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Google Spaces will be shut down on April 17th

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Re: Google Spaces will be shut down on April 17th

#101

Post by DashRattlesnake »

danmaz74 wrote: post #92
ajmurmann wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The top comment on this story right now is someone saying they don't want to use new Google products anymore because they too frequently get shut down. I think Reader really lost them a lot of trust and they continue to reinforce that reputation. That being said, I cannot help but wonder how what Google is doing is different than any startup working on a product. The differences might be that Google never tries to su…

> I cannot help but wonder how what Google is doing is different than any startup working on a product From a marketing point of view, the big difference is that a startup isn't labeling their product with a very well known brand. The downside for the startup is that they need to build their brand recognition and image from scratch. The downside for the big brand is that they have a lot to lose if they tarnish their…

Also, the big brand is expected to have the resources to keep the product alive (even if only on life support), so killing it feels unnecessary and callous. Everyone understands startups don't have that luxury.

Re: Google Spaces will be shut down on April 17th

#102

Post by pzh »

pzh wrote: post #66
lallysingh wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That post is about Google cloud, where you're a paying customer and you're not shown ads.

Maybe they can offer Google Cloud entirely running on ads, where they inject them at the load balancer. That way they won't have to deal with customer support.

Why are you downvoting? This is how search works and it's not like Comcast hasn't tried the other technique either.

https://www.google.com/amp/www.infoworld.com/article/2925839...

Re: Google Spaces will be shut down on April 17th

#103

Post by drdeadringer »

ohto wrote: post #29

I'm at the point that I don't even try new Google products because I don't trust that they will stay around. I got burned too many times: Wave, Knol, Google Health, Buzz, Notebook, Answers, and most importantly Google Reader. There is just no way I'm investing time in any new Google product. They are untrustworthy. For instance, why on earth would I want to use Allo when still Hangouts exists? We know one or both wil…

If user usage is any factor in these product shutdowns, I wonder if Google has created a negative feedback loop on such a variable. Users won't try it knowing or highly suspecting the product will be cancelled in 2 years, and in 2 years Google cancels the product because there are no users.

Re: Google Spaces will be shut down on April 17th

#104

Post by krapp »

sp332 wrote: post #73
krapp wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Just leave it read-only Because Google is a business, and hosting a "read only" version of a service that no longer serves their interests would be a waste of money.

Google is involved in plenty of projects that don't directly make money. They could leave it up for ad targeting if not just as a good will gesture to their community.

I assume those projects are either returning some value for Google or they'll be shut down as well.

>They could leave it up for ad targeting if not just as a good will gesture to their community.

There's no point to that if the Spaces community isn't large enough for the gesture to be relevant or the ads to be worth anything.

I'm reading the tea leaves here, but according to the OP, they intend to "use what we’ve learned to improve other Google products and services." Likely, Spaces was never meant to be anything but a platform for testing experimental UX concepts without interfering with their more popular properties.

Google probably still wants to combine their services into a unified social media presence, except maybe for Youtube (which they maybe want to rebuild as a direct, primarily subscription based competitor to commercial streaming services like Netflix.) They don't want another PR fiasco like the Google+ integration so I guess this is plan B?

I'm probably wrong, though.

Re: Google Spaces will be shut down on April 17th

#105

Post by drdeadringer »

tajen wrote: post #95
ohto wrote: post #29

I'm at the point that I don't even try new Google products because I don't trust that they will stay around. I got burned too many times: Wave, Knol, Google Health, Buzz, Notebook, Answers, and most importantly Google Reader. There is just no way I'm investing time in any new Google product. They are untrustworthy. For instance, why on earth would I want to use Allo when still Hangouts exists? We know one or both wil…

Why use Skype or Google Hangouts when there is https://appear.in ? No login, no central server, no app to install, just screen sharing, audio and video...

For me it's because this is the first time I've heard of it. Thanks!

Re: Google Spaces will be shut down on April 17th

#106

Post by googler88 »

laserDinosaur wrote: post #64
ohto wrote: post #29

I'm at the point that I don't even try new Google products because I don't trust that they will stay around. I got burned too many times: Wave, Knol, Google Health, Buzz, Notebook, Answers, and most importantly Google Reader. There is just no way I'm investing time in any new Google product. They are untrustworthy. For instance, why on earth would I want to use Allo when still Hangouts exists? We know one or both wil…

I started using Google Inbox for a while, but never got seriously invested in it other than a novelty (despite really liking the interface). I just know it's only a matter of time before it gets killed off and I'll be back to Gmail anyway.

This is closer to the truth then you know. There is an internal ongoing effort to merge the few useful features that only exist in Inbox, like snooze, into the GMail codebase.

If your inside of the Google network go/bye-inbox has all the information.

Disclaimer: I work for Google and joined Team Sabotage a year ago to cause as much damage to the company as possible.

Re: Google Spaces will be shut down on April 17th

#107

Post by jboggan »

ohto wrote: post #29

I'm at the point that I don't even try new Google products because I don't trust that they will stay around. I got burned too many times: Wave, Knol, Google Health, Buzz, Notebook, Answers, and most importantly Google Reader. There is just no way I'm investing time in any new Google product. They are untrustworthy. For instance, why on earth would I want to use Allo when still Hangouts exists? We know one or both wil…

It's laughably common that Googlers don't know about a product that they themselves would be interested in using until they see external news about the product being cancelled.

It's pretty demoralizing. We are the biggest evangelists for the products because we are proud of our co-workers and Google. But it gets harder and harder to evangelize to our friends and family when things are so quickly withdrawn.

Hopefully the Spaces team got their promotions out of the launch.

My advice to people making these kinds of decisions at any company of any size: when sunsetting a project (not just putting it into maintenance mode) consider the real cost to internal morale and to brand equity.

Re: Google Spaces will be shut down on April 17th

#108

Post by orangecat »

blakesterz wrote: post #74

People who currently work at Google must see these posts here on HN every time they shut something down. The comments area always the same. Google must be aware this behavior is hurting them in a substantial way. Has anyone seen a public comment from someone at Google? Do they really not get it or do they just not care? Or am I wrong, is this not hurting them at all?

People who currently work at Google must see these posts here on HN every time they shut something down.

Definitely. I expect there are dozens of snarky posts on Memegen by now. Whether that has any effect on management decisions is another matter.

Or am I wrong, is this not hurting them at all?

From the last earnings report, apparently not.

Re: Google Spaces will be shut down on April 17th

#109

Post by candiodari »

laserDinosaur wrote: post #64
ohto wrote: post #29

I'm at the point that I don't even try new Google products because I don't trust that they will stay around. I got burned too many times: Wave, Knol, Google Health, Buzz, Notebook, Answers, and most importantly Google Reader. There is just no way I'm investing time in any new Google product. They are untrustworthy. For instance, why on earth would I want to use Allo when still Hangouts exists? We know one or both wil…

I started using Google Inbox for a while, but never got seriously invested in it other than a novelty (despite really liking the interface). I just know it's only a matter of time before it gets killed off and I'll be back to Gmail anyway.

I'm more scared that it'll be gmail that'll get killed off in favor of inbox.

Re: Google Spaces will be shut down on April 17th

#110

Post by fourthark »

jpalomaki wrote: post #30
agumonkey wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google should start a lifetime project so help people have a better apriori understanding of where and when its going.

The Google way seems to be to try new stuff without much hesitation and then kill things which don't work out for them. I don't think they know exactly where they are going - which makes perfectly sense since future is hard to predict.

Wonder if it's better to think of Google as an "intelligence" company rather than software / search / advertising? They often seem to start projects to learn about the market and other companies, rather than for any direct business purpose.
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