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Google is shutting down Area 120’s popular ‘Rivet’ kids reading app

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Re: Google is shutting down Area 120’s popular ‘Rivet’ kids reading app

#11

Post by systemvoltage »

shacrw wrote: post #3

Google has no brand sense left. This is an app used by so many kids, who love it, and they are shutting it down. Instead they shouldn't have launched it. I understand user studies, but this makes no sense. And no matter how they brand it ( they literally opened a new division Area 120) which speacializes in killing products. lol), this is BS. Where's the product strategy? vision? If they wanted to study the demand an…

Sundar Pichai has no sense of leadership skills that I can note from outside of the company. He exudes no passion, no sense of optimism, and completely lacks vision. I’ve seen him speak at Google I/O and time and again, it’s just AI and people.

He needs to turn Google’s brand into Goodwill. Like Nike did. Like Apple did. Like his predecessors at Google did.

Pardon me if this is harsh, but literally being honest how I feel.

Sundar feels like an immature executive when it comes to building an image about himself and the company. Wallstreet probably likes his results and growth numbers, but there is more to stock price and performance to running a company. When he is gone, his successors will feel the pain and debt he has left behind.

Re: Google is shutting down Area 120’s popular ‘Rivet’ kids reading app

#12

Post by shacrw »

systemvoltage wrote: post #11
shacrw wrote: post #3

Google has no brand sense left. This is an app used by so many kids, who love it, and they are shutting it down. Instead they shouldn't have launched it. I understand user studies, but this makes no sense. And no matter how they brand it ( they literally opened a new division Area 120) which speacializes in killing products. lol), this is BS. Where's the product strategy? vision? If they wanted to study the demand an…

Sundar Pichai has no sense of leadership skills that I can note from outside of the company. He exudes no passion, no sense of optimism, and completely lacks vision. I’ve seen him speak at Google I/O and time and again, it’s just AI and people. He needs to turn Google’s brand into Goodwill. Like Nike did. Like Apple did. Like his predecessors at Google did. Pardon me if this is harsh, but literally being honest how I…

Not harsh at all. I follow Google very closely. At one point literally 5-10 consecutive speeches/ keynotes/ interviews by Pichai over a period of 3 years appeared to be the same charismaless, PR written statements. It's fine if it's the same thing (in case you want to articulate a particular vision), the problem is it's dull, boring, no vision at all. Pichai is hailed as a great PM for stuff like Chrome etc.

But I don't see what he has brought to the table as the CEO. I feel like Google has a lot of great engineers who've stuck around for 15-20 years, that's their core asset, but they need more direction, vision, strategy. Apple has a solid team of designers and product people who've stuck around for decades. Google needs more product people or more importantly a strong directive from the top (Pichai) to dominate in an area like hardware, AR.

Like one thing which I am especially baffled by is Google's lack of action in the AR space. Meanwhile, Apple's been ramping up small acquistions over the past 3-4 years to assemble solid talent,IP. It's going to take a lot of time for Google to catch up in AR.

Re: Google is shutting down Area 120’s popular ‘Rivet’ kids reading app

#13

Post by nelaboras »

The sentiments here seem to be generally "Why launch anything at all" or "Stop killing things". I think there's a middle ground that google doesn't seem to see: if there are passionate people involved, why not let these things grow on their own? Spin them out, give the lead developers a paid year off in return for a 10% equity stake or similar. Or if no one wants it, why not sell/gift it? Why throw all this potential away?

Re: Google is shutting down Area 120’s popular ‘Rivet’ kids reading app

#14

Post by capableweb »

ZainRiz wrote: post #10

Area 120 is not "real" google. It's Google's startup incubator, kind of like an internal YCombinator. Most Area 120 projects get killed by design if they don't show enough success early on. Using an Area 120 product is like using a new Product Hunt product: You have to realize the Lindy Effect applies

That's probably the idea, but if you have any sense (and experience of using Google for 10+ years) left, you treat anything Google like using a new Product Hunt product. If you're expecting anything long-term from them at all, you're soon in for a surprise.

Re: Google is shutting down Area 120’s popular ‘Rivet’ kids reading app

#15

Post by bobthepanda »

ZainRiz wrote: post #10

Area 120 is not "real" google. It's Google's startup incubator, kind of like an internal YCombinator. Most Area 120 projects get killed by design if they don't show enough success early on. Using an Area 120 product is like using a new Product Hunt product: You have to realize the Lindy Effect applies

I‘m sure the children using this app know all about Google‘s internal divisions.

Re: Google is shutting down Area 120’s popular ‘Rivet’ kids reading app

#17

Post by ashtonkem »

nelaboras wrote: post #13

The sentiments here seem to be generally "Why launch anything at all" or "Stop killing things". I think there's a middle ground that google doesn't seem to see: if there are passionate people involved, why not let these things grow on their own? Spin them out, give the lead developers a paid year off in return for a 10% equity stake or similar. Or if no one wants it, why not sell/gift it? Why throw all this potential…

The core problem is that Google has absolutely destroyed their good will. Most people seem to assume that new Google services will either be awful, or be awesome and then immediately cancelled.

Google needs to focus on rebuilding trust. Nothing else matters.

Re: Google is shutting down Area 120’s popular ‘Rivet’ kids reading app

#18

Post by ashtonkem »

ZainRiz wrote: post #10

Area 120 is not "real" google. It's Google's startup incubator, kind of like an internal YCombinator. Most Area 120 projects get killed by design if they don't show enough success early on. Using an Area 120 product is like using a new Product Hunt product: You have to realize the Lindy Effect applies

Don’t care. It’s got the Google name attached to it, the negative association accumulates to google itself.

“But it’s an internal incubator” is meaningless to both me, and end consumers.

Re: Google is shutting down Area 120’s popular ‘Rivet’ kids reading app

#19

Post by brian_herman »

bobthepanda wrote: post #15
ZainRiz wrote: post #10

Area 120 is not "real" google. It's Google's startup incubator, kind of like an internal YCombinator. Most Area 120 projects get killed by design if they don't show enough success early on. Using an Area 120 product is like using a new Product Hunt product: You have to realize the Lindy Effect applies

I‘m sure the children using this app know all about Google‘s internal divisions.

now they will remember that google kills products.. unfortunately it's happening to an educational product that many of them love and use to learn
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