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Google's Decline Really Bugs Me

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Re: Google's Decline Really Bugs Me

#151

Post by vdaniuk »

chrissnell wrote: post #108
alaskamiller wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While eating my second dinner plate of something delicious on the campus I looked around and saw how many children and families were around. The company provides, so much, for you, for your family. You wouldn't to ever lose what you have now gotten used to, for yourself, for your family. So now you become a company man. What's good for the company must be good for you. What's good about knowing more people, how they…

I don't know if you served or if you were just alluding to it but your last point got me thinking: In the Army, I lived the most barebones kind of lifestyle and did a job that often put my family through hell but was buoyed by the feeling that I was part of the most noble of professions. In this industry, I've provided incredible privilege, comfort, and stability for my family but have always felt that this industry…

Is this sarcasm? Do you really consider being in the Army a noble profession? And do you think that the software industry serves humanity in general less than military industry?

Re: Google's Decline Really Bugs Me

#152

Post by raverbashing »

petercooper wrote: post #148
raverbashing wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The company provides, so much, for you, for your family. You wouldn't to ever lose what you have now gotten used to, for yourself, for your family" Ah, the infamous golden cage At times like this I'm so glad I didn't join Google. And by join I mean I wasn't approved in their dysfunctional interview system.

We all live in cages, all that varies is how golden they are and how big they are.

Sure. But yeah, I'll take money and a healthier work/life balance than free laundry so I could stay 12h a day making something that people will hate but will drive their agenda.

Re: Google's Decline Really Bugs Me

#153

Post by bruceboughton »

alaskamiller wrote: post #142
Donwangugi wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imo. The difference is the control Steve had over the company when he was alive. At Google, despite how well run the company is, you really do not know the direction or vision for the company although everything _seems_ really cool. Where as at Apple, the idea is you were sacrificing in order to help Steve achieve _his_ vision.

Been at Apple and at Google. Googlers annoy me endlessly because everyone knows the mission and everyone thinks they're on the same mission. Even if their job is indirectly related or even if what they're doing is potentially evil. They all believe they are changing the world. It's what they tell their aging hippie parents when they visit, it's what they brainwash the legions of school children that visit, it's what…

Everyone is pompous about someone.

I'm a Londoner; I'm pompous about out-of-towners. Out-of-towners are pompous about Londoners.

Disdain makes the world go round.

Re: Google's Decline Really Bugs Me

#154

Post by mebesilly »

chrissnell wrote: post #108
alaskamiller wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While eating my second dinner plate of something delicious on the campus I looked around and saw how many children and families were around. The company provides, so much, for you, for your family. You wouldn't to ever lose what you have now gotten used to, for yourself, for your family. So now you become a company man. What's good for the company must be good for you. What's good about knowing more people, how they…

I don't know if you served or if you were just alluding to it but your last point got me thinking: In the Army, I lived the most barebones kind of lifestyle and did a job that often put my family through hell but was buoyed by the feeling that I was part of the most noble of professions. In this industry, I've provided incredible privilege, comfort, and stability for my family but have always felt that this industry…

"I was part of the most noble of professions. " Sarcasm is not necessary :-(

Re: Google's Decline Really Bugs Me

#155

Post by swombat »

yapcguy wrote: post #137
css771 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well for me personally, it's been a long series of small stuff that convinced me that they were an engineering organization first and a for-profit company next. I remember when Android 2.3 was released and at one of the Google dev conferences, a Google engineer answering a question about why "X feature doesn't exist in stock Anroid" answered that Google thought that was too confusing for the lay user and that one cou…

What does all this say about Larry Page? He gave a speech recently where he actually pondered why people wouldn't want to have their health care data public, so it could be shared to advance medical research. From that I could tell that he's completely out of touch with ordinary people. He simply has no idea that people might be scared of losing their job or being discriminated against because of an illness. Reminds…

Making the healthcare data public in an anonymised format would not affect people's jobs, unless there is some property of that data that makes it easily identifiable.

