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Google has already pulled six products in 2023

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Re: Google has already pulled six products in 2023

#281

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #98
remirk wrote: post #29

The dedicated Streetview app was finally killed because streetview is already integrated in regular google maps. To me, that seems like a good reason to discontinue the dedicated app. I don't get the reasoning behind this article. Half of this list is side projects which didn't work out, which is understandable to a certain degree. The article feels like blogspam riding on the hypetrain of people disliking when googl…

> Half of this list is side projects which didn't work out, which is understandable to a certain degree What happens to the people who bet on them? Do they even have a point of contact if e.g. an integration breaks? That’s the point. They’re half-baked products being put out and pulled with no care in the world. That’s the brand. Which means when a Stadia comes out, a product that could have worked if people trusted…

> What happens to the people who bet on them?

I think that's the whole point though. A lot of the products, if they can even be called that, listed in this article are not even possible to "bet on". I mean, Code Jam?? I think it sucks they shut it down, but annual events and conferences come and go, it's not like people had a right to expect it would go on indefinitely.

I only think about half the items in this list are even possible to invest much time on as an outsider, either a customer or a partner: Stadia (obviously a ton has already been written about that), OnHub (classic "I bought an IoT device that isn't much better than a paperweight after they stopped support), and Google Currents (though that one is marginal - I don't know anyone who used it, also I don't know how seamless the transition to Spaces was).

I think the biggest issue with Google products is that nobody trusts them because they won't stand by any roadmaps. If they had clear, discrete classes of products that they actually stood behind (e.g. "these we'll only guarantee to support for the next 18 months" vs. "these are mature products we stand by"), I think folks would be more OK going into things with eyes wide open. But Google has time and again bullshitted ("Of course we're investing in Stadia..."), or even had things been in beta for years and years when they were obviously mature products, like GMail. And since it's clear Google only really cares about ad revenue, when shit hits the fan and they need to "streamline", like now, anything that doesn't directly support ads like Search, Android, GMail, Chrome, etc. feels like an afterthought.

Re: Google has already pulled six products in 2023

#282

Post by acheron »

illiarian wrote: post #65
papito wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. "This person said the group’s leaders didn’t explicitly state what would happen to the cloud division if it didn’t reach a top two position by 2023. A commonly held view inside the group was that Google wouldn’t continue investing money if it failed to it meet its goal, the person said. " https://www.theinformation.com/articles/google-brass-set-202...

They have insanely expensive multi-year contracts with quite a few huge companies (and probably government agencies, too). You don't just shut GCP down.

Having consulted at government agencies, it’s all AWS and Azure that I’ve seen. There’s a lot of government out there so I wouldn’t be incredibly surprised if somebody somewhere is using GCP but it’s not at all common as far as I can tell.

Re: Google has already pulled six products in 2023

#283

Post by hn2017 »

tuukkah wrote: post #185
vaasuu wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mostly used the Street View app to capture 360° spherical panoramas, offline, on-device. Now that Google has killed the app, I can’t capture those photos! The app worked fine a month ago, why not let me use it, as it worked offline‽ No one seems to be talking about this issue. I haven’t found suitable replacement apps to capture photospheres on a (i)Phone. The suggested Street View Studio doesn’t let you capture Ph…

On Android, you may be able to use e.g. Google Camera or F-Droid's Focal.

Anything for iOS?

Re: Google has already pulled six products in 2023

#284

Post by joezydeco »

bombcar wrote: post #235
joezydeco wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get your domain hosted by another service, pronto. You're risking losing everything if Google decides to brick your account(s) by decision or accident.

I have a backup of my email, and my domain DNS/registrar is not Google, so the real worst I'll be hit with is a loss of email for a bit as the DNS updates.

Ok cool. When you said "I have a Google domain" I assumed the worst.

Everyone else: do NOT use Google as your registrar. Just don't.

Re: Google has already pulled six products in 2023

#285

Post by dahwolf »

Stadia for sure is the notable one. When first announced it was met with skepticism after which Google insisted that they'd be in it for the long term.

Well, guess not. It just cements an already shaky reputation. Don't depend on anything Google personally or in business if you have a choice. They still don't care though, they seem immune to market forces and things like "customers".

Re: Google has already pulled six products in 2023

#286

Post by marricks »

Check out some of the recent highlights from https://killedbygoogle.com

- All Google Code Competitions, which had gone on for 19 years

- Jacquard, there IOT clothing attempt, around for 9 years

- Stadia, shorter but their cloud gaming attempt around for 3 years

Google killing Jacquard and Stadia seems run of the mill but the first one! When I was in college I remember people talking about google code jam and I wasn't even into coding then. That seems like a big retreat and I must have missed HN discussing it because, just wow.

Re: Google has already pulled six products in 2023

#287

Post by mrweasel »

illiarian wrote: post #65
papito wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. "This person said the group’s leaders didn’t explicitly state what would happen to the cloud division if it didn’t reach a top two position by 2023. A commonly held view inside the group was that Google wouldn’t continue investing money if it failed to it meet its goal, the person said. " https://www.theinformation.com/articles/google-brass-set-202...

They have insanely expensive multi-year contracts with quite a few huge companies (and probably government agencies, too). You don't just shut GCP down.

> You don't just shut GCP down.

No, but you could "Google Group" it. Just keep the lights on and not develop it any further and just watch customers leave over time. There might actually be a bunch of corporate customers that would view the static environment as a plus.

I don't really see them shutting down GCP, even if it's a bit anonymous. It is interesting that Google can't turn a profit on GCP, given that both AWS and Azure is doing to well.

Re: Google has already pulled six products in 2023

#288

Post by nobody9999 »

muyuu wrote: post #113
donkeyd wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I feel bad for the millions of units of [...] Stadia In their defense, Stadia consisted of a ChromeCast and a controller which are both still useful.

according to the article, they are refunding all Stadia hardware and software purchases done through their store they don't say the same about their wiretap wifi router thingy

And are they reimbursing all the developers they conned^W enticed into developing exclusive content for Stadia?

Re: Google has already pulled six products in 2023

#289

Post by nkrisc »

iLoveOncall wrote: post #99
nkrisc wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Google OnHub is a one time hardware product. Nobody is blaming Nintendo for killing the Gameboy Color when it stopped producing it. Did your Gameboy Color stop working when Nintendo decided to stop producing it?

Partially. Once the battery in the cartridges expires you cannot save your progress anymore, essentially killing most of the product. 8 years of support for their router doesn't seem bad at all.

That would happen regardless of whether Nintendo was producing new Gameboy Colors or not.

Re: Google has already pulled six products in 2023

#290

Post by seaal »

ChildOfChaos wrote: post #246

Honestly still missing Stadia so much. Not a heavy gamer, but Stadia was awesome for game nights with friends and also the play while someone watches along feature was great. I'd always wanted to play Red Dead redemption 2 (which was on Stadia) but my PC can run it, so I bought it for my birthday, 110 gb download, had to install the epic launcher, then the rockstar launcher, then it complained about not being able to…

I'd hesitate to buy anything on the EGS, partially because Steam will give you a refund if you have less than 2 hours playtime on a game.

Rockstar games are also made with a focus towards consoles first so there are often bugs on the PC port that can ruin your experience, like the notorious GTA loading issues that were fixed by one guy[0].

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26296339

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