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Ask HN: What's Up with Google?

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Re: Ask HN: What's Up with Google?

#111

Post by l0b0 »

IG_Semmelweiss wrote: post #59
l0b0 wrote: post #16

It's a trend I've noticed with other services, notably Drive and Calendar - they no longer innovate, just get a UI tweak every few years. It's very reminiscent of cash cows, which typically are resourced to just keep going at minimal expense for as long as possible. Another possibility is that the product isn't "sexy" anymore, so they are having trouble finding the great staff they need to stay at the forefront. This…

Please. No. The stuff just works. From the experience of having several critical business SaaS tools go thru constant UX changes that disrespect the user and make the product less stable, I'm actually glad Google still have some respect for the user. That's why i will gladly buy gsuite for the businesses i provide advice to, yet actively considering replacements of core business infra of which im a power user....for…

Oh, I don't want them to "innovate" like they've done elsewhere, just that they need to continue actually improving their services. I've had lots of interoperability, standards compliance and currency conversion issues with their services and practices, such as that time when I spend something like a year getting false promises from their support about being able to pay them in a different currency from the one with which I'd set up the account. In the end they exhausted the grace period for payment, and just shut down access to my account. Luckily by then I'd shopped around and found (to my surprise) a cheaper alternative which I'm still using.

Re: Ask HN: What's Up with Google?

#112

Post by l0b0 »

Aperocky wrote: post #67
resonious wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think innovation != backwards-incompatible UX changes. There's quite a lot that Excel can do that GSuite can't, for instance. There's probably room for additional features that don't affect current workflows.

You're right, however there are spots where the tools/products have just the 'right amount' of features. e.g. grep, vim.

Those are both massively bloated in terms of features, IMO. One curse of most open source projects is that features are almost never removed, even when they are obsolete, dangerous or plain stupid.

Re: Ask HN: What's Up with Google?

#113

Post by l0b0 »

kyrra wrote: post #50
l0b0 wrote: post #16

It's a trend I've noticed with other services, notably Drive and Calendar - they no longer innovate, just get a UI tweak every few years. It's very reminiscent of cash cows, which typically are resourced to just keep going at minimal expense for as long as possible. Another possibility is that the product isn't "sexy" anymore, so they are having trouble finding the great staff they need to stay at the forefront. This…

Googler, opinions are my own. For products that are core, large UI changes tend to just annoy a lot of users, unless there's something really amazing about the change. Even then, people are hesitant to like new UIs. Engineers and designers definitely want to try new things, but balancing those against messing with UIs that a billion+ people use is hard. My general take on drive and calendar, if they are trying to imp…

I don't think it came across the way I intended, because I am one of those users who don't really care for most large UI changes. It feels like UI designers are the only people in large organisations who are actually allowed to throw old code away. My point was more that non-UI improvements are extremely rare, probably because they are both difficult to get right and not "sexy" in the sense of being nicely demo-able to less technically savvy managers.

Re: Ask HN: What's Up with Google?

#115

Post by dragonwriter »

salgernon wrote: post #110

I was terribly frustrated by the google results for "covid test to fly domestic". The "hoisted" response was: "Get tested at least 5 days after your last close contact and make sure your test result is negative and you remain without symptoms before traveling. If you don't get tested, delay travel until a full 10 days after your last close contact with a person with COVID-19." Domestic Travel During COVID-19 | CDC ht…

> You need to look closely at this first hit to realize it dates from 2019

No, it doesn't. It couldn't, because there were no tests for COVID-19 in the US until Feb 2020, so the CDC could not possibly be recommending testing before domestic travel in 2019. (The 2019-ncov refers to the novel coronavirus identified in 2019, not the date of the article.)

It may be outdated (the CDC has changed recommendations frequently), but it's not from 2019.

Re: Ask HN: What's Up with Google?

#116

Post by waynesonfire »

eawoifjaiowepfj wrote: post #68
taftster wrote: post #23

I think the utility of generic search engines is coming to an end. Services like Google, Bing and DDG are numbered in usefulness. Instead, I am guessing (maybe hoping) that we see a return of the moderated directories, like Yahoo or DMOZ of old. A 2.0 spin on these directories, with lessons learned from all the years. Imagine that you just go to StackOverflow and search there directly for your answer. Want a funny la…

i just use google to search reddit these days.

Sshh, you're ganna ruin it.

Re: Ask HN: What's Up with Google?

#117

Post by jodrellblank »

nafizh wrote: post #26
YXNjaGVyZWdlbgo wrote: post #24

If you can get a beta invite for https://kagi.com get it. Not only are their defaults really good you also have the option to customize your searches by blacklisting, creating groups with sites like stackoverflow, github, hackernews etc for a dev search and so much more. It feels like google in the 00s with better customization.

Tried getting one. Told me to fill up a survey. Closed.

It's a paid search engine, they're going to get your name, address, credit card details and everything you search for and click on. If a survey puts you off, that's probably a good early warning.

Re: Ask HN: What's Up with Google?

#119

Post by watusername »

salgernon wrote: post #110

I was terribly frustrated by the google results for "covid test to fly domestic". The "hoisted" response was: "Get tested at least 5 days after your last close contact and make sure your test result is negative and you remain without symptoms before traveling. If you don't get tested, delay travel until a full 10 days after your last close contact with a person with COVID-19." Domestic Travel During COVID-19 | CDC ht…

You might be confused, because the virus is _named_ 2019-nCoV. The page cannot have been from 2019 because global response didn't begin until early 2020.

Edit: Ninja'd

Re: Ask HN: What's Up with Google?

#120

Post by cammikebrown »

0x0000000 wrote: post #93
SnowflakeOnIce wrote: post #74

I've noticed in the past 2-3 months that results from StackOverflow, Wikipedia, and official programming language documentation sites seem to have been abruptly downranked. They used to typically be in the top 3 results for me for appropriate queries, but now they frequently aren't even on the first page.

It was a long time since I had to append "wikipedia" to my search results, but within the last year or so, I find myself doing it more and more.

I use DuckDuckGo, it's really easy to end searches with "w!" and go straight to the Wikipedia page.
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