The important question is, when is Google going to kill this functionality? DocuSign only has to hold out until then.
Reminds me of Keyenes : Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent
eSignature Beta for Google Docs and Google Drive
51–60 of 180 posts
Re: eSignature Beta for Google Docs and Google Drive
#52The important question is, when is Google going to kill this functionality? DocuSign only has to hold out until then.
Yeah wouldn't want it to go the way of Google Toolbar, that thing would definitely be relevant today.
> Yeah wouldn't want it to go the way of Google Toolbar, that thing would've definitely been relevant today.
Hm... I briefly was a part of the Google Toolbar team back in 2008. How would it be relevant today? All of the features that I remember, are now a part of the browser itself (whether it's Firefox, Safari, Edge or Chrome/Chromium).
That said, the eSignature for Google Docs feature would definitely benefit from some strong (preferably, legal & irrevocable) commitment to keep it alive for 40+ years or more. Otherwise, I fail to see how it's useful.
Re: eSignature Beta for Google Docs and Google Drive
#53We use DocuSign here and the amount of time I spend hopping back and forth (exporting and importing) between Google and DocuSign is annoyingly high. If Google were to enter this space... I would personally welcome it.
Re: eSignature Beta for Google Docs and Google Drive
#54This isn't a DocuSign killer yet and won't be for a while until Google get its enterprise story right. DocuSign is deeply integrated with third party workflows in large organizations. That's where the big bucks are and you can build a sticky business.
Third party workflows like... Google Docs?
Re: eSignature Beta for Google Docs and Google Drive
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Every HN thread. No, not every HN thread, but "Every Google product". This is an entirely valid concern borne out by history. Until Google goes to extraordinary measures to prove that it will be unusually long-lived, you should assume that it will be dead in a few years. "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."
by your logic we should go into every Show HN and say their project will be dead. historically most projects and companies die too after a few years. but obviously that wouldn't be helpful for discussion or particularly insightful to spam, either.
I would agree with you, if every Show HN was from a single massive company that is a central point of failure.
Re: eSignature Beta for Google Docs and Google Drive
#56The important question is, when is Google going to kill this functionality? DocuSign only has to hold out until then.
Haha, I asked ChatGPT to make up some HN comments and it's classic.
https://chat.openai.com/share/9b69427a-b28c-4080-b097-6a0a78...
The HN/LLM concordance ratio is approaching 1. Eventually, I can just remove comments and then fill them in with ChatGPT instead.
Re: eSignature Beta for Google Docs and Google Drive
#57This isn't a DocuSign killer yet and won't be for a while until Google get its enterprise story right. DocuSign is deeply integrated with third party workflows in large organizations. That's where the big bucks are and you can build a sticky business.
Third party workflows like... Google Docs?
Like Salesforce
Re: eSignature Beta for Google Docs and Google Drive
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah wouldn't want it to go the way of Google Toolbar, that thing would definitely be relevant today.
> Yeah wouldn't want it to go the way of Google Toolbar, that thing would've definitely been relevant today. Hm... I briefly was a part of the Google Toolbar team back in 2008. How would it be relevant today? All of the features that I remember, are now a part of the browser itself (whether it's Firefox, Safari, Edge or Chrome/Chromium). That said, the eSignature for Google Docs feature would definitely benefit from…
Exactly. I was pointing out that not every app/service has to be preserved and supported forever.
Re: eSignature Beta for Google Docs and Google Drive
#59First this is a great idea. Finally there is some movement on making Google Docs better. I haven't used the feature, but from reading the blog post it is sad to see how poorly Google executes on products, even at the beta stage. Some context: I've built such a product before and eSigs are more simple than they seem as long as you do a few things. 1) You need to verify somebody's identity. Sending them an email with t…
As someone that consults in this space I more or less agree with you. Requirements are derived from interpretation of UETA and ESIGN Act. Itext has a good write up and great library to leverage when taking on project like this. Docusign has a good writeup on esign/UETA. ESRA is the goto body on the subject, and if you need legal opinion DLA Piper is the goto in the industry. This stuff is fairly simple once you know it.
Re: eSignature Beta for Google Docs and Google Drive
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Yeah wouldn't want it to go the way of Google Toolbar, that thing would've definitely been relevant today. Hm... I briefly was a part of the Google Toolbar team back in 2008. How would it be relevant today? All of the features that I remember, are now a part of the browser itself (whether it's Firefox, Safari, Edge or Chrome/Chromium). That said, the eSignature for Google Docs feature would definitely benefit from…
Exactly. I was pointing out that not every app/service has to be preserved and supported forever.
> Anyway, just thought that whipping out "Google kills products" meme for a mere feature was a bit much.
I know I’m beating a dead horse^W^W^W dead Google products but, they really do kill a lot of popular products
That being said, if they add eSig for Google Docs I agree; I don’t see why nor how they’d kill that individual feature unless they kill Docs all-together. Which, hopefully, they won’t do for many years yet.