a tough lesson

#191
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're using a gmail domain email, setup auto reply/forwarding for a few months/indefinitely. Businesses would largely be using their own domains, so the point is moot.

If you forwards emails through gmail then Google still gets your data.

Only what doesn't go directly to your new email yet.

Re: Google is about to learn a tough lesson

#193
- Reader wars start again. This can be a big positive from this news. Already people are finding new readers to meet their needs. It will drive innovation and I expect to see some great products coming in.

- As many people know things were pretty stagnant on Google Reader. Though it worked for a lot of us, products like Google+ were always going to get more focus. In this way Google might have done us a service by retiring a product it was not developing fully.

- Wonder if the product name was a limitation in itself. Google Reader was always going to be a reader even if you add social stuff into it. If that is the case, maybe they should rename Google Finance to Google Money!

- People are asking if we can trust with Google on providing all these free services. Pragmatic among us say "NO" and will remind us that they have been saying this for ages. Optimistic among us say, well "Gmail", "Youtube" etc. are for "forever".

- Most people like Google services because it means "one login", and it goes all the way to help Android as well. Even if some people are considering their relationships with Google, it is not in Google's best interests.

- Another side effect of the above is - what happens on next spring cleaning? Should I wait to use a product until that product acquires enough momentum? I will be a bit more hesitant to recommend other Google products.

- There is a debate going on between free and paid services. I think it is more about getting a right business model. Services can fail even if you pay them. Most people are not going to pay more than $5/$10 a month for a service like this.

- A big opportunity for a company like Yahoo to get an app for all the devices, and among the influencers. I will be surprised if they don't try to raise their game on readers and provide a better "Google Reader". (this advice is for other companies as well, however I believe, yahoo, will be the one to grab it.)

- Was a bit surprised with all the bitching going on at hacker news. I mean, let them close it, we will have another one or built a new one! And, no petitions please.

Re: Google is about to learn a tough lesson

#194
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> RSS is dead What other technology is pervasively available to subscribe to discretized rich text articles, that will automatically fetch new entries, and maintain a history of viewed / favorited articles? RSS serves a very critical function on the Internet - automated retrieval of content from dedicated sources picked by a user. It was never a "platform" or a business model. It is syndication. The end. Everything f…

> So RSS will always have a place. Indeed, > but it's not a hot technology around which you can build a business on the scale that will move needles for Google.

Not a hot technology? It is widely used by science and technology leaders who have to stay on top of the literature in their field. We're talking heads of $10M research programs, principal investigators, conference organizers, and so forth.

Google could have kept it around just to sell Apps to C*Os. "Apps is like Reader for secretaries."

Re: Google is about to learn a tough lesson

#195

I guess they're doing everything they can to get everyone to Google+. If they can't bait you, they force you. They want their own Facebook. Probably Blogger will also be phased out as soon as they afford to. But I don't think the future will belong neither to Google+ nor Facebook. I'm looking forward to a descentralized, user centric platform, that anyone can run on its raspberry pi box at home, that allows you to ma…

the thing is I quite like G+. I'm not a heavy user, it has flaws, but I am interested in what they are doing with it. If they were folding Reader into it in some meaningful way, I would feel a lot better about it.

Sure, it's far more efficient and profitable to make an integrated platform with all major features at hand, I'm for that too, what bothers me is that I don't have full control over my data.

Re: Google is about to learn a tough lesson

#197
It's very easy to make up a story like the one about MS Word after the event. Not so easy to predict in advance who these influencers are, who they influence, and if they exist in the first place. Duncan Watts has researched this and there's an interview here. http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/scientist-in...

" They throw parties or they give away free samples or they advertise in particular publications that brand themselves as reaching an influential audience and run some campaign in their normal manner. And if it works, they say, "We reached the influencers." And if it doesn't work, they say "We didn't reach the influencers" or "We weren't able to make them help us." In that sense, it's just a rhetorical device to help you explain the randomness that you actually experience in the world. "

Re: Google is about to learn a tough lesson

#198

So, what's going to happen, exactly? "Influencers" who liked Google Reader, now jilted, are going to use their magic influence beam to halt the growth of Android, to erode the dominance of Google in search, and prevent the regulatory approval of self-driving cars? Google has quite a few heavy responsibilities on their hands. They have to manage growth and competition in hugely complex, emerging fields. The lesson the…

The point is that the 'influencers' will be aware of alternatives and are vocal about it. If you use a service of google's because there is another service of gooogle's that you use a lot - the tie is a lot looser, and when people are suggested alternatives it becomes a lot easier for them to move away. While looking for a google reader alternative I ended up finding out about owncloud and now I use that to manage an…

It made me look into Bing and the new Live. I like the web-based Office apps better than the Google equivalents, and Bing produces more of the kind of results I look for. I was among those who pushed Google early on, helped people get away from IE (to Firefox, and later Chrome), and talked up Gmail from the moment they let me in.

I won't ditch gmail for what it handles for now, but who knows what things will look like five years from now. Outlook's aliases are much easier to manage than a bunch of account+word@gmail pairs.

Re: Google is about to learn a tough lesson

#199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like self driving cars and Google Glass? Or the cheap/free fiber optic Internet access? Or free Wi-Fi in NYC? I do not think you know what evil means...

Like self driving cars and Google Glass? Or the cheap/free fiber optic Internet access? Or free Wi-Fi in NYC? Self driving cars, like this http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57367893-71/a-self-driving... or http://money.cnn.com/2013/01/04/autos/toyota-self-driving-ca... or http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2416535,00.asp ? Tell me what's so amazing, never done before, about Glass? Google is seeing ads there. Fiber…

The claim was that Google was moving away from products with a "relaxed attitude about making money", not "amazing, never done before", and the examples show they aren't.

until Google pulls the plug. That's the point.

Google has always done that. I don't understand where the rose colored glasses about Schmidt's time come from.

Re: Google is about to learn a tough lesson

#200
post #64
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

wait... your saying that because they are discontinuing a product? I'm not suggesting that google is/isn't evil these days, but I would suggest that there is absolutely no moral aspect to discontinuing a feed reader.

"discontinuing a product" I guess you need to unpack what that product was. It was loss-leading free product that killed the ecosystem that proceeded it. That whole 'embrace, extend, extinguish' thing is what many people are decrying as a tad 'evil'.

What Google did, evil or not, was not EEE. The purpose of EEE was to kill only the competitors' product, not their own, by extending it and making everyone else incompatible with the new formats and/or protocols. That's not what Google did here.
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