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Google to Acquire Looker

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Re: Google to Acquire Looker

#81

Post by sv123 »

tmountain wrote: post #35

I'm curious what this means for folks that opted to use Looker for their embedded analytics and if that's something Google is interested in supporting over the long-term? I'm also wondering how this affects pricing over the long-term and whether this becomes a replacement for Data Studio / commoditized analytics platform to make GCP more compelling? Would it be in Google's interest to offer this for free (or at least…

Very worried on the embedded side, we spent a full year migrating off of sisense embedded onto Looker embedded and literally launched two days ago. Embedded on any BI platform already seems like a red-headed stepchild with a little love, but not too much, being put into it in fits and starts. It could be so useful to so many companies, but the platform costs puts it outside most of their reach, so it ends up just hanging out. The thought of moving again makes me ill, not just for the herculean dev effort, but the fact that Looker really does have one of the only really useful embedded offerings. No other BI tool could compare.

Re: Google to Acquire Looker

#82

Post by snazz »

gordon_freeman wrote: post #69
anbop wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YouTube, Android, Applied Semantics, DoubleClick, 510 Systems... you haven’t been looking very hard.

And Waze too. I love that app's singular focus in improving the driving experience and nothing else as a Maps product.

I’m surprised (and glad) they didn’t integrate it into Google Maps and shut down Waze.

Re: Google to Acquire Looker

#83

Post by buremba »

sytse wrote: post #51
buremba wrote: post #40

Hey all, as a potential competitor of Looker, I'm not sure how I should feel about this news. :) Here are some of the facts: 1. When Google acquired Alooma, they slowed down the development and dropped the support for other destinations such as Redshift and Hive. Even though Alooma is a data pipeline tool which makes it similar to Looker's case, the deal was $150M (compared to $2.6B) so I'm not sure the comparison ma…

Does your lookML alternative support the use cases of Meltano Model https://meltano.com/docs/architecture.html#meltano-model ? We would love to replace ours with something open source if it is better. We love DBT.

Do you have the Meltano models in a repository? It looks similar to LookML so the use-case is similar. I would love to hear more and see some of your example Meltano models, could you please send an email to emre [at] rakam.io?

Re: Google to Acquire Looker

#84

Post by siliconc0w »

Looker is a pretty interesting tool that essentially solves the SQL manageability problem. SQL is really hard to reuse but LookML data models are easily reused (and are versioned in git which is really nice since Business Analysts typically aren't familiar with version control). Integrating LookML-style data modeling into BigQuery could be interesting...

Re: Google to Acquire Looker

#85

Post by mc32 »

outside1234 wrote: post #53
mc32 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would definitely revitalize the coast. But at what price? Can you imagine the gridlock on State Highway 17 (and the Pac HWY)? If I sat in the governator’s office, I’d push for a commuter line from the South Bay to St Cruz. That would be so much more beneficial than the HSR to no-where we wasted 70 billion on.

It is too obviously a great strategy to put in rail between San Jose Diridon, Los Gatos, and Santa Cruz, so let's build rail in the middle of nowhere instead. There is even an abandoned tunnel under the mountain that did this in the early 1900s!

Thanks for reminding me of that. I thought there had been but wasn't sure if it went all along HWY 17. Apparently there was one running till the 40s.[1] But the highway killed it (not mudslides as is often attributed). There were a total of 8 tunnels most of them condemned and dynamited. But apparently the right of way exists and could be rebuilt! So there is hope if people and businesses push hard enough for it.

Commuters would rejoice, SCZ would enjoy revitalization and integration into the Bay Area economy and holidaymakers would enjoy a nice leisurely trip to the beach by train --what a treat that would be!

[1]https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/01/05/abandoned-railroad-tu...

Re: Google to Acquire Looker

#86

Post by reilly3000 »

I've used Looker before and am mostly a fan. Contrary to many of the comments here, its not precisely a 'kiddie' tool for people that don't want to learn SQL; its more like a ORM/DSL for BI queries. I'd probably be using it in my current gig, but the licensing model doesn't really work for small operations.

Google Cloud has an actually great track record of acquiring data-centric companies and democratizing them. While Data Studio is pretty amazing for a free tool, it has many shortcomings for serious use, and Looker fills all those holes nicely, while also providing the ability to formalize processes around data. Instead of mousing around Data Studio, Looker allows for all of its resources to be defined in its YAMLish syntax and maintained in source control.

Re: Google to Acquire Looker

#87

Post by fernandotakai »

snazz wrote: post #82
gordon_freeman wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And Waze too. I love that app's singular focus in improving the driving experience and nothing else as a Maps product.

I’m surprised (and glad) they didn’t integrate it into Google Maps and shut down Waze.

almost no-one i know that uses waze knows that it's a google product. some even say "i don't even know why google doesn't buy waze!".

(in my country, waze is the go to app for navigation for everyone)

Re: Google to Acquire Looker

#88

Post by dmor »

buremba wrote: post #83
sytse wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does your lookML alternative support the use cases of Meltano Model https://meltano.com/docs/architecture.html#meltano-model ? We would love to replace ours with something open source if it is better. We love DBT.

Do you have the Meltano models in a repository? It looks similar to LookML so the use-case is similar. I would love to hear more and see some of your example Meltano models, could you please send an email to emre [at] rakam.io?

Yes, you can see the full list of model repos for Meltano here: https://gitlab.com/meltano?utf8=%E2%9C%93&filter=model-

Would love to collaborate, do you want to join our Zoom call https://gitlab.zoom.us/j/542273985? (Anyone else who wants to join in is welcome, the link is open)

Re: Google to Acquire Looker

#89

Post by buremba »

victor106 wrote: post #29
jon-wood wrote: post #7

I'm curious to see how Google handle acquiring a company which requires some fairly high touch sales. Looker is a fantastic tool, but its not something which is useful from day one, and at least currently has a high enough price tag attached to it that they involve a lot of sales engineering in getting new customers to a point where they're able to query data they care about.

> at least currently has a high enough price tag attached to it They don’t have a price on their website. Can anyone here provide what price points a medium-large company is looking(no pun intended) at?

The pricing starts from $3k for 20 users if you subscribe to one of their annual plans.

Re: Google to Acquire Looker

#90

Post by kinkrtyavimoodh »

anbop wrote: post #60
mirceal wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you should feel pretty good. i’ve yet to see a product acquired by google that did well after.

YouTube, Android, Applied Semantics, DoubleClick, 510 Systems... you haven’t been looking very hard.

You are bringing facts into a circle-jerk fight. It's already a slow day here on HN as we discuss the 4th "Why Medium Sucks" post in 3 days. Don't deny people their daily dose of Google-bashing :)
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