Live data from Hacker News

Why Google+ Failed

onezero.medium.com

11–20 of 375 posts

Re: Why Google+ Failed

#11
post #9

I am sorry for the off topic comment but I can't even read this article because medium now shows me a "Sign up for an extra read" popup without any way of closing it. Medium is going so down the tubes, it's become impossible for me to read anything there. Does anyone have a way to bypass the sign up pop up?

Any article there does not deserve to be read. You are not missing anything

Re: Why Google+ Failed

#12

>Project Hancock was the internal code name of the project designed to do this. It was going to set up a Google Plus account for every Google user. This is actually much more complicated than it sounds; it took a team of engineers somewhere around three months to accomplish it. What this bit glosses over is the PR disaster that was Google forcing Google+ down the throats of its unwilling users. For example, for years…

This, Google was shoving the Hancock down to every Google user.

It didn't just die by itself. Google Talk was killed with Google+ too. It was a functional, no-nonsense IM that just worked and worked everywhere. After they engulfed this into Google+, it just became a bloated monstrosity that no one could understand. Remember when it suggested you every Google+ user when you tried to type a friend's name in Hangouts? Yeah... that was pretty fucked up.

I am just amazed that Youtube didn't die with it after it was used as a gateway to Google+.

Re: Why Google+ Failed

#13

>Project Hancock was the internal code name of the project designed to do this. It was going to set up a Google Plus account for every Google user. This is actually much more complicated than it sounds; it took a team of engineers somewhere around three months to accomplish it. What this bit glosses over is the PR disaster that was Google forcing Google+ down the throats of its unwilling users. For example, for years…

This along with the forced YouTube integration were particularly egregious. Then there was the bit where they started forcing people to use real names. Overall they showed zero respect for their users and people deserted them accordingly.

Re: Why Google+ Failed

#14
post #9

I am sorry for the off topic comment but I can't even read this article because medium now shows me a "Sign up for an extra read" popup without any way of closing it. Medium is going so down the tubes, it's become impossible for me to read anything there. Does anyone have a way to bypass the sign up pop up?

Any article there does not deserve to be read. You are not missing anything

That's not fair. Medium's content is community contributed. There's a lot of value in there. Let's not throw the baby with the water.

Re: Why Google+ Failed

#15
post #9

I am sorry for the off topic comment but I can't even read this article because medium now shows me a "Sign up for an extra read" popup without any way of closing it. Medium is going so down the tubes, it's become impossible for me to read anything there. Does anyone have a way to bypass the sign up pop up?

I don't think there's any way around that pop up on a mobile browser.

Re: Why Google+ Failed

#16
post #9

I am sorry for the off topic comment but I can't even read this article because medium now shows me a "Sign up for an extra read" popup without any way of closing it. Medium is going so down the tubes, it's become impossible for me to read anything there. Does anyone have a way to bypass the sign up pop up?

I got around it by requesting desktop version. Markup on Medium clearly fails for mobile Firefox.

Re: Why Google+ Failed

#17

>Project Hancock was the internal code name of the project designed to do this. It was going to set up a Google Plus account for every Google user. This is actually much more complicated than it sounds; it took a team of engineers somewhere around three months to accomplish it. What this bit glosses over is the PR disaster that was Google forcing Google+ down the throats of its unwilling users. For example, for years…

> I took that as a personal affront You're not the only one, and I wonder how much that feeling contributed to the failure of Google+. Because the harder Google tried to shove it down my throat, the more I resented it and swore to myself that I wouldn't touch it.

Yep. It also happened around the same time when they ditched Reader. I never used Reader and don't care too much personally, but it seems they angered a small but vocal community that felt they were sacrificed for Google+.

Re: Why Google+ Failed

#18
Computer networking in general and social apps in particular are still young, in civilization's history. We are still figuring this out. Maybe in a hundred years we will have a good grasp of what works. If the writer is right, then Google Plus's lack of traction was from the interaction among several subtle ingredients.

Re: Why Google+ Failed

#19
post #10

Turns out "engineered social interactions" is indeed an oxymoron. Also, Google's work structure where most product leads don't have dedicated tech teams but instead have to win over tech groups to work on their projects result in too much technocracy and too little empathy in projects like this. Can't say I feels sorry for them though. Google masqueraded itself as an idealistic company and a champion of the internet…

It’s “don’t be evil”, not “do no evil”. There’s a subtle but important difference.

Re: Why Google+ Failed

#20
post #12

>Project Hancock was the internal code name of the project designed to do this. It was going to set up a Google Plus account for every Google user. This is actually much more complicated than it sounds; it took a team of engineers somewhere around three months to accomplish it. What this bit glosses over is the PR disaster that was Google forcing Google+ down the throats of its unwilling users. For example, for years…

This, Google was shoving the Hancock down to every Google user. It didn't just die by itself. Google Talk was killed with Google+ too. It was a functional, no-nonsense IM that just worked and worked everywhere. After they engulfed this into Google+, it just became a bloated monstrosity that no one could understand. Remember when it suggested you every Google+ user when you tried to type a friend's name in Hangouts? Y…

> This, Google was shoving the Hancock down to every Google user.

My brain read that as "down every Google user's throat", and I got an idea why they decided to name it that.

Post reply on HN