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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.

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.