The Great Google Goat Rodeo • Hacker News Board

Re: The Great Google Goat Rodeo

#11

Post by mankyd » Wed, May 22, 2013, 3:34 PM UTC

jtbigwoo wrote: post #9

mankyd wrote: post #4

"Their design ability might be improving, but again and again they show a lack of editing — they lack the ability to be selective about their product portfolio." This statement seems strange to me, being as the the prior paragraphs were about Google shuttering many of their products. Google may not have historically had great "editing" but they seem to be getting there. They're discontinuing products that they don't…

Editing takes place before publishing, not after. A newspaper that prints a dozen retractions per day is not well edited.

A fair point, but as they learn to edit, they can't leave what they consider to be unsuccessful products in place either. Unlike publishing, product development isn't static.

Re: The Great Google Goat Rodeo

#12

Post by ndesaulniers » Wed, May 22, 2013, 3:42 PM UTC

scottyallen wrote: post #2

Based on the title, I assumed this was referring to Google's ACTUAL goat rodeo: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/mowing-with-goats.htm...

Or the goat teleporter: http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=31482

Re: The Great Google Goat Rodeo

#13

Post by fraserharris » Wed, May 22, 2013, 3:44 PM UTC

Google doesn't force you to use Google+ as a social network, it forces you to create a profile so it can unify identity across Google accounts.

Re: The Great Google Goat Rodeo

#14

Post by iamwil » Wed, May 22, 2013, 3:46 PM UTC

Wait. But that's what innovation cycle looks like. You try a bunch of stuff, and most of it fails.

Re: The Great Google Goat Rodeo

#15

Post by lawdawg » Wed, May 22, 2013, 3:55 PM UTC

iamwil wrote: post #14

Wait. But that's what innovation cycle looks like. You try a bunch of stuff, and most of it fails.

Seriously, name me one successful company that doesn't have a host of failures and cancelled products attached to their name.

I much prefer Google launch a ton of products and only focuses on the one's that "stick" because I know they will generally create an incredibly good product once they are fully invested in it (see Android, Chrome, GMail, Docs, Analytics, etc).

Re: The Great Google Goat Rodeo

#16

Post by jtbigwoo » Wed, May 22, 2013, 3:57 PM UTC

rasterizer wrote: post #6

I'm not quite sure what the author is going on about in that post: 'google is good but they make money so they're not good', 'google makes lots of products, then kills some of them so they're evil', 'google design is not perfect so I don't like them'. It seems like he started from the assumption that Google is evil then he went rambling around that without making a coherent argument. And I think by "rodeo" he meant I…

"Goat rodeo" is slang for a particularly chaotic situation where nobody's in charge and everybody's going in different directions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goat_rodeo

Re: The Great Google Goat Rodeo

#17

Post by samspenc » Wed, May 22, 2013, 3:59 PM UTC

endtime wrote: post #8

aforty wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't you know you get down voted for agreeing with the author?

I downvoted him because it's so unclear whether he was being sarcastic that the comment adds no value.

Thanks, I was NOT being sarcastic, sorry for not being clear on this. Most anti-Google articles that make it to HN are completely off-base, this one was quite rational.

Re: The Great Google Goat Rodeo

#18

Post by Intermernet » Wed, May 22, 2013, 4:01 PM UTC

This is probably an unpopular point of view, but:

I actually agree with author (despite his going into a rant in the latter part of the article) about the horribleness of needing a Google+ account to interact with most of Google's services these days (I'm wondering if any clueless fool in their marketing/sales dept. has suggested G+ login for search yet...), but I actually quite like Google+ .

It's, IMHO, miles in front of the competition in regards to large communities, but, admittedly, fails on the actual social stuff (friends, family etc.). But, as I see it, the only reason they fail at this is due to the overwhelming dominance of Facebook.

I now only use FB for communication with overseas (and far away, easy if you're in Australia) friends. Most of my other online community social behaviour is done through G+

Just my 2 cents (with inflation)

Re: The Great Google Goat Rodeo

#19

Post by endtime » Wed, May 22, 2013, 4:04 PM UTC

samspenc wrote: post #17

endtime wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I downvoted him because it's so unclear whether he was being sarcastic that the comment adds no value.

Thanks, I was NOT being sarcastic, sorry for not being clear on this. Most anti-Google articles that make it to HN are completely off-base, this one was quite rational.

Oh, well then, I totally disagree with you; I think the article was totally incoherent. But I don't downvote just for disagreement on HN.

Re: The Great Google Goat Rodeo

#20

Post by cageface » Wed, May 22, 2013, 4:04 PM UTC

mankyd wrote: post #4

"Their design ability might be improving, but again and again they show a lack of editing — they lack the ability to be selective about their product portfolio." This statement seems strange to me, being as the the prior paragraphs were about Google shuttering many of their products. Google may not have historically had great "editing" but they seem to be getting there. They're discontinuing products that they don't…

Google is attacked on one hand for having too many products and on the other hand for discontinuing products. I guess when you're as dominant as Google is now critics will always find something to criticize.

The only thing in this piece I agree with is that Google+ is creepy and I don't like having it forced on me when I want to use their other products. Google's made a Faustian bargain here in their panic over Facebook and it seems to be corrupting them from the inside.