My kneejerk reaction is to wonder when this will go the way of Google Wave and Google Reader.
If you think it's interesting, better go ahead and use it now then. Otherwise, if it's canceled, you'll never even know if you would have been missing it.
Introducing Google Helpouts
51–60 of 120 posts
Re: Introducing Google Helpouts
#52Reader derangement syndrome strikes again. Summarizing the thread, if you're are an early adopter of anything, you run the risk it won't be here in a year. That's what we tolerate in the tech arena, start ups throwing lots of good and dumb ideas at the wall to see what sticks, evolution in action. How many people who built their business on Facebook's F8 platform went belly up due to changes? Google is a company that…
> It's really sad we've forgotten that. I don't think anyone's forgotten; we forgive small companies for trying-and-failing to do something cool all the time. For some reason, though, we (as an angry mob) seem to be incapable of allowing big companies to try-and-fail at exactly the same sorts of things. (Personally, I think it might have something to do with how ancestral-environment humans saw leaders making promise…
I think it's because we expect start-ups to fail, most of them do.
Big companies fail, too, but less often, because they once were part of the few start-ups who didn't fail.
If you want high-end and are happy to live with the risk, you go to a start-up.
If you want safety and are happy to live with a more conservative approach, you go to a big company.
If the big one fails, you feel robbed of your safety.
Re: Introducing Google Helpouts
#53Reader derangement syndrome strikes again. Summarizing the thread, if you're are an early adopter of anything, you run the risk it won't be here in a year. That's what we tolerate in the tech arena, start ups throwing lots of good and dumb ideas at the wall to see what sticks, evolution in action. How many people who built their business on Facebook's F8 platform went belly up due to changes? Google is a company that…
Failure is an acceptable risk to move forward.
It's certainly an acceptable risk for Google and other companies like FB - the short-term cost of innovation for Google is pretty close to zero. The long-term cost of reputation is perhaps something they're only now starting to realise.
Whether it's an acceptable risk for the users of these services is up to them, and many of them are deciding it is not, because these services can be so easily closed. Sounds fair to me.
I don't think anyone's forgotten the cost of innovation, they're simply aware that the costs of it are borne by users, not by Google.
Re: Introducing Google Helpouts
#54Reader derangement syndrome strikes again. Summarizing the thread, if you're are an early adopter of anything, you run the risk it won't be here in a year. That's what we tolerate in the tech arena, start ups throwing lots of good and dumb ideas at the wall to see what sticks, evolution in action. How many people who built their business on Facebook's F8 platform went belly up due to changes? Google is a company that…
Failure is an acceptable risk to move forward. It's certainly an acceptable risk for Google and other companies like FB - the short-term cost of innovation for Google is pretty close to zero. The long-term cost of reputation is perhaps something they're only now starting to realise. Whether it's an acceptable risk for the users of these services is up to them, and many of them are deciding it is not, because these se…
Whether it's an acceptable risk for the users of these services is up to them, and many of them are deciding it is not, because these services can be so easily closed
Yeah, Reader was closed just eight years after it launched. I didn't even had time to import all my feeds.
Re: Introducing Google Helpouts
#55My take on this is that Google is using Helpouts to figure out - what are the queries people cannot use Google for.
Re: Introducing Google Helpouts
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I wonder if enough people avoid new Google products due to shutdown fears [...] I doubt it. That attitude is mostly a HN/geek thing. I like that they're willing to try things and test for viability in the real world. I'd rather have something and for it go away than to never have it at all. (And yes, I do understand the frustrations with Reader but I wouldn't go back in time and never use it from the start)
This wasn't about Reader specifically. Google has shutdown a lot of products. The latest being Google Checkout, which makes people nervous of building their business on Google's software. Since this service is paid, I could be netting a lot of money through it, only for it to fizzle out.
Yeah, Google Checkout only lasted seven years. I could barely make an account, and it was closed!
Re: Introducing Google Helpouts
#57Looks good but just not something that fits Google's DNA. A smaller & hungrier startup could have been a better place for this kind of marketplace
I agree, if nothing else because it'll probably need support to work properly, and calling Google's support non-existent would be an understatement.
Re: Introducing Google Helpouts
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
This wasn't about Reader specifically. Google has shutdown a lot of products. The latest being Google Checkout, which makes people nervous of building their business on Google's software. Since this service is paid, I could be netting a lot of money through it, only for it to fizzle out.
> Since this service is paid, I could be netting a lot of money through it, only for it to fizzle out. But that's true of any service from any company. If I'm a stay-at-home mom making some extra cash on Helpouts, I have a very different risk profile than a doctor who closes down his practice to see patients exclusively through Helpouts. The stay-at-home mom might not be happy about a shutdown but she still "[netted]…
> get some contractual guarantees and be confident that they fill be fulfilled.
In that case, no services that Google offers should be used. They don’t give any guarantees, not even to their paying customers.
Re: Introducing Google Helpouts
#59For anyone interested in a tech specific version of this there is a site http://anyfu.com/ (I'm a fan but not associated).
I believe this model for connecting people for very brief engagements over the internet is an interesting one. With the educational model being pushed by companies like Coursera I could see something like this becoming popular for access to tutors or even peers studying the same subject. For quick help solving a problem there is obviously a problem of getting to sufficient scale in a 2-sided market place. Perhaps google will achieve that. I suppose the risk is becoming the yahoo answers or the expersexchange of the space.
Re: Introducing Google Helpouts
#60This would help with the times I've just wanted to ask someone "so, does this shirt actually go with these pants, or am I totally crazy?" All joking aside, this could be interesting. It makes me think of that service that existed for a while where you could ask a question of a topic area, and it would send an IM to people and ask them to answer it. I forget what it was called, but I used it for a little while. The pa…
Said doctor should come to you, as is customary in many countries. Instead, in the US you have to drag your sick self in to see a physician. And pay a boatload for a 5 minute consult; ridiculous.