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Google Spaces will be shut down on April 17th
- franze 10y agoMay 16, 2016 - April 17, 2017 so basically project infanticide...
- cschmittiey 10y agoIt's sad that they're abandoning this, but I can't say I blame them. I don't know a single person who used this, or even knew of its existence unless I told them about it. The idea was cool, I think small group collaboration and being able to share stuff in a "stream" for just us was a really interesting way to approach the problem, however the UI and user flow just didn't "click" in a way that's hard to describe.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- arcticfox 10y agoTo be fair, I and a lot of other early adopters would be more willing to use this if the last 10 new Google products we tried didn't get shut down. I think the most recent new Google product we use that hasn't been killed is Android. So, sure, makes sense to shut it down, no one uses it. But there are some good reasons for that.
- danmaz74 10y agoI appreciate lots of Google services, open source contributions etc. - but this is really getting out of hand. I wonder, how much can a service like this cost Google? Are the savings worth the negative publicity that comes out of so lightly launch and then shut down services? I feel like they're starting to really damage their brand among those in the know, which are the ones who give advice to everybody else...
- moxious 10y agoWhy would this damage their brand? They tried an experiment, if didn't work out, they're moving on. What's wrong with that?
- moonshinefe 10y agoI think the original comment was getting at the fact Google often starts, massively trumpets services, and then abandons them in the night. I never recall them saying a single time in the several if not dozens of services they've started / ditched in the last several years where they've explicitly said "yeah, this might go away at a moments' notice." It tends to chip away at your confidence if you're looking at investing in their services.
- pimlottc 10y agoYou left out one step, which is they first neglect it for a few years, and then they abruptly close it.
- nothrabannosir 10y agoBrands are not about logic but about image. What is Google's image with their services? That they shut them down. What are they doing here? They're shutting down a service. This does not help.
- tyingq 10y agoPerhaps if the announcement had some couched language that explained it was a trial balloon, and could go away at any time that would be fine. It did not: https://blog.google/products/spaces/introducing-spaces-tool-for-small-group/ https://blog.google/products/spaces/introducing-spaces-tool-... The issue is that it's an established pattern, so it may limit adoption on other new services they launch.
- Just1689 10y agoAre there any alternatives anyone would care to vouch for?
- lkbm 10y agoI didn't use Google Spaces beyond "let me look at this--okay not interested", but it seemed similar to Facebook Workplace (or even just Facebook groups, really), which seems fairly functional. Are there specific features of Spaces you're looking for?
- andreareina 10y agoGoogle has acquired a reputation for shutting down services, which means that people are reluctant to start using new Google services, which means that they have low traction, which means that Google shuts them down… EDIT: They (say they) aren't shutting this down to low traction, but it will only reinforce the existing perception.
- moonshinefe 10y agoAgreed. It seems they'll hype up and push a service then shut it down at the drop of a pin at this point. It's not great for their brand if you're a company that wants a reliable, long term solution.
- simooooo 10y agoI agree but how is it any worse than a start-up trying the idea and then dying in a similar fashion?
- travem 10y agoIt's worse for google because their brand is attached to it. Shutting down a branded internal "startup" can cause negative sentiment to be attached to the overall brand (as evidenced in comments here). Whereas with a startup there isn't really a lingering negative impact on a parent brand because there is no parent brand.
- simooooo 10y agoyeah worse for the brand of Google but not for us as we are just as likely to have it fail as if it were a startup.
- jfoster 10y agoStartups that die do affect the overall perception of startups, but at the point of going out of business, the business no longer cares about its brand perception.
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- jaxondu 10y agoI just started using Keep. This is giving me pause.
- jasonvorhe 10y agoKeep has been going at full steam for 3 years now. It's one of their prime apps to show off drawing capabilities of the new generation of convertible Chromebooks. Don't worry, Keep is there to stay.
- patrickaljord 10y ago> Don't worry, Keep is there to stay. You mean it's a keeper? Sorry, it had to be said.
- criddell 10y agoAre you assuming that Chromebooks have a long term future? I sure wouldn't assume that. I also wouldn't count on Keep being around for the long term. I use it quite a bit, but only for ephemeral stuff. No matter what you use though, you should have backups of anything important.
- yesplorer 10y agoBut it's my primary pc with Ubuntu on it. And even though i hate some of it quirks, I still get 8 hours of battery life out of it even after a year of consistent use.
- joshvm 10y agoKeep is on (all?) Android devices too. I use it on my phone to jot down things without needing to reach for something bulky like Evernote. It's pretty limited but for writing a book recommendation, shopping list, or a catchy lyric it works perfectly.
- stephengillie 10y agoFor this I use a text file in Dropbox. It's on all my devices.
- ezequiel-garzon 10y agoBy now I feel I will some day read the unthinkable: Alphabet Shutting Down Google
- douche 10y agoMore likely would be Google Shutting Down Alphabet Unless search and ads somehow die off as a cash cow catastrophically, that's always going to be the tail that wags the dog.
- nol13 10y agoNo opportunity to see ads when Alexa browses the internet for you, the new adwords soon to be the market for purchasing targeted Alexa NN reenforcement points!
