Google launches Uber rival RideWith

I think it definitely does. Google Ventures has expressed in the past that their investments are not tied to any business plans of Google and function entirely separately.

Fix what you have, Google.

Every time you launch into something else, like this, I become a bit more convinced that commentators are right and you are slowly turning into Microsoft.

I get the sense that, internally, things are still significantly different than they are or ever were at Microsoft. But I become increasingly concerned about some encroaching "inevitable".

De-fuck Hangouts and your rats nest of "instant" products/services. Beat Verizon over the head until they actually update the Moto X that, at the time of purchase, you sold me. Stop launching the "next great thing" only to kill it 18 months later, over and over.

And as some have said, um, search? Give at least optional specific control back to the power users. And someone the other day raised the pertinent question of why it's not well-integrated into Hangouts.

I suppose RideWith is supposed to eventually overlap with your autonomous cars, or something. But I don't give a crap about the new, until the old and erstwhile reliable -- and so critical to so many -- starts working better, again.

Thanks.

P.S. Ok, that last paragraph is partially rhetoric. But, damnit, if I'm going to invest in your products -- in both dollars and time and effort -- I want some consistency, and an upward trend in features and usability. (See also Tim O'Reilly's recent comments about the -- cough -- "improved" interface in Contacts. (Pop-ups and clipped text -- really?))

I do. It's a pretty big extravegence, but the train costs 2-3bucks and takes 25-40 min and uber costs 9 for 15 minutes if I wait past the worse of rush hour.

I can expense the way home if I work late enough.

It's cheaper than driving since I'd have to pay 320 a month for a parking space at work.

I probably should just take the train more.

I still want the ability to add a destination en route to another destination, e.g. "Ooh, I need to find [cheap] gas on the way to my next errand". It'd also be nice to be able to plan out e.g. "I need to go 4 places, figure out when they all close and what the optimal route is between them all". These are currently very manual and pretty tedious.

Is it just me or does that page have an annoying ad network which AUTOMATICALLY redirects your mobile browser to the app store? I've seen a proliferation of these now.