I don't know which is more depressing, Google ruthlessly killing off a valuable service, or people being astonished by their doing so.
Google SMS search has been shut down
41–50 of 59 posts
Re: Google SMS search has been shut down
#42I was always a huge evangelist for this service and it was incredibly useful to so many people I know. I'm both surprised and disappointed to see it go but I guess you can't serve ads via SMS (well, you can, but...).
Orrrr the non sinister explanation, that few use it any more.
Re: Google SMS search has been shut down
#43Wow, from that thread the service looks very useful(even if you have a smartphone with data). Wish I knew about it before the shutdown. I guess such is life in the Googleverse now: if you're unprofitable then you're "distracting us from our core mission". Who wants to make bets on the next service(s) to bite the dust? :)
i can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not - are you honestly complaining that a service you didn't learn about until its shutdown is shutting down? especially a service based on a technology that is clearly not long for this world?
of course things get shut down when they're unprofitable or not aligned with the business strategy. that is the most basic principle of running a business. google isn't running a charity to provide you with obscure and marginally useful services.
Re: Google SMS search has been shut down
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or services that have no future? SMS search is a dead man walking in 2013.
Not in lots of countries.
it's a "dead man walking" everywhere. SMS has no future except death. in some regions that death will come later than others but that doesn't mean we're going to see a great SMS resurgence any time in the near future. nobody cancels their data plan and gets SMS instead.
Re: Google SMS search has been shut down
#45I posted this when it was pulled a couple days ago, to no traction :/ Google says their mission is to 'organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.' To me (and several others who have posted in that forum), this seems to be counterintuitive to that mission. Many people can't afford or don't want to pay for a smartphone or the data plan. When you try using SMS search now, google resp…
What woud you estimate is the number of people traveling with a dumbphone?
Re: Google SMS search has been shut down
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
On the google products forum, someone mentioned that in India, everyone was using this service because it's fairly uncommon to have a data plan. The study you just linked seems to show monthly 3G access at about 8% for urban India. Which seems like a pretty clearcut minority to me.
It isn't about the present numbers, it is about where the numbers are going. Google may have a mission statement of "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful", but clearly that require a company to make decisions. A lot of people would find it useful to have Google physically mail them info, but that isn't efficient or the way of the future. I suspect a lot of people who are lame…
Whether or not that is the trend, it still sucks for the people who used it daily, such as myself. Your reasoning is sound, but that doesn't mean those of us who used it shouldn't be upset, or that those who no have need for it and possibly didn't even know about it until now shouldn't agree that it sounded useful.
I'm not trying to say google owes it to us to keep the service running or anything like that. They're a business and it's their prerogative to make decisions like this. I'm reminded of a Wayne Gretsky quote though, roughly "I don't skate to where the puck is, but where it's going to be." And that's solid reasoning. But from my perspective, with a team as strong as Google's, it wouldn't hurt them to leave a player where the puck is either.
Re: Google SMS search has been shut down
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not in lots of countries.
it's a "dead man walking" everywhere. SMS has no future except death. in some regions that death will come later than others but that doesn't mean we're going to see a great SMS resurgence any time in the near future. nobody cancels their data plan and gets SMS instead.
Well, there are a few exceptions. I did. The tiny amount I use my cellphone I can't really justify a data plan.
Re: Google SMS search has been shut down
#48I posted this when it was pulled a couple days ago, to no traction :/ Google says their mission is to 'organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.' To me (and several others who have posted in that forum), this seems to be counterintuitive to that mission. Many people can't afford or don't want to pay for a smartphone or the data plan. When you try using SMS search now, google resp…
I just wanted to add that, to me, this is a more egregious shutdown than reader. While many on Hacker News (who I'm assuming are more likely to have a smartphone than the average working-class citizen) may not understand this, envision this: You are in an unfamiliar city, attempting to follow directions someone gave you that you scribbled down. You take a wrong turn and wind up in a rough-looking neighborhood at 2 AM…
If this service consumes resources, it kills people in some way or another too. Potential, largely unquantified, outliers aren't a good thing on which to base strategy.
Re: Google SMS search has been shut down
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not in lots of countries.
it's a "dead man walking" everywhere. SMS has no future except death. in some regions that death will come later than others but that doesn't mean we're going to see a great SMS resurgence any time in the near future. nobody cancels their data plan and gets SMS instead.
Whenever I want to send something to someone I know, it's an SMS. I can't imagine going into my browser, going to the facebook website, copying and pasting my long password in from the keepass app, looking their name up, opening the message interface....
When I can just click the SMS button, click their picture and go.
People may not cancel their data and get SMS instead but I don't really see SMS going away in any sort of a hurry.
Re: Google SMS search has been shut down
#50Are Google having cashflow problems? How come they're shutting down so many of their services?
This seems to be a common theme after Larry Page took over as CEO. Instead of having lots of small, separate things, everything seems to be moving towards having less, but larger services. Probably one of the better examples is google+, along with google now. It will be interesting to see what Larry's end vision is.