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Google stopping coding competitions

developers.googleblog.com

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Re: Google stopping coding competitions

#91

Post by pb7 »

aniforprez wrote: post #81
Reason077 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple Maps, and the huge number of products based on OpenStreetMap are perfectly fine as maps. And actually, even better than Google Maps in many cases. But where Google Maps still dominates is in its unrivalled, global point of interest (POI) data. Accurate business locations, opening hours, photos, reviews, etc... nobody else comes close.

Honestly Apple Maps isn't even particularly good outside of the US and a few European countries. Roads are constantly out of date and can barely keep up and landmarks and businesses in tons of major cities aren't close to correct

Not to mention its complete inability to reroute sometimes if you take the wrong turn. It'll keep yelling to return to the route over and over instead of routing a turnaround somewhere.

Re: Google stopping coding competitions

#93

Post by gkoberger »

giraffe_lady wrote: post #14
gkoberger wrote: post #9

We could lament them shutting it down, but why not thank them for doing this for 20 years? That's a LONG time to do anything, and despite what Google has become, it absolutely defined tech culture. Now it's obvious and commonplace, but an employee-centric company was revolutionary at the time. Things like this changed the lives of every single person here, either directly or indirectly. And best yet, it's a chance fo…

[flagged]

Sorry, in context I meant people in tech. I updated it to make that slightly more clear.

I do think you could easily argue Google has affected every single person indirectly (although not necessarily positively), but I did specifically mean people who work on a tech product day to day.

Re: Google stopping coding competitions

#94

Post by red-iron-pine »

mouse_ wrote: post #26
blindriver wrote: post #18

Thank you Sundar for getting rid of the frivolous, Silicon-Valley-esque things like coding competitions for kids, extricating all of the humanity and decency that made Google so inefficient with money, and for doubling down on your focus to turn Google into the next iteration of Cisco, Oracle and IBM. It's exactly what this world needs, so you are the perfect leader for this.

Sundar is a scapegoat.

Corporate Executive Officers exist to take responsibility. That's the point.

Re: Google stopping coding competitions

#95

Post by dtc2302 »

Have they announced a reason behind this. I was new to the competitions, just started last year and was looking forward to another year of them. They were a great break from my college course work on the days they happened

Re: Google stopping coding competitions

#96

Post by pb7 »

reptation wrote: post #27
pancrufty wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which Google are you referring to exactly? With its many successful products, I don’t see Google being overtaken anytime soon. Ads are doing better than ever, Android is holding steady worldwide, Maps has a huge moat that Apple has yet to overcome (in over a decade), nobody really complains about Google Search except us nerds. I see them just coasting, but an overtake is unlikely in this decade. “The New Bing” sounds…

n=1 but the built-in Maps on iphone seems to be fine these days. Doesn't steer me wrong, integrates with a car. Not sure what the moat here is other than name recognition or current popularity. Perhaps app integration or API consumption?

As others have said: POI data. If you don't have (the cancer that is) Yelp installed, you don't even get reviews.

Re: Google stopping coding competitions

#97

Post by throwaway09223 »

robocat wrote: post #36
giraffe_lady wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> line cooks I agree with you. However it is interesting that Charlie Ayers (employee #53 as a cook at Google), made millions when his stocks vested.

I have a friend who's actually a line cook. He has absolutely been touched by these types of code competitions - in his case, because of the interest it fostered in his kids. He's working hard to support them to follow their dream of being a SWE and he has a pretty darn good understanding of their interest in these types of competitions.

The reach of these programs isn't limited to people who work in an office. The impact is broad and includes many people across different industries and different economic/cultural divides -- because it's a program for their kids.

Re: Google stopping coding competitions

#98

Post by qwertox »

gkoberger wrote: post #9

We could lament them shutting it down, but why not thank them for doing this for 20 years? That's a LONG time to do anything, and despite what Google has become, it absolutely defined tech culture. Now it's obvious and commonplace, but an employee-centric company was revolutionary at the time. Things like this changed the lives of every single person here, either directly or indirectly. And best yet, it's a chance fo…

Haven't we already been thanking them for 20 years?

Re: Google stopping coding competitions

#99

Post by quantified »

giraffe_lady wrote: post #14
gkoberger wrote: post #9

We could lament them shutting it down, but why not thank them for doing this for 20 years? That's a LONG time to do anything, and despite what Google has become, it absolutely defined tech culture. Now it's obvious and commonplace, but an employee-centric company was revolutionary at the time. Things like this changed the lives of every single person here, either directly or indirectly. And best yet, it's a chance fo…

[flagged]

I'm not so sure that truck drivers haven't benefited from Google maps and the ability to search for things while on the road. Do you think they avoid the internet?

Line cooks: they don't use the internet when they go home? They don't watch Youtube? They don't use Google maps to get where they're going sometimes?

Re: Google stopping coding competitions

#100

Post by riku_iki »

gkoberger wrote: post #9

We could lament them shutting it down, but why not thank them for doing this for 20 years? That's a LONG time to do anything, and despite what Google has become, it absolutely defined tech culture. Now it's obvious and commonplace, but an employee-centric company was revolutionary at the time. Things like this changed the lives of every single person here, either directly or indirectly. And best yet, it's a chance fo…

> them for doing this for 20 years?

"them" likely were layed off, hence they shut down service now.

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