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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

#61

Post by mulmboy »

gondaloof wrote: post #56
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…

You could say the same about Google Earth on mobile. Do you need a separate app? I’m honestly surprised it still exists.

Google earth on mobile lets you load up local KML files, which I don't think normal maps does

Re: Google has already pulled six products in 2023

#62

Post by illiarian »

criddell wrote: post #48
klabb3 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I had a penny for every time I hear this.. yes they had big layoffs, but they also hired like crazy for a long time. Fuchsia is maybe 1/4 product and the rest is a long term infrastructure investment. If Google had lost interest they’d have no problem shutting it down by now, for instance stadia rose and fell in a shorter time span than all of fuchsia. I don’t know whether fuchsia will “make it”, heck a frustrated…

> If Google had lost interest they’d have no problem shutting it down by now It does feel like they’ve lost a lot of interest in Android. It’s too big for Google to just close, but I could see them selling it. If that happens, hopefully it’s to a Microsoft but chances are they will screw us all and sell it to Oracle or Xiaomi. But there are a lot of things that will die before Android or Fuschia. Here’s a list of 270…

> but I could see them selling it.

IMO they are aiming to replace Android with Fuchsia. Because they have full control of Fuchsia, and so-so control of Android. They don't need to sell Android. They can just let it die on its own in AOSP which is already nonviable without Google's services.

Re: Google has already pulled six products in 2023

#63

Post by imgabe »

ed_mercer wrote: post #28

Why does Google get grilled so badly for pulling products? Don’t other companies do the exact same thing, and isn’t it their full right to abandon projects when it no longer makes sense?

Other companies kill projects when they’ve clearly failed and basically nobody is using. Google will kill things that are moderately successful and people are dependent on, but they aren’t a blockbuster success that makes a difference compared to their ad revenue.

But mostly we’ve just never forgiven them for killing Google Reader. And we never will.

Re: Google has already pulled six products in 2023

#64

Post by iLoveOncall »

cultureswitch wrote: post #45
iLoveOncall wrote: post #24

The list is a bit dishonest. Google Code Jam was not a product, and it was an event that was a net loss in terms of revenue, which is hard to justify maintaining when you are cutting thousands of jobs. Google Street View is part of Google Maps, the post even says so. Google OnHub is a one time hardware product. Nobody is blaming Nintendo for killing the Gameboy Color when it stopped producing it. I don't see how any…

Extremely disingenuous point you're making about OnHub. Nintendo didn't remotely remove functionalities from the Gameboy Color. Google did that with OnHub. Arguing "it's hardware" doesn't work when the features are cloud-based and the company shuts down the servers. It's bait and switch, pure and simple.

So is the expectation for every single cloud-connected item or online product that the servers remain online ad vitam aeternam so that future archeologists can still use the item when it's rediscovered and restored in 10,000 years?

You just have the wrong expectation for online products.

Re: Google has already pulled six products in 2023

#65

Post by illiarian »

papito wrote: post #25
tjpnz wrote: post #8

GCP on the chopping block if it doesn't start making gains on Azure by EOY?

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.

Re: Google has already pulled six products in 2023

#66

Post by mgrund »

iLoveOncall wrote: post #24

The list is a bit dishonest. Google Code Jam was not a product, and it was an event that was a net loss in terms of revenue, which is hard to justify maintaining when you are cutting thousands of jobs. Google Street View is part of Google Maps, the post even says so. Google OnHub is a one time hardware product. Nobody is blaming Nintendo for killing the Gameboy Color when it stopped producing it. I don't see how any…

My Gameboy still works, my OnHubs are essentially bricked (unless you don’t need access to unimportant features like making changes to the Wi-Fi network settings and add nodes to the mesh network [1])

[1] https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/11257354?hl=en

Re: Google has already pulled six products in 2023

#67

Post by detourdog »

LeBit wrote: post #34
onion2k wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s interesting to me that they continue to spawn and nix products like this despite the reputation damage it causes. I think the 'problem' is that reputation damage doesn't really impact Google's revenue. They get the overwhelming majority of their money from publishing adverts, with a significant amount on their own properties (search and YouTube). It really doesn't matter if a bunch of gamers decide Stadia screwe…

Google Search is in great perils because of ChatGPT.

Google search is in great perils because of lack of quality search results.

Re: Google has already pulled six products in 2023

#68

Post by FinnKuhn »

gondaloof wrote: post #56
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…

You could say the same about Google Earth on mobile. Do you need a separate app? I’m honestly surprised it still exists.

wait, how is this comment already in the article?

Re: Google has already pulled six products in 2023

#69

Post by jsnell »

adamors wrote: post #35
ed_mercer wrote: post #28

Why does Google get grilled so badly for pulling products? Don’t other companies do the exact same thing, and isn’t it their full right to abandon projects when it no longer makes sense?

What other company has a literal graveyard of products? https://killedbygoogle.com

Amazon and Microsoft would have graveyeards just as large, if compiled via the same criteria. You know all that shit Google gets about chat apps? Microsoft has also launched and killed more than a dozen of them. Jeff Bezos used to brag about how many failed products they launched and killed.

So it comes back to the question that ed_mercer had: why is there such a double standard? Why does somebody obsessively maintain that site, and why does a large part of the HN audience love spamming "when will Google cancel search lol" into any discussion about Google, when Amazon putting two bullets into the neck of yet another product goes unnoticed?

Re: Google has already pulled six products in 2023

#70

Post by narrator »

onion2k wrote: post #43
LeBit wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Search is in great perils because of ChatGPT.

It could be. I don't think Google are likely to just roll over and let OpenAI/MSFT take that market though. Obviously Google will try to compete. Maybe they'll fail, maybe they won't. If nothing else, as a user of these tools, it's going to be exciting to see some innovation in search UIs for the first time in decades.

They were saying on the all-in podcast that Google is under lots of political pressure from all sides and that makes it difficult for them to launch controversial tech like LLMs. Bard feels very hobbled and, for example, refuses to answer any medical questions.
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