Google Zeitgeist 2013 • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Zeitgeist 2013

#31

Post by Keyframe » Tue, Dec 17, 2013, 4:17 PM UTC

schandur wrote: post #30

Keyframe wrote: post #10

What a shitty user experience. What changed at google? They used to have these rather simple, useful, UIs.

I gave the video about 2 seconds before closing the tab.

I went through it, I always give a chance to content no matter how presented it is ( a habit of mine). However, it didn't tell me anything. It's like a run-of-the-mill motivation video. To make things worse, I couldn't get to the results of zeitgeist on my own to see what was actually going on.

It looks pretty, and I am sure lots of work was put into it and I appreciate that. But it's uninspired and isn't very functional. I expect functionality first from google. Well, I used to.

Re: Google Zeitgeist 2013

#32

Post by aasarava » Tue, Dec 17, 2013, 4:24 PM UTC

hsivonen wrote: post #19

Requires login? Why?

I wonder if most people didn't even notice that because they remain logged in to Google services all the time.

Re: Google Zeitgeist 2013

#33

Post by fvrghl » Tue, Dec 17, 2013, 4:25 PM UTC

nettletea wrote: post #7

You seriously mean to tell me that the most popular search on Google for 2013 is 'Paul Walker' followed by 'iPhone 5s'? What? Surely 'Weather' would be higher. I simply don't know what I'm looking at here.

I also wondered why the death of Paul Walker was in the video. Surely Lou Reed was more influential, yet his death wasn't mentioned.

Re: Google Zeitgeist 2013

#34

Post by devcpp » Tue, Dec 17, 2013, 4:28 PM UTC

agildehaus wrote: post #20

Keyframe wrote: post #10

What a shitty user experience. What changed at google? They used to have these rather simple, useful, UIs.

Designers and product managers have taken the reigns from the engineers. Recall that Google at one time never had TV advertisements. Now you can't turn the damn thing on without seeing one.

Exactly. After all, it's pretty much how Apple made its historic unprecedented profits: more designers than engineers.

Re: Google Zeitgeist 2013

#35

Post by wavefunction » Tue, Dec 17, 2013, 4:29 PM UTC

joecurry wrote: post #16

I would prefer a .txt file list over this, I can't even tell the order without individual clicks.

That would make sense if this were something that was intended to be useful and meaningful. I think this is just supposed to remind you that Google is a thing.

Re: Google Zeitgeist 2013

#36

Post by raldi » Tue, Dec 17, 2013, 4:29 PM UTC

agildehaus wrote: post #20

Keyframe wrote: post #10

What a shitty user experience. What changed at google? They used to have these rather simple, useful, UIs.

Designers and product managers have taken the reigns from the engineers. Recall that Google at one time never had TV advertisements. Now you can't turn the damn thing on without seeing one.

Really? What Google commercials have you seen recently?

Re: Google Zeitgeist 2013

#37

Post by wavefunction » Tue, Dec 17, 2013, 4:31 PM UTC

scrrr wrote: post #15

franze wrote: post #8

what a horrible, horrible browsing experience on desktop. this is a complete new kind of swipeware/pseudo-metro crap...

yeah, it's very non-Google somehow..

Or maybe the new Google. Or the same Google we always had.

Re: Google Zeitgeist 2013

#38

Post by gpmcadam » Tue, Dec 17, 2013, 4:39 PM UTC

hsivonen wrote: post #19

Requires login? Why?

I think it's just a default Google thing. Basically, it notices you're logged in but you haven't entered your password for a while, so it prompts you to login again.

Instead, I just clicked 'Log out and log in as a different user', closed the tab, and clicked the link again on HN, and it worked just fine.

So in short, it doesn't require you to be logged in, unless you are, at which point you have to log in again.

Bizarre.

Re: Google Zeitgeist 2013

#39

Post by yalogin » Tue, Dec 17, 2013, 4:43 PM UTC

Keyframe wrote: post #10

What a shitty user experience. What changed at google? They used to have these rather simple, useful, UIs.

Wow. I am not the only one that felt like this.

That was such a horribly designed UI. I had no idea what I am looking at and why. Google used to all about simplicity. I remember in prior years these kind of posts always had graphs and considerable text explaining trends. Its like someone there realized they are JS experts.

Re: Google Zeitgeist 2013

#40

Post by agildehaus » Tue, Dec 17, 2013, 4:45 PM UTC

raldi wrote: post #36

agildehaus wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Designers and product managers have taken the reigns from the engineers. Recall that Google at one time never had TV advertisements. Now you can't turn the damn thing on without seeing one.

Really? What Google commercials have you seen recently?

Constant Chrome/cast/book and Nexus tablet ads. I've seen this one far too much:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LysTmwDan8