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Google seems to be facing a trust problem here that its competitors don't, due to its history of shutting down popular services, even those that were being used

by bshanks 11y ago

Google seems to be facing a trust problem here that its competitors don't, due to its history of shutting down popular services, even those that were being used internally and even those that it had been recently hyping to the press. Due to this unusual context, perhaps it would help if Google were to increase this promise from 1 year to 10 years (or 5 years or 3 years).

gm3dmo 11y ago
On the flipside, API's like maps have had stable versions that are deprecated for years.
- sockgrant 11y ago
  That's one of the few examples that hasn't burned developer trust. But it's still not a shining example -- there were times of price changes and rate limit changes.
lisbakke 11y ago
Yep. Their trust problem is also very well earned both from the APIs they've killed/changed and from the long list of Google products in the graveyard.
- rtpg 11y ago
  They've killed APIs/Products, but they've almost always given a very long amount of time to transition.
  - jfoster 11y ago
    Also have killed APIs/Products that are extremely difficult to transition from with short notice. For example, they gave ~4 months for the Google Wallet for the web transition, and no data portability for businesses with users on subscriptions. Stripe, for example, has a data portability clause that allows you to move card data to another payments processor that meets some compliance standards. https://support.google.com/payments/merchant/answer/6107573?hl=en https://support.google.com/payments/merchant/answer/6107573?...
  - lisbakke 11y ago
    Regardless of if you get 4 months notice or 1 year notice you still have to do the work to migrate and you're still stuck with the sunk cost of investing in/learning a doomed platform. That's why I wouldn't build a business on Google, because they have a long history of killing things when they aren't wildly profitable/successful. A $10m/yr profit product is considered a distraction of valuable engineer time unless it has some ulterior goal for the company. And I'm not saying they should change -- they do what's right for them. One engineer working on some distraction project could instead be moved to ads quality and end up making a change worth anywhere from hundreds of millions/yr to billions. But they can't have their cake and eat it.
- toxik 11y ago
  Google App Engine comes to mind. I'm amazed they would kill of such a product at all.
  - kccqzy 11y ago
    Google App Engine isn't killed. It's still alive and new features are being added. What are you talking about?
    - matwood 11y ago
      The GP was probably referring to the huge price change that effectively killed it for many people.
dba7dba 11y ago
Trust is hard to earn and easy to lose. No matter how much power/money you have at disposal.

by bshanks 11y ago

gm3dmo 11y ago

On the flipside, API's like maps have had stable versions that are deprecated for years.

sockgrant 11y ago
That's one of the few examples that hasn't burned developer trust. But it's still not a shining example -- there were times of price changes and rate limit changes.

lisbakke 11y ago

Yep. Their trust problem is also very well earned both from the APIs they've killed/changed and from the long list of Google products in the graveyard.

rtpg 11y ago
They've killed APIs/Products, but they've almost always given a very long amount of time to transition.
- jfoster 11y ago
  Also have killed APIs/Products that are extremely difficult to transition from with short notice. For example, they gave ~4 months for the Google Wallet for the web transition, and no data portability for businesses with users on subscriptions. Stripe, for example, has a data portability clause that allows you to move card data to another payments processor that meets some compliance standards. https://support.google.com/payments/merchant/answer/6107573?hl=en https://support.google.com/payments/merchant/answer/6107573?...
- lisbakke 11y ago
  Regardless of if you get 4 months notice or 1 year notice you still have to do the work to migrate and you're still stuck with the sunk cost of investing in/learning a doomed platform. That's why I wouldn't build a business on Google, because they have a long history of killing things when they aren't wildly profitable/successful. A $10m/yr profit product is considered a distraction of valuable engineer time unless it has some ulterior goal for the company. And I'm not saying they should change -- they do what's right for them. One engineer working on some distraction project could instead be moved to ads quality and end up making a change worth anywhere from hundreds of millions/yr to billions. But they can't have their cake and eat it.
toxik 11y ago
Google App Engine comes to mind. I'm amazed they would kill of such a product at all.
- kccqzy 11y ago
  Google App Engine isn't killed. It's still alive and new features are being added. What are you talking about?
  - matwood 11y ago
    The GP was probably referring to the huge price change that effectively killed it for many people.

dba7dba 11y ago

Trust is hard to earn and easy to lose. No matter how much power/money you have at disposal.