- maxerickson 10y agoAlphabet might fold in on itself and become Google again, which I suppose is what you mean, but Alphabet is 100% owner of Google, so any reorganization like that would be accurately ascribed to Alphabet.
- Wizek 10y agoOr perhaps more realistic in the short term: Google announcing to shut down Gmail beta(tm) over the next several months.
- tyingq 10y agoI think more likely is some point where Google search has no organic results, but rather, a mix of "KG", widgets, and ads. You can already see the progression...there's many searches that include nothing but Google content until you scroll way below the fold. Edit: One interesting query is "cancer cure". On my reasonably large monitor, nothing organic showing unless I scroll down. Anything travel related is similar, like "vegas hotels". Edit2: If you disagree that the importance of the plain organic results is fading, please explain why they keep moving down. Google does understand what "below the fold" means in terms of what's important and what's not. In fact, the algorithm penalizes sites that place the important content below the fold, beneath things that are self-serving.
- ohto 10y agoI'm at the point that I don't even try new Google products because I don't trust that they will stay around. I got burned too many times: Wave, Knol, Google Health, Buzz, Notebook, Answers, and most importantly Google Reader. There is just no way I'm investing time in any new Google product. They are untrustworthy. For instance, why on earth would I want to use Allo when still Hangouts exists? We know one or both will get cancelled within a year or two. I'm not going to sick my neck out and try to get my friends and family to use one of those platforms only for them to go away.
- wmccullough 10y agoCame here to say just this. At this point the only thing I really use from them is Search and Gmail. I just dont trust that anything else will stick around.
- sdegutis 10y agoAlso Maps.
- AlecSchueler 10y agoand YouTube.
- caoilte 10y agoAnd droid.
- throw_away 10y ago"All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?"
- fuck_google 10y ago
- yalogin 10y agoI have never heard of spaces before. But it's a decent concept. Had I known about this earlier I would have given it a try. I am guesssing this does not belong in a separate app by itself for google. It does not have the kind of high volume addictive app idea that google cares about. This is only used when you plan something and after that you don't ever touch it until the next time. So I see why they are killing it, but why did they launch it at all?
- javier2 10y agoI had never heard of it either, and would have given it a try. Sounds like a decent idea.
- sp332 10y agoBut why on earth would they delete it? Just leave it read-only.
- krapp 10y ago>Just leave it read-only Because Google is a business, and hosting a "read only" version of a service that no longer serves their interests would be a waste of money.
- sp332 10y agoGoogle is involved in plenty of projects that don't directly make money. They could leave it up for ad targeting if not just as a good will gesture to their community.
- krapp 10y agoI assume those projects are either returning some value for Google or they'll be shut down as well. >They could leave it up for ad targeting if not just as a good will gesture to their community. There's no point to that if the Spaces community isn't large enough for the gesture to be relevant or the ads to be worth anything. I'm reading the tea leaves here, but according to the OP, they intend to "use what we’ve learned to improve other Google products and services." Likely, Spaces was never meant to be anything but a platform for testing experimental UX concepts without interfering with their more popular properties. Google probably still wants to combine their services into a unified social media presence, except maybe for Youtube (which they maybe want to rebuild as a direct, primarily subscription based competitor to commercial streaming services like Netflix.) They don't want another PR fiasco like the Google+ integration so I guess this is plan B? I'm probably wrong, though.
- blakesterz 10y agoPeople who currently work at Google must see these posts here on HN every time they shut something down. The comments area always the same. Google must be aware this behavior is hurting them in a substantial way. Has anyone seen a public comment from someone at Google? Do they really not get it or do they just not care? Or am I wrong, is this not hurting them at all?
- rafaelm 10y agoI also think their approach is not the best, but do you believe anyone outside the tech echo chamber is making the same comments? I'm not sure how much the behavior could be actually hurting them. Of course, sometimes the people in tech introduce products to non-tech people. That could be a problem...
- saurik 10y agoSo people outside of the "tech echo chamber" even use half of these services to begin with? I think the point here is that if Google wants to see normal people think to use any of these projects they are going to have to maintain them for a longer period of time under a brand strategy that doesn't involve constantly deprecating and replacing services while bothering to market and support the product line. Every now and then there is a Google product I know about which would be perfect for some use case we have in our community (I am involved in a lot of political organizing here). I bring it up, and no one has heard of it; and the last time I did this, I went to go show people, and it had been discontinued anyway... I mean, what's the point?
- orangecat 10y agoPeople who currently work at Google must see these posts here on HN every time they shut something down. Definitely. I expect there are dozens of snarky posts on Memegen by now. Whether that has any effect on management decisions is another matter. Or am I wrong, is this not hurting them at all? From the last earnings report, apparently not.
- misingnoglic 10y agoDid you even use spaces? I can't imagine this many people are mad about such a small project closing.
- stevesun21 10y agoJust curious, if google's going to shutdown plus one day?
- demonshalo 10y agoyes
- misingnoglic 10y agoIt makes sense - they wanted Google Spaces to be a replacement for FB groups, but everyone already uses Facebook. Having to log onto a new app or website isn't cool anymore, and I don't think anything competing directly against what Facebook can do will succeed.
- hmans 10y agolol
- sctb 10y agoThis account has been posting a lot of unsubstantive comments. Please don't do this here.