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Tables: Tracking work for teams

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Re: Tables: Tracking work for teams

#82

PRESS RELEASE Sept 22, 2021. Google Announces that Google Tables will be sunset and all users will have to migrate away by Sept 23, 2021. "Google Tables was a great experiment but we're migrating to Google Tracker - a better version of Google Tables designed for power users." said Dep Re. Kated, VP of Engineering at Google. Google Tables has no migration tool or system for users to export their data angering some use…

That was funny 10 years ago, may be.

Re: Tables: Tracking work for teams

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"At Area 120, we work on 20% projects 100% of the time." It literally just has no backing by Google's corporate or business goals.

Right but you can be sure that many people across several teams inside of Google have thought about creating a Airtable clone. Somehow Google greenlit this as a standalone product amongst many other options...

> Somehow Google greenlit this as a standalone product amongst many other options...

Even before the “internal incubator” that this came out of, Google hasn't been known for doing a single exclusive offering in a space, so this probably wasn't centrally green lot (because otherwise “internal incubator” makes little sense), and it's release wouldn't (even if it was) exclude another Google offering in the same space. The competitive process you imagine just doesn't seem likely to even approximate the truth.

Re: Tables: Tracking work for teams

#84

Apparently, “Area 120” is the Google Unit for products that launch without any textual explanation of what they are or how to use them, just low-information-density YouTube walkthroughs.

Interesting. This is the first time I've heard of Area 120. Looks like they have their own site.

https://area120.google.com

Re: Tables: Tracking work for teams

#85
post #82

PRESS RELEASE Sept 22, 2021. Google Announces that Google Tables will be sunset and all users will have to migrate away by Sept 23, 2021. "Google Tables was a great experiment but we're migrating to Google Tracker - a better version of Google Tables designed for power users." said Dep Re. Kated, VP of Engineering at Google. Google Tables has no migration tool or system for users to export their data angering some use…

That was funny 10 years ago, may be.

Now it's turned from a comic truth to a tragic truth?

Re: Tables: Tracking work for teams

#86

I remember the day when I'd be excited about any new Google beta. Frankly, I'm not even going to look at this one

This is what I feel now. A google product launch is just another opportunity for them to hurt me. I have friends who still pour one out for Inbox.

Re: Tables: Tracking work for teams

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Docs and Sheets already feels like abandonedware. I haven't seen any substantial changes in years.

Erm, the explore tab in Sheets is pretty awesome for small businesses and people unfamiliar with Excel-like formula. Not sure when that was released, though!

Looks like 2015: https://www.bettercloud.com/monitor/the-academy/google-sheet...

Re: Tables: Tracking work for teams

#88
Very curious on how this versatile project will turn out. Google, with all of its collaboration tools like Sheets and Docs, really sucks at "Teams" (task and project management, for instance).

Probably because it's hard to fit all the use cases G Suite customers may have (tiny teams, giant enterprise, growing startups, etc).

Yet, I've always wanted that with my small team working off G Suite mostly. Always having to use an external Project management is fine, but having it done from Google itself would be a great touch. A little like Microsoft Teams/Sharepoint.

I hope that Table can bring us a little step closer.

Re: Tables: Tracking work for teams

#89
post #4

This isn't part of GSuite and therefore isn't subject to the same SLA. I wonder if the pricing will stick like this forever or if it will eventually be bundled, since Microsoft already includes something like this in 365 (and many companies probably already pay someone else for this type of functionality, like Airtable). I'd be a little scared of paying for something in the Google incubator, knowing how they cull stu…

It also makes you wonder: If this isn’t part of GSuite, then where does it belong in the Google organisation? If Tables is just it’s own thing, not related to search, GSuite, GCP or ads then it’s already dead. At some level it must suck to know that you’ve created a culture where people don’t even care to try out your new fancy gizmo, because they expect you to abandon to quickly it’s simply not worth investing you t…

> If this isn’t part of GSuite, then where does it belong in the Google organisation?

I suspect if it were to ever emerge from the “internal incubator” Area 120 is described as, it would become a GSuite feature.

> Or does Google not know that how they’re perceived?

I think Google knows that people in certain circles talking nothing but that view. They probably also have real stats on how their experiments are picked up and used, and I suspect they aren't at all what the people who think that the perception you refer to do instead public consciousness would predict.

Re: Tables: Tracking work for teams

#90
post #51

You know Google has a serious credibility problem when half or more of the comments on tech sites covering product launches are questioning when Google will decide to randomly pull the plug.

The opposite end of this spectrum is a company supporting far too many different properties like Yahoo did. How do you strike the right balance?

They should release the financials of the app and let companies bid to acquire the app and its userbase. Smaller companies get a shot at growing the business, users stay happy(er than they would otherwise) and google gets a shot at acquiring the original idea back should it succeed under the hands of people who give a damn.

Unfortunately, such a program would likely be sunset after a year.

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