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Google Poly is shutting down

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Re: Google Poly is shutting down

#121

Post by throwdour »

SystemOut wrote: post #99
onion2k wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've not only heard of it, I use it frequently. It's by far the easiest way to access permissively licensed (Creative Commons attribution mostly) content for making things in WebGL. Given the fact that Poly is essentially a very basic CRUD app with simple files attached there's can't really be a good reason to shut it down - it's simple, mature, and can't take much more than a few hours of maintenance a month for a s…

They have a real problem finding developers that will want to work on it. You don't get promoted at Google for maintaining a product that isn't growing.

It's strange that getting promoted is such a universal goal. Many or most people who start on the promotion ladder get stuck in the miserable middle. There's surprisingly little reflection on whether or not the extra money is worth the extra hassle, or at what point one should avoid further promotion.

Re: Google Poly is shutting down

#122

Post by diogenesjunior »

NoOneNew wrote: post #96
ma2rten wrote: post #28

Every time Google is shutting down a product there are the same kind of reactions like “I will not trust google running anything more than a year”, “killedbygoogle.com”. I’m wondering, have you ever heard about this product? I for one have no clue what this is. How many more products does google have that you never heard about and that are not shut down?

Yes, but what about the people who did? Here's the thing, Google is a big company. When a big company offers a service or product you expect a long shelf life so you can justify the time/money investment to use it. If you stumble across an open source or just some other random project by a single dev, you have an instinctive expectation that the project could die at any time. Thus, you invest your effort accordingly…

>When a big company offers a service or product you expect a long shelf life so you can justify the time/money investment to use it.

I bought a Chromebook in 2014. It still works, but support was discontinued earlier this year. That sounds okay to me. I wonder if Poly was popular? I've never heard about it 'til today.

Re: Google Poly is shutting down

#123

Post by nextos »

mabbo wrote: post #111
NoOneNew wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but what about the people who did? Here's the thing, Google is a big company. When a big company offers a service or product you expect a long shelf life so you can justify the time/money investment to use it. If you stumble across an open source or just some other random project by a single dev, you have an instinctive expectation that the project could die at any time. Thus, you invest your effort accordingly…

> Google has the focus of a 12 year adhd kid who just ate a whole birthday cake, unless when it comes to data collection. A decade ago I was an intern at Google. One of my mentors said something that has stuck with me: "Google found a hose that money pours out of and it's name is online advertising. All we do now is desperately try to find another hose." Google's strategy for a long time was: Hire every clever person…

> There is no second hose. They've mostly given up on the idea of a clever person finding a new money-hose.

I think they are quite shortsighted. The idea of running Google as a conglomerate, turning it into Alphabet, was good. But somehow, they have not been able to get rid of those layers of middle management that kill innovation. I've heard that Calico and other ventures are really political, and lot's of people that moved there hoping to do great work are quite frustrated.

Which is a shame, because they do have know how and technology to achieve great things. Just out of the protein folding results of this week you could spin off dozens of highly successful startups.

Re: Google Poly is shutting down

#124

Post by hated »

guyzero wrote: post #115
mabbo wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Google has the focus of a 12 year adhd kid who just ate a whole birthday cake, unless when it comes to data collection. A decade ago I was an intern at Google. One of my mentors said something that has stuck with me: "Google found a hose that money pours out of and it's name is online advertising. All we do now is desperately try to find another hose." Google's strategy for a long time was: Hire every clever person…

Google's revenue is more diversified today than it's ever been. This is a facile take.

Says the commenter with zero evidence to support their claims.

Re: Google Poly is shutting down

#125

Post by chadlavi »

ma2rten wrote: post #28

Every time Google is shutting down a product there are the same kind of reactions like “I will not trust google running anything more than a year”, “killedbygoogle.com”. I’m wondering, have you ever heard about this product? I for one have no clue what this is. How many more products does google have that you never heard about and that are not shut down?

I learn about a lot of niche google products by seeing the announcement that they're being shut down.

Re: Google Poly is shutting down

#127

Post by andybak »

sp332 wrote: post #114
andybak wrote: post #95

Does anyone know if the Internet Archive has any plans to scrape the content? Poly is not only a critical component of several VR apps I use, it's a repository of some incredible Tilt Brush artwork and part of the history of modern VR. I'm dreading the imminent upcoming news about Tilt Brush itself. And Google Earth VR which is a true cultural treasure. And just finally - in case it isn't clear - fuck Google.

Do you mean the Internet Archive? Jason Scott @textfiles retweeted the announcement, so they are at least aware of it. He's also a member of Archive Team (not affiliated with IA, but often upload scrapes there when they are done).

> Do you mean the Internet Archive?

Yes - thanks. Fixed.

Re: Google Poly is shutting down

#128

Post by seankimdesign »

cj wrote: post #55
rm_-rf_slash wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counterpoint: since Google has firmly established a reputation for killing their own products, people who would otherwise find value in certain Google products (beyond search ads gmail and android) avoid them and never hear about them to begin with. I wonder if they are creating a self-fulfilling prophecy: google launches a product, people avoid it assuming it’ll get killed off, google says the user metrics don’t jus…

I think HN tends to overplay google's product discontinuations. If you ask someone who doesn't read HN if they've ever been frustrated with Google shutting down a product, my guess is 95%+ of people wouldn't be able to remember a single product that was shut down that they used. One solution for Google might be to brand the products without the "Google" name prefix, until Google is absolutely sure it will be around f…

Maybe. But even in gaming circles, people often cite "Google may discontinue it" as one of the main reasons for avoiding Stadia, which is a Google gaming service. I believe their reputation goes well beyond the HN tech circle.

Re: Google Poly is shutting down

#129

Post by addicted »

ma2rten wrote: post #28

Every time Google is shutting down a product there are the same kind of reactions like “I will not trust google running anything more than a year”, “killedbygoogle.com”. I’m wondering, have you ever heard about this product? I for one have no clue what this is. How many more products does google have that you never heard about and that are not shut down?

The problem is that if Google holds this attitude, that means I as a user must absolutely stay away from anything that isn't promoted extremely heavily by Google.

And if I and everyone else thinks this way, as Google is conditioning them to, then no one will ever adopt Google's non heavily promoted products, which will make their failure a self fulfilling prophecy.

Re: Google Poly is shutting down

#130

Post by harryf »

ducktective wrote: post #13

https://killedbygoogle.com/

Wow - first time I've seen that. Some are a little over-eager... Hangouts for example basically continues as Google Meet.

What I wonder is how many startups were effectively killed by these dead products, either by destroying a business model and chances of getting investors or through acqui-hiring the best talent?

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