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“Please let me know if I should stop developing apps for Google Products”

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Re: “Please let me know if I should stop developing apps for Google Products”

#101

Post by rattray »

davidjgraph wrote: post #44

We developed a product specifically for Google Drive using their JavaScript client. We were hoping to make it commercial but had to abandon those plans due to 3 bugs that have been present since around the beginning of 2013. Also, there's no open bug tracker. The developer relations people are very friendly, but when I ask where to report bugs I'm told "just tell me". So every 2 months I've reported the same 3 bugs i…

The instability/unreliability of the Drive API can't be understated. I used to have almost my entire app rely heavily on gdocs, but the api is far too shaky. Even wrapping every API call in a try_5_times function (which would often take 2-3 requests before getting a non-500), server errors would get through. Critical components of the API would go down for hours -- once, the entire day -- sometimes without even a blip on the status page.

While the api is a little funny, it's clearly very powerful. Anyone criticizing the move to work with Google API's at all should keep that in mind. But the nonexistent service and unreliability of the API are hard to overcome.

Re: “Please let me know if I should stop developing apps for Google Products”

#102

Post by rattray »

hrjet wrote: post #57
anuaitt wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That can be done but it will affect user experience right ? Better will be if I stop further registrations for the app.

An alternative: For non-premium users sync every 5 minutes. For premium users sync every minute. Use Indian payment gateways if possible, though Paypal works fine too.

This is exactly what you should do. Your users will understand -- that's why so many have supported you on the googlegroup. Charge $3/mo and you won't hear any complaints (and if you do, you can point to your googlegroup).

This is by far your easiest and clearest path to monetization, at least that I can see. And it seems you're long overdue for monetization.

Re: “Please let me know if I should stop developing apps for Google Products”

#103

Post by znowi »

adestefan wrote: post #89
davidjgraph wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't patronise me. I've been developing commercially for 20 years now, I'm not exactly wet behind the ears, nor easily persuaded by anything but facts. I've evaluated what they are doing on their technical merit. If you want me to give you a detailed explanation of why I prefer their system, it'd probably take about an hour, so it's a bit much as a HN comment. I genuinely think their direction with the API I'm using…

> I've evaluated what they are doing on their technical merit That's your problem. Google is phenomenal on their technical merit. It's the softer, people skills (support, listening to bug reports, etc.) where they constantly shoot themselves in the foot.

> Google is phenomenal on their technical merit

They turn into Microsoft where brilliant engineers are bogged down by corrupt management :)

Re: “Please let me know if I should stop developing apps for Google Products”

#105

Post by e40 »

adestefan wrote: post #89
davidjgraph wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't patronise me. I've been developing commercially for 20 years now, I'm not exactly wet behind the ears, nor easily persuaded by anything but facts. I've evaluated what they are doing on their technical merit. If you want me to give you a detailed explanation of why I prefer their system, it'd probably take about an hour, so it's a bit much as a HN comment. I genuinely think their direction with the API I'm using…

> I've evaluated what they are doing on their technical merit That's your problem. Google is phenomenal on their technical merit. It's the softer, people skills (support, listening to bug reports, etc.) where they constantly shoot themselves in the foot.

Google is phenomenal on their technical merit.

It is precisely technical merit where they fell down and that's why he decided against the development.

Re: “Please let me know if I should stop developing apps for Google Products”

#106

Post by mpyne »

znowi wrote: post #104
pyalot2 wrote: post #51

You should stop developing apps for Google

Or any other PRISM company. Unless you want to aid the NSA.

That effectively means "any other US/UK/AUS/NZ/CAN" company, not just PRISM-interfacing ones.

Re: “Please let me know if I should stop developing apps for Google Products”

#107

Post by nonchalance »

sdfjkl wrote: post #33

If you build something on someone else's API, you can get fucked in a million ways. They might shut down the API (Google Reader), take away the functionality you relied on (Google Calendar), limit it (Twitter) or deprecate the version you're using, forcing you to do development work to keep working at the worst possible time for you (IOS). They might also decide that your product is very good and build a version of i…

> They might also decide that your product is very good and build a version of it themselves, using functions not available to you via the public API so that you cannot compete with it (Apple).

Can you give an example of that?

Re: “Please let me know if I should stop developing apps for Google Products”

#108

Post by wahnfrieden »

nonchalance wrote: post #107
sdfjkl wrote: post #33

If you build something on someone else's API, you can get fucked in a million ways. They might shut down the API (Google Reader), take away the functionality you relied on (Google Calendar), limit it (Twitter) or deprecate the version you're using, forcing you to do development work to keep working at the worst possible time for you (IOS). They might also decide that your product is very good and build a version of i…

> They might also decide that your product is very good and build a version of it themselves, using functions not available to you via the public API so that you cannot compete with it (Apple). Can you give an example of that?

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Re: “Please let me know if I should stop developing apps for Google Products”

#109

Post by mehwoot »

axefrog wrote: post #97
bradleyjg wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a terrible idea. Bitcoin is difficult to use for both buyer and seller, has high transaction costs, and is associated in the minds of many customers with illegal transactions. All that is secondary though to the extreme lack of stability of value, which is pretty important in a medium of exchange. You might as well be telling him to accept tulips.

High transaction costs? Do you have even the slightest idea of what you're talking about? Bitcoin has pretty much the lowest transaction fees of any payment method, and you can even opt out of transaction fees if you're willing to wait slightly longer for processing.

This assumes you already have bitcoins. Like, your job pays you in Bitcoins or something.

Oh, that isn't the case? Well expect to pay a transaction fee on buying bitcoins (about 5.65% where I live last time I checked).

Once everyone uses bitcoins, it will be a different story. Until then, it's pretty much like anything else.

Re: “Please let me know if I should stop developing apps for Google Products”

#110

Post by jpalomaki »

I have a feeling that Google is not very eager on having 3rd party applications running on their "free" (ad supported) platform. One reason could be that while these are useful for customers, they are not really bringing in any money for Google. Obviously good 3rd party apps would certainly help people to stick with Google services but they seem to be doing that anyways.

One drawback in having people build their apps on top of you platform is that then you are stuck with the way things are. If you have popular apps depending on the current task system, you can't just take it away or move it to Google+ (or you can, but then you get lots of whining).

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