Live data from Hacker News

Average product lifespan of Google products before it kills them

gcemetery.co

61–70 of 105 posts

Re: Average product lifespan of Google products before it kills them

#61
post #39
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't count that one because Netflix didn't actually discontinue it -- Nintendo did. They removed all support for streaming services.

Why doesn't Netflix support Switch? If you can't answer I will accept Nintendo politics as the answer.

No idea, that happened long after I left.

Re: Average product lifespan of Google products before it kills them

#62
post #15

I noticed in the "recent deaths" section, YouTube for 3DS. This made me laugh, because at Netflix, supporting the 3DS was always a big pain. Regardless, Netflix still supports it to this day. In fact, as far as I know, Netflix has only ever killed support for one platform -- The PS2. And that was only because there were only about 10 people left using it. So we sent them all Rokus and told them we're discontinuing PS…

Love this a ton! How does Netflix ensure reliability for those platforms with an ever growing codebase and the evolving business? Was the platform built to be extensible from the start?

Most of the old apps can't be updated, so they are sort of frozen in time. They all hit APIs on the backend, so as long as the APIs they hit remain backwards compatible it "just works". The old apps don't get any new features that require UI changes or can't be supported on the platform if that platform is updateable.

So the short answer is, everything is an API, so as long as the API stays backwards compatible it just works.

Re: Average product lifespan of Google products before it kills them

#63
post #55
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Netflix is the last app that works on my Sony Google TV from 2011. The YouTube app shut off after like 2015, but 8 years later Netflix is still trucking.

Why don't these devices run Android? Pretty sure you can run YouTube on a 2011 Android release. That's not important to Sony, of course, but even for new hardware it seems easier to make it run Android and shovel your bloatware on it than to develop your own half-assed OS for each TV model.

Google TV is a super-mutated version of Android... Google turned their back on it in 2014 in favor of something that was closer to normal Android.

Re: Average product lifespan of Google products before it kills them

#64
post #58

I'm upset about Google Trips. Trips was one of the few examples of how letting Google know everything about you lead to a great experience. It'll automatically figure out my time tables, hotel reservations, and flight times. The ability to download city info and store it offline was wonderful, and its recommended itineraries, while often silly in their listed time tables, were a great jumping off point. Nothing else…

I never heard of it, and I'm one of those people who would definitely use it.

Re: Average product lifespan of Google products before it kills them

#65
post #15

I noticed in the "recent deaths" section, YouTube for 3DS. This made me laugh, because at Netflix, supporting the 3DS was always a big pain. Regardless, Netflix still supports it to this day. In fact, as far as I know, Netflix has only ever killed support for one platform -- The PS2. And that was only because there were only about 10 people left using it. So we sent them all Rokus and told them we're discontinuing PS…

I love that you sent them Rokus. Most companies would just tell them they are out of luck and to go buy something. My old Panasonic TV has a handful of apps left (it's got like three home screens for apps, and like four still even exist). Thankfully Vudu, my app of choice, still works. As does Netflix and I believe Amazon Prime.

> I love that you sent them Rokus. Most companies would just tell them they are out of luck and to go buy something.

Amazon did something in between those two when the Prime Video app on some Sony Blu-ray players lost support. I'm not sure if they lost support because Sony was no longer interested in pushing updates to those players, or Amazon was no longer interested in writing their app for them, but for whatever reason they were going to stop working.

What Amazon did was sent users a coupon, good for the next two months, for $25 off on a Fire TV Stick, Fire TV Stick 4K, or Fire TV Cube.

For quite a while during that two months, Fire TV Stick was on sale for 24.99, so with that coupon was essentially free if you didn't procrastinate too much.

Re: Average product lifespan of Google products before it kills them

#67
post #15

I noticed in the "recent deaths" section, YouTube for 3DS. This made me laugh, because at Netflix, supporting the 3DS was always a big pain. Regardless, Netflix still supports it to this day. In fact, as far as I know, Netflix has only ever killed support for one platform -- The PS2. And that was only because there were only about 10 people left using it. So we sent them all Rokus and told them we're discontinuing PS…

The counter example would be Google Maps. They really care about this product. I think they even support Palm OS.

I mean, they purposefully kept features off Google Maps on iOS to make Android look better, then brought them in once Apple made Apple Maps.

Re: Average product lifespan of Google products before it kills them

#68
post #15

I noticed in the "recent deaths" section, YouTube for 3DS. This made me laugh, because at Netflix, supporting the 3DS was always a big pain. Regardless, Netflix still supports it to this day. In fact, as far as I know, Netflix has only ever killed support for one platform -- The PS2. And that was only because there were only about 10 people left using it. So we sent them all Rokus and told them we're discontinuing PS…

[deleted]

Re: Average product lifespan of Google products before it kills them

#70

I imagine Google views this as a positive thing, trying a million ideas, so that hopefully it increases the chances of having at least one good and popular idea. The downside is, a lot of products they killed were good ideas, but its sink or swim and they don't get the products the needed love and attention so they don't take off and thus they kill them. And now even when releasing a good idea or good piece of hardwa…

Yes, I see this as healthy turnover, the circle of life. I can testify that every main project I worked on when at Google is gone now except Chrome, the last thing I coded for. However, I don't think my time on other stuff was wasted.

Each of those previous projects shipped and did something useful for the public and helped Google in some way, like providing technical research or laying down infrastructure later used by other projects that still exist. At the very least something got killed because the team was needed on a high priority project, where they made a big difference.

Post reply on HN