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Reflecting on 18 Years at Google

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Re: Reflecting on 18 Years at Google

#851

Post by iEchoic »

Kbelicius wrote: post #844
JSavageOne wrote: post #824

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right so every website needing a cookie banner to comply with EU regulations is not only a UX nightmare, but it doesn't even prevent tracking. Horrible pointless legislation.

> Right so every website needing a cookie banner to comply with EU regulations As it was pointed out, no, EU regulations don't mandate cookie banners. It seem you have an axe to grind with the EU. > but it doesn't even prevent tracking Incognito mode doesn't prevent all forms of tracking was what GP said...

> As it was pointed out, no, EU regulations don't mandate cookie banners. It seem you have an axe to grind with the EU.

EU regulations do require cookie banners.

Re: Reflecting on 18 Years at Google

#852

Post by klabb3 »

greatgib wrote: post #534

I think this guy has a Stockholm syndrom like I saw multiple times with Google employees: ; one of the most annoying is the prevalence of pointless cookie warnings we have to wade through today. I found it quite frustrating how teams would be legitimately actively pursuing ideas that would be good for the world, without prioritising short-term Google interests, only to be met with cynicism in the court of public opin…

Indeed. But Google is a company built on 3p cookies, perhaps more than any other. Innovating is very difficult at Google in general, but in the search/ads pipeline it must have been near-impossible. I’d imagine that any replacement that isn’t entirely feature complete (ie does the same thing 3p cookies do today) would have been politically impossible to push seriously. The higher leadership (VPs etc) act mostly like middle-management but with more kool-aid and corp speech. The few who were more bold usually came from acquisitions and left for more impactful work elsewhere, after their bonus payouts (me speculating, but lines up).

Re: Reflecting on 18 Years at Google

#855

Post by LeonB »

bobviolier wrote: post #795
somenameforme wrote: post #786

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a really interesting interview [1] with Astro Teller, the head of Google's moonshot 'x division', in 2016. In terms of project selection, he focuses on trying to dismiss projects early on, by looking for reasons that a project might fail. And even rewarding employees for scrapping things early on. That doesn't sound particularly unreasonable, but it largely just amounts to a conservative planning process. S…

At that time, others companies were not building most of those things though.

And those that were building were basically doing research, not refining a product that had achieved product market fit. The gp makes it sound like they were manufacturing widgets. The existence of others in the market is better described as “other people were also able to attract funding for the potential payoffs in that field.”

It demands that google’s mopnshots need to be something no other investor has considered.

The same comment translated to 1965 — “The US is trying to get to the moon? Well Russia is trying too. So I’d hardly call it a “moonshot” “

(Edited to change typo of “potential layoffs” to “potential payoffs”, possibly more fitting though)

Re: Reflecting on 18 Years at Google

#856

Post by n4r9 »

piyush_soni wrote: post #840
kelnos wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, agreed. My view is that the people on the inside often can't see the forest for the trees. They look at their immediate team/group, love the autonomy/transparency/"don't be evil"-mandate/etc. that they have and follow, and look around and see some of that in other groups, and think, "wow, this company is great, doesn't care about all that big-bad-company stuff". But people outside can look at a company that gets…

But then again, everyone says Google is evil to have made their own browser, but most of the world is using it - one would guess they must have done some good things with it (so taking humanity forward in some capacity etc.). Some are even criticizing Google from its own browser - I hate the fact that it made Firefox lose their market share, but I also understand it can't all be because the big corp brainwashed every…

I'm not sure anyone is calling them evil simply for making a browser. Tactics like forcing it to be pre-installed and unable to be removed on Android are somewhat evil, especially if they're part of an anti-competitive strategy.

Re: Reflecting on 18 Years at Google

#857

Post by dontlaugh »

fidotron wrote: post #19

This is interesting, surprisingly blunt, and quite on point about the current malaise, but . . . I think this is the perspective of someone that was happily drinking the kool aid for longer than they should have been. For example, my impression was that had Android assimilated into the wider Google they would have failed. The wider Google views the fact Android isn't Chrome OS as a strategic failure, but the truth is…

Indeed, I also find the critique of the Android team amusing (except for the implied overtime).

It's still one of the few Google products that is even vaguely competent. And I still prefer iOS.

Re: Reflecting on 18 Years at Google

#858

Post by pelasaco »

> I often saw privacy advocates argue against Google proposals in ways that were net harmful to users.

I experienced it the beginning of the Corona pandemics, where I demo'ed some workflows and documented some step by step guide to use Google classroom to be able to offer a great experience regarding home-schooling in Germany. We presented to some Department of Education in Germany, they all declined it because of the "privacy advocates" doing FUD in a super conspiracy level.. we ended up spending millions of Euros and every State having it's on half baked solution and a super weak home-schooling infrastructure in general. I'm pretty confident that we definitely could have done better just using Google classroom.

Re: Reflecting on 18 Years at Google

#859

Post by dontlaugh »

iEchoic wrote: post #851
Kbelicius wrote: post #844

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Right so every website needing a cookie banner to comply with EU regulations As it was pointed out, no, EU regulations don't mandate cookie banners. It seem you have an axe to grind with the EU. > but it doesn't even prevent tracking Incognito mode doesn't prevent all forms of tracking was what GP said...

> As it was pointed out, no, EU regulations don't mandate cookie banners. It seem you have an axe to grind with the EU. EU regulations do require cookie banners.

No, they don't. Read the GDPR, it's not that long. The actual problem is that the current practice on which massive profits depend is contrary to any privacy desires. If they didn't track, they wouldn't need ask for consent for the tracking.

And I don't even like the EU, I want it ended.

Re: Reflecting on 18 Years at Google

#860

Post by bobba27 »

Very early google was full of passion and people that wanted to build cool things for users. There was a passion where building things that would surprise and delight users.

The process when this changed was slow but I think started 2008-2010 where passion for building something was no longer what drove people but instead the promo-process, having impact and moving the needle became what drove people. Not passion but promo-process changed the culture dramatically over time.

Me and friends used to call it the LPA cycle. (L)aunch, get (P)romo, (A)bandon and switch team. And towards the second half of the 2010s it became a de-facto rule. Once something launches with a big fanfare, after next promo-cycle almost l5 and higher engineers leave to chase their next promo in a different team.

You can see this over and over after ~2015. High velocity and innovation until launch and shortly after it grinds to a stop. very sad to see this change from early google.

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