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0 pointsblaisio5y ago0 comments

The point is they create a huge amount of hassle for users by constantly killing/replacing/renaming products, and it also shows that they aren't doing any effective long-term planning. That's what makes people mad.

Angular: I agree that angular is not dead, people can still use v1 if they want to. This does not count.

Hangouts: the new version has different pricing, different features, different name, different URL, different apps... this absolutely counts (and is one of the most egregious examples)

Password checkup: the extension worked fine, but they intentionally disabled it. Any references to it on the web now have to be updated to refer to password checkup in the browser. Anyone who knows how to use the extension has to relearn how to use it in the browser. This counts.

Google Photos Print: yes the original was stupid, but it was still a product and is now gone. This counts.

Shoelace: yeah this never really launched in the first place. This doesn't count.

Google Chrome Apps: I mean really? Anything that requires rewriting parts of an app to make it work counts!

Dragonfly: this was never released, it doesn't count. But it is important that people know about this, it is an example of Google quite blatantly being evil.

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jeffbee5y ago· 2 in thread

> they aren't doing any effective long-term planning

They do, you just don't grok it. These applications are just toys. They are the result of the plan but not the plan itself. The plan is to just bury a ton of fiber, build a ton of computers, hire a ton of developers, and see what the heck happens. The plan is so successful that they can build and deploy these apps for almost no marginal cost, which is why they also probably feel free to just throw them away.

Judgmentality5y ago

No - Google does not have some brilliant master plan we are unable to understand. If you're really arguing that their "plan" is to just spend money and see what sticks, then I'd say they absolutely deserve criticism for being fucking clueless idiots.

jeffbee5y ago

We are discussing the issue here in the very cathedral of "spend money and see what sticks". That's the whole silicon valley venture strategy. If you think of Google as a large-scale startup incubator with a very efficient private cloud in house, then you will understand the long tail of their product lineup much better.

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