Re: Google's Decline Really Bugs Me

#156

Post by acchow »

chrissnell wrote: post #108
alaskamiller wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While eating my second dinner plate of something delicious on the campus I looked around and saw how many children and families were around. The company provides, so much, for you, for your family. You wouldn't to ever lose what you have now gotten used to, for yourself, for your family. So now you become a company man. What's good for the company must be good for you. What's good about knowing more people, how they…

I don't know if you served or if you were just alluding to it but your last point got me thinking: In the Army, I lived the most barebones kind of lifestyle and did a job that often put my family through hell but was buoyed by the feeling that I was part of the most noble of professions. In this industry, I've provided incredible privilege, comfort, and stability for my family but have always felt that this industry…

Take a moment and reflect on this - when you hold a gun in service, it's to point it at someone else.

I hardly believe that the group of people who benefit from software is smaller than the group of people on this side of your barrel.

Re: Google's Decline Really Bugs Me

#157

Post by buyx »

Google has always had a massive weakness: feedback.

Feedback on products is atrocious -Google Now on my iPhone shows me a route home that would send me the wrong way up a freeway, and I don't know where to report it. Years ago, I ran into a serious issue with Google Desktop, and the bug was poorly documented.

Their maps data in Johannesburg has some annoying data issues, and is rewriting the geography of the city, because it is relied on by third party sites. They do respond to some Maps reports, and other problems can be fixed in Map Maker, but some are too big.

The common thread in these problems is that Google has very poor feedback mechanisms - a problem that has existed for years. Given their success in organising data, you'd think there would be a way for them to handle feedback efficiently, and in a standardised way across products. But feedback doesn't seem to be a priority. A few months ago, HN became an unofficial support board, with various tales of woe posted here, and then fixed by Googlers

If they get their feedback and bug reporting right, I'd be willing to cut them some slack: as a company, they aren't particularly abusive. Wanting to clean up YouTube comments is commendable and overdue, and their search engine remains very useful. It's easy enough to lock down a Google+ profile if you want, and to tweak Gmail to be less annoying.

Re: Google's Decline Really Bugs Me

#158

Post by davidgerard »

pjmlp wrote: post #138
philwelch wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was never illusioned about Google in the first place. This is not disillusionment. I just never expected them to turn into Microsoft .

All companies do when they reach a certain market size. I still remember the days when almost all geeks I knew would dream for a job at Microsoft.

This is a key point: they're not doing that so much for Google any more.

I have friends at Google, they love it and have suggested I put in my CV. (No chance. I don't have a degree and my algorithmic insight is terrible.) But, ehh. An advertising agency with lovely working conditions and smart people to be around, and it's not like I wanted to see my kid anyway. OH WAIT.

Re: Google's Decline Really Bugs Me

#159

Post by davidgerard »

matthewmacleod wrote: post #38

What's with the sudden outpouring of Google-hate of late? I totally get that Google is changing, and has been doing so for a while. But I don't see that as "evil," and I'm struggling to see why anybody would. Google around maybe five or six years ago was a wasteland of shoddy, broken, unintegrated products, many with half-assed, confusing interfaces. That's been tightened up - many of their products are now substanti…

The watershed moment was a couple of years ago, when they introduced G+ and pushed hard on the Real Names policy for it.

They alienated a shitload of techies, and all those early adopters' friends, and blew thirteen years' accumulated good will in about two months. This was the point at which G+ would never, ever compete head-on with Facebook as an actual social network.

What's happening now is they just did another burst of that and alienated a much wider crowd of people. More people are seeing the mask crack.

Re: Google's Decline Really Bugs Me

#160

Post by [deleted] »

chrissnell wrote: post #108
alaskamiller wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While eating my second dinner plate of something delicious on the campus I looked around and saw how many children and families were around. The company provides, so much, for you, for your family. You wouldn't to ever lose what you have now gotten used to, for yourself, for your family. So now you become a company man. What's good for the company must be good for you. What's good about knowing more people, how they…

I don't know if you served or if you were just alluding to it but your last point got me thinking: In the Army, I lived the most barebones kind of lifestyle and did a job that often put my family through hell but was buoyed by the feeling that I was part of the most noble of professions. In this industry, I've provided incredible privilege, comfort, and stability for my family but have always felt that this industry…

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