Google+ Photos Is Shutting Down • Hacker News Board

Re: Google+ Photos Is Shutting Down

#21

Post by aesthetics1 » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 11:13 PM UTC

aaron-lebo wrote: post #12

aesthetics1 wrote: post #8

I imagine in the coming months (years?) we will see Google transition away from Google+ as a catchall platform, and back to standalone solutions similar to their offerings from the pre-Google+ days. A bit off-topic: I think it's the right move for them. Google+ was (and still is) a pretty cool platform. It has a lot of neat features that existing social networks lack. Facebook just somehow holds on to their userbase…

What are some of the parts of G+ that you particularly like?

Location sharing in realtime is one feature my wife and I still use to keep track of each other. Even if I can't answer the phone (in a meeting, didn't hear it go off) she can take a look and see where I am.

Hangouts is great. Remember that Hangouts launched as a part of Google+ before breaking out.

Ironically, Google+ Photos is also one of my favorites. If you snapped photos on a vacation, you may return to find that Google has stitched them together into a "story" -- including where you were when you took photos, who you were with, etc. It's a nice way to relive the memory.

Circles is also a very simple concept for social network security. It's easy to understand, and I like that Google left it out in the open as something you should definitely do. Facebook has a similar feature, but it's not in their best interest to highlight it.

Re: Google+ Photos Is Shutting Down

#22

Post by aesthetics1 » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 11:14 PM UTC

pnathan wrote: post #19

aesthetics1 wrote: post #8

I imagine in the coming months (years?) we will see Google transition away from Google+ as a catchall platform, and back to standalone solutions similar to their offerings from the pre-Google+ days. A bit off-topic: I think it's the right move for them. Google+ was (and still is) a pretty cool platform. It has a lot of neat features that existing social networks lack. Facebook just somehow holds on to their userbase…

I actually have really enjoyed the UI for G+. I think it's really a technically excellent platform that has totally failed to execute well on the userbase side.

I absolutely agree. If my memory serves me correctly, it was the first Google app to feature "cards" -- which has obviously made its way to almost every other IP that Google owns. The UI is slick, and it felt very fresh when it debuted.

Re: Google+ Photos Is Shutting Down

#23

Post by ChrisClark » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 11:21 PM UTC

jaytaylor wrote: post #2

I am curious why they aren't automatically migrating all existing user content from "+Photos" to the new "Photos" service? Seems like it would be an easy win.

They are. It's really just a renaming of the service and putting it on it's own domain.

Re: Google+ Photos Is Shutting Down

#24

Post by prawn » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 11:23 PM UTC

c5karl wrote: post #15

How much longer before they kill Picasa and Picasaweb, which just provide a different UI (and different editing software) for the same archive of photos?

I have never seen Picasa used for anything but spam. Can't think of anyone I know who actually uses it properly.

Re: Google+ Photos Is Shutting Down

#25

Post by tdicola » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 11:24 PM UTC

aesthetics1 wrote: post #8

I imagine in the coming months (years?) we will see Google transition away from Google+ as a catchall platform, and back to standalone solutions similar to their offerings from the pre-Google+ days. A bit off-topic: I think it's the right move for them. Google+ was (and still is) a pretty cool platform. It has a lot of neat features that existing social networks lack. Facebook just somehow holds on to their userbase…

Can they bring Google Reader back now? I'm still bitter about it being killed to focus on Google+. Now that Google+ is dead in the water it makes the decision to kill Reader even worse.

Re: Google+ Photos Is Shutting Down

#26

Post by plorkyeran » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 11:25 PM UTC

saurik wrote: post #17

drivingmenuts wrote: post #14

How many photo products has Google had? Have any of them been successful?

I thought people liked the Picasa app? (But then again, I never used it myself ;P.)

Picasa's an acquisition, and all of the stuff Google added to it was eventually folded into G+ with little fanfare so I'm guessing it wasn't a huge success.

Re: Google+ Photos Is Shutting Down

#27

Post by mod » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 11:27 PM UTC

saurik wrote: post #17

drivingmenuts wrote: post #14

How many photo products has Google had? Have any of them been successful?

I thought people liked the Picasa app? (But then again, I never used it myself ;P.)

I thought picasa was great. I preferred it to other apps in that space, at the time.

I later moved lightroom into my workflow instead, mostly because of quick raw edits.

Re: Google+ Photos Is Shutting Down

#28

Post by vivram » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 11:27 PM UTC

The new google photos is not a complete port of google+ photos. I enjoyed google+ photos. It had a poor man's HDR and a whole lot of other editing features which were functional and useful. They removed them all in the new google photos. Another feature I miss is the auto-panorama feature. I can't see panos generated automatically any more after my account was migrated. Hoping they are brought back soon.

But I still like the idea of forking out the photos. That was the only thing I was using in google+

Re: Google+ Photos Is Shutting Down

#29

Post by jonursenbach » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 11:28 PM UTC

tdicola wrote: post #25

aesthetics1 wrote: post #8

I imagine in the coming months (years?) we will see Google transition away from Google+ as a catchall platform, and back to standalone solutions similar to their offerings from the pre-Google+ days. A bit off-topic: I think it's the right move for them. Google+ was (and still is) a pretty cool platform. It has a lot of neat features that existing social networks lack. Facebook just somehow holds on to their userbase…

Can they bring Google Reader back now? I'm still bitter about it being killed to focus on Google+. Now that Google+ is dead in the water it makes the decision to kill Reader even worse.

Why? Reader was in maintenance mode for years, and companies that appeared when it disappeared have gone above and beyond what they offered. See: Feedly.com

Re: Google+ Photos Is Shutting Down

#30

Post by dragonwriter » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 11:29 PM UTC

blintzing wrote: post #6

jeffgreco wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure they aren't. All of my Google+ photos wound up in Google Photos without any work on my part, other than maybe actually accessing photos.google.com.

Isn't it funny that we're even having this conversation? That Google can offer two products, differentiated by a single character (Google+ Photos and Google Photos), with few obvious indicators as to which I should use? It's confusing to me, but trying to explain it to my mom is absolutely impossible. I wonder whether the average user even knows there's a difference between the two. It's a perfect example of unnecess…

> Isn't it funny that we're even having this conversation? That Google can offer two products, differentiated by a single character (Google+ Photos and Google Photos), with few obvious indicators as to which I should use?

Google Photos was announced May 2015, explicitly as the future of what had been Google+ Photos. It has been clear since then that that's what would be supported going forward, and then Google+ Photos was deprecated legacy.