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Google Memorial: the small museum of projects abandoned by Google

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Re: Google Memorial: the small museum of projects abandoned by Google

#41

Post by gdulli »

raldi wrote: post #28
gdulli wrote: post #18

I've had this persistent nagging feeling that I shouldn't use Google Keep for anything important because it could be gone tomorrow.

The chances of it being "gone" tomorrow are basically zero. The worst thing that could happen tomorrow would be an announcement that in 60 days, no new Keep items could be added, and you'll have a year to download all your old ones as text, HTML, or JSON.

You're right, I meant "gone" in the sense of deprecated more than vanished. The data is safe but the disruption to my workflow would be annoying enough that I'd rather not get too used to it.

Re: Google Memorial: the small museum of projects abandoned by Google

#42

Post by leddt »

jimktrains2 wrote: post #35
jawns wrote: post #26

I was one of the (apparently few) people who used Google Sets a lot. Even though its results were often hit-or-miss, there were enough hits for it to be a valuable resource. And unfortunately, I don't know of any comparable alternative. (But please tell me if you do!) Here is the problem it solved: It let you discover members of a set by entering a few members that you already know. For instance, if you enter "terrie…

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2012/11/google-sets-still-a... It's part of their spreadhseet now. You type things out and drag the items, like you would numbers to count. I too missed sets a lot and was very happy to have found that:)

This no longer works, unfortunately.

Re: Google Memorial: the small museum of projects abandoned by Google

#43

Post by jawns »

raldi wrote: post #32
jawns wrote: post #26

I was one of the (apparently few) people who used Google Sets a lot. Even though its results were often hit-or-miss, there were enough hits for it to be a valuable resource. And unfortunately, I don't know of any comparable alternative. (But please tell me if you do!) Here is the problem it solved: It let you discover members of a set by entering a few members that you already know. For instance, if you enter "terrie…

What were some real-world situations where you used Google Sets? It always seemed to me like a cool toy without much practical use, and certainly not the most worthy sink of a good engineer's limited time.

It's been a few years, so my memory is kind of hazy, but I seem to remember using it for things like:

* I'm trying to remember the acronym of the professional sports league associated with U.S. soccer. I enter: NHL, NBA, NFL.

* I need to think of some consumer brands. I enter: Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson.

* I'm trying to brainstorm female baby names based on Old Testament characters. I enter: Eve, Ruth, Naomi, Esther.

Re: Google Memorial: the small museum of projects abandoned by Google

#44

Post by raldi »

eli wrote: post #37
raldi wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What were some real-world situations where you used Google Sets? It always seemed to me like a cool toy without much practical use, and certainly not the most worthy sink of a good engineer's limited time.

Naming servers. Doesn't matter if you use colors, or star trek characters, or nautical terms: plug the existing servers into a set and get a couple new name suggestions.

That doesn't work if you plug them into regular web search?

Re: Google Memorial: the small museum of projects abandoned by Google

#45

Post by [deleted] »

eli wrote: post #37
raldi wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What were some real-world situations where you used Google Sets? It always seemed to me like a cool toy without much practical use, and certainly not the most worthy sink of a good engineer's limited time.

Naming servers. Doesn't matter if you use colors, or star trek characters, or nautical terms: plug the existing servers into a set and get a couple new name suggestions.

[deleted]

Re: Google Memorial: the small museum of projects abandoned by Google

#47

Post by s_dev »

onion2k wrote: post #10
s_dev wrote: post #5

Google Wave was simply too ahead of it's time. It's funny to see how Slack and HipChat are so similar to it. I recall it's performance being poor and people being a little confused by how much it could do. Google Answers was destroyed by Yahoo Answers - you could see the approach they were going for though - a properly answered question can be shown again and again. SO seemed to strike a balance between the two.

Google Wave was a collaborative editor. It was nothing like Slack or HipChat (unless I've managed to really misunderstand Slack despite building a few things on top of it). It's problem was that it didn't have a purpose - no one really knew what to do with it because a "Wave" was presented an amorphous blob of "knowledge" that people could contribute to at the same time. It was an online notepad, sketchbook, and spre…

It was certainly very like Slack in that it's like a IRC/Forum/IM combo that can integrate with third parties and display almost any content pics, images, vids etc with channels and private messaging for disseminating content by topic. You could describe Slack as a "collaborative" tool as well.

The purpose of Google Wave was basically to be a fancy do all messaging service. Many critics have compared Slack to Google Wave including Hunter Walk an ex YTer and Googler. You can see that Google Wave was probably even more powerful - so powerful that it looked daunting and confusing and people didn't know how to use it.

Re: Google Memorial: the small museum of projects abandoned by Google

#48

Post by logicallee »

Navarr wrote: post #2

I really don't like things like this. A lot of these projects ended up as other projects or built into other projects. Google checkout turned into Google Wallet. Google latitude ended up as part of the Google+ Identity overhaul. There's also a lot of projects that are "labs" or "beta." Clearly they didn't gain the traction Google wanted from them. Google's like any other startup on a project-by-project basis. If the…

I agree. Consumers can't lambast companies for not being innovative or daring enough, if they turn around and rip them a new one if they release anything other than something they're fully behind for 20 years, and either keep everything other than that to themselves or kill it before it gets to that stage.

You can't have it both ways, people.

Re: Google Memorial: the small museum of projects abandoned by Google

#50

Post by dingaling »

logicallee wrote: post #48
Navarr wrote: post #2

I really don't like things like this. A lot of these projects ended up as other projects or built into other projects. Google checkout turned into Google Wallet. Google latitude ended up as part of the Google+ Identity overhaul. There's also a lot of projects that are "labs" or "beta." Clearly they didn't gain the traction Google wanted from them. Google's like any other startup on a project-by-project basis. If the…

I agree. Consumers can't lambast companies for not being innovative or daring enough, if they turn around and rip them a new one if they release anything other than something they're fully behind for 20 years, and either keep everything other than that to themselves or kill it before it gets to that stage. You can't have it both ways, people.

> You can't have it both ways, people.

Of course we can. It's just that companies are now so geared to quarterly roadmaps that nothing has time to gain momentum unless it becomes a phenomenon.

I see this with airlines as well; they launch a route in the middle of winter, or on a business route with schedules that are awkward for meetings, and then can it two months later because 'no-one uses it'. Which dissuades other airlines from trying a more sensible approach.

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