Google and Ambient Computing • Hacker News Board

Re: Google and Ambient Computing

#91

Post by v7p1Qbt1im » Wed, Oct 16, 2019, 11:33 PM UTC

dmix wrote: post #7

codingslave wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can't innovate, despite all of their "talent"

Innovation usually takes a much longer timeline than just launching something and killing it with a year or two when it’s not sufficiently Google scale. The world would have a lot less great products if this is how it was always done. This is why startups continue to be the primary innovation source. They are willing to go through the hard grind to find product/market fit over multiple years. Most of the products pur…

Isn‘t that exactly what X is doing though? Waymo started as a project in 2009 I believe. It wasn‘t anything commercial until recently.

Re: Google and Ambient Computing

#92

Post by v7p1Qbt1im » Wed, Oct 16, 2019, 11:39 PM UTC

mindgam3 wrote: post #19

> So the devices aren’t the center of the system, you are. That’s our vision for ambient computing. The vision is correct but the naming is off. Something like “embodied computing” would convey the key difference better than “ambient”, namely that the user is at the center. And yes this is a fancypants way of saying wearables. But this is a nice attempt from google to paint the future as an extension of something it…

I wouldn‘t say wearables. More like device-agnostic. You are giving commands to a system. That system might literally be your surroundings in the future. Wearables, like contact lenses, might be a part of it. But so could sensors in a road or a smart window you walk past.

Re: Google and Ambient Computing

#93

Post by russh » Thu, Oct 17, 2019, 12:22 AM UTC

nopriorarrests wrote: post #68

mfer wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But if people choose these products because the convenience is worth it in their estimation, revealed preferences and all that. "is worth it" requires people to be fully aware of what's going on. I've described what some of these devices are doing based on product announcements, patents, investigative news stories, and that sort of thing. I've had numerous people tell me that I'm wrong. That they don't believe comp…

>This has caused me to come to the conclusion that people aren't aware of the trade-offs or what is going on. But what exactly is going on? It's not like google going to blackmail you for 10K USD in cash, single payment please, once it will learn that you are going to the same pub and spend 2 hours there daily, "or we will let your boss know". It will show you more relevant ads, right. But do you really expect an ave…

Google probably will not, but can you say that about every Google employee?

Re: Google and Ambient Computing

#94

Post by ToFab123 » Thu, Oct 17, 2019, 1:40 AM UTC

They are not really being helpful to me, when organizing the worlds information means, that all search results on page 1 are paid advertising.

Re: Google and Ambient Computing

#95

Post by IggleSniggle » Thu, Oct 17, 2019, 3:05 AM UTC

UncleMeat wrote: post #59

amelius wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it time that Google grows up and becomes a true tech company? I consider products containing adware to be "half-broken" and I don't understand how Google engineers can feel proud of their work. As an engineer I want my work to be paid for because my users like my products, and I certainly wouldn't want any of my work to be used to serve anyone other than my users.

Do you pay for YouTube premium? Options are there, but it seems like most users prefer ad supported content to paid content in many contexts.

Google Play Music is awesome. I love that I can keep my personal collection of rare MP3s there and have them in a convenient cloud player. Ad-free YouTube is just icing on the cake.

Re: Google and Ambient Computing

#96

Post by sch6y » Thu, Oct 17, 2019, 3:20 AM UTC

codingslave wrote: post #6

ydnaclementine wrote: post #3

It seems like google has the unfortunate culture of just releasing a bunch of new services, not maintaining them, and allowing them to die. (Remember all of their chat apps?) I think I’ve read it’s due to google’s promotion process and needing to “release” something to move upward. I expect the majority of these service to no longer be around in 5 years.

They can't innovate, despite all of their "talent"

That's because that talent isn't allowed to own anything. Imagine you know what to do and how to do it. You go to YC, present your idea and ask for some funding. And imagine they'd tell you that "Yea, we can pay you this fixed salary and see if your idea works. No, we get 100% rights. No, we won't share profits, but we'll up your salary if things go well. No, we can't tell you by how much." Who in their right mind agree on these terms? That's why employees don't share any really interesting ideas: they go to YC, get money and retain 93%. Google has the right people, but it's not really interested in any changes because ads work really well. Afaik, they even cancelled the 20% time.

Re: Google and Ambient Computing

#97

Post by mav3rick » Thu, Oct 17, 2019, 3:52 AM UTC

m463 wrote: post #77

Kiro wrote: post #45

People really hate Google here. Look at this thread and the other about Soli. Not a single positive comment about Google. No wonder Google engineers have stopped posting on HN. Maybe Google truly is evil but I fail to see it personally.

It's a symptom of an underlying problem. - companies used to respect us. - computers used to belong to us. The equation changed when companies found a way to charge advertisers big money by inverting these equations. Google is just the poster child for all this, but there are lots of other players that have cashed in.

You are free to not use their services. People acting offended for using free services. Before you say "free" is not free, well no one pays for most web services. So this is an inherent human problem not one these companies created.

Re: Google and Ambient Computing

#98

Post by rdc12 » Thu, Oct 17, 2019, 4:01 AM UTC

amelius wrote: post #83

nopriorarrests wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oracle fits this description nicely. :)

No that's a law firm :)

And a strip and gut, tech acquisition company.

Re: Google and Ambient Computing

#99

Post by mav3rick » Thu, Oct 17, 2019, 4:32 AM UTC

criddell wrote: post #51

WC3w6pXxgGd wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're no coerced in any way. Don't use Google.

That's almost impossible. If you were to send me an email you would be using Google and not even know it because I host my domain mx there.

So ? Don't host your domain there.

Re: Google and Ambient Computing

#100

Post by Lio » Thu, Oct 17, 2019, 6:44 AM UTC

mav3rick wrote: post #69

tdonia wrote: post #33

as someone who switched to an iphone yesterday after having using google flagship models since the nexus one, i agree that this is an important direction for google's product strategy, but i think they're playing catch up from far behind. i remarked to my wife last night that the biggest difference in the ux between the two was that my android was always a phone, and this iphone has become a platform/ux that's larger…

Assistant is so far ahead.

That might very well be true that Google Assistant is better but there’s a certain class of user, like me, that finds voice interfaces obnoxious.

The first thing I do with a new phone is turn Siri off because I don’t want to use my phone that way. So it doesn’t matter to me which is better or which is worse.

However privacy is important to me so I use that as a driver of purchases.