6 ms·

It seems this is the Google way. They kill one product (especially a desktop product) and it takes years till the new one is on every feature on the same level

It seems this is the Google way. They kill one product (especially a desktop product) and it takes years till the new one is on every feature on the same level as the old one... look at Picasa vs. Google Photos. Even today Picasa can do many more things that Google Photos cannot do today. I'm sure the native/old Google Earth has a ton of stuff which is not ported to the web version. Good they cannot convert Chrome itself as a web app :D

fao_ 10y ago
It makes some amount of sense because there's less to maintain and more cultural knowledge of the new codebase. Instead of saying "We're removing features from Picasa because nobody here knows how they work and everyone's scared to change things", they can say "We have a shiny new project here that will eventually be better than Picasa". It's a nice PR stunt.
- jonah 10y ago
  I can tell you for a fact though that at least some of the senior Engineers who developed Picasa are still at Google.
  - morgosmaci 10y ago
    None of which are on the photos team or have the time to rewrite it for the newer stacks.
    - jonah 10y ago
      That is true.
psiclops 10y ago
Last part of your comment reminds me of the birth & death of javascript [0] [0] https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/the-birth-and-death-of-javascript https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/the-birth-and-death...
ClassyJacket 10y ago
I find it interesting that they recently introduced location sharing to Google Maps as a new feature... which it had back in 2009, until they got rid of it.
- cptskippy 10y ago
  They had tons of handy features in Google Maps before it was redesigned using Material Design. We used the route elevation data often to plan hiking trips with our parents to determine if they would be able to make a trek. The map scale was absent from the first couple releases and when they reintroduced it, it would only appear on zoom and then vanish. It took 3 or 4 more releases for them to finally add an option buried in the settings to make it always on. I'd like to say they did this to present a clean minimalist app but the recent incarnations of it are more cluttered than the pre Material Design version. Sure you can tap on the map to minimize the clutter and then tap again to make it go away completely but tapping also drops a pin if you hold it for a sixteenth of a second longer. And I hope your touchscreen isn't super sensitive because it'll detect that flutter as a double tap and then you're just zooming.
  - ashark 10y ago
    The ability to show photo hotspots on the map and look at the photos was really handy for planning trips to unfamiliar places (or even familiar ones, really), but AFAI can tell it's gone now. Seems it was part of some service they bought, integrated, then killed.
    - foota 10y ago
      I believe you can get the photos by using the street view person. (That is, drag the street view person over the map and the photos show up as pins)
  - dublinben 10y ago
    If you'd like to plan trips that have elevation data, I highly recommend komoot.com. It uses OpenStreetMap, and is a great tool for planning hiking or cycling trips.
lucideer 10y ago
> Good they cannot convert Chrome itself as a web app :D http://trevorlinton.github.io/ http://trevorlinton.github.io/
jonathanpoulter 10y ago
Could they presumably write it as a non-native app? Would there be any issues with that? Presumably the "chrome" around a webpage isn't particularly intensive?
- adrianN 10y ago
  Firefox wants to do that: https://github.com/browserhtml/browserhtml https://github.com/browserhtml/browserhtml
- collinmanderson 10y ago
  Can't do cross-origin requests. It would need to be an electron-style app.

fao_ 10y ago

It makes some amount of sense because there's less to maintain and more cultural knowledge of the new codebase. Instead of saying "We're removing features from Picasa because nobody here knows how they work and everyone's scared to change things", they can say "We have a shiny new project here that will eventually be better than Picasa". It's a nice PR stunt.

jonah 10y ago
I can tell you for a fact though that at least some of the senior Engineers who developed Picasa are still at Google.
- morgosmaci 10y ago
  None of which are on the photos team or have the time to rewrite it for the newer stacks.
  - jonah 10y ago
    That is true.

psiclops 10y ago

Last part of your comment reminds me of the birth & death of javascript [0] [0] https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/the-birth-and-death-of-javascript https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/the-birth-and-death...

ClassyJacket 10y ago

I find it interesting that they recently introduced location sharing to Google Maps as a new feature... which it had back in 2009, until they got rid of it.

cptskippy 10y ago
They had tons of handy features in Google Maps before it was redesigned using Material Design. We used the route elevation data often to plan hiking trips with our parents to determine if they would be able to make a trek. The map scale was absent from the first couple releases and when they reintroduced it, it would only appear on zoom and then vanish. It took 3 or 4 more releases for them to finally add an option buried in the settings to make it always on. I'd like to say they did this to present a clean minimalist app but the recent incarnations of it are more cluttered than the pre Material Design version. Sure you can tap on the map to minimize the clutter and then tap again to make it go away completely but tapping also drops a pin if you hold it for a sixteenth of a second longer. And I hope your touchscreen isn't super sensitive because it'll detect that flutter as a double tap and then you're just zooming.
- ashark 10y ago
  The ability to show photo hotspots on the map and look at the photos was really handy for planning trips to unfamiliar places (or even familiar ones, really), but AFAI can tell it's gone now. Seems it was part of some service they bought, integrated, then killed.
  - foota 10y ago
    I believe you can get the photos by using the street view person. (That is, drag the street view person over the map and the photos show up as pins)
- dublinben 10y ago
  If you'd like to plan trips that have elevation data, I highly recommend komoot.com. It uses OpenStreetMap, and is a great tool for planning hiking or cycling trips.

lucideer 10y ago

> Good they cannot convert Chrome itself as a web app :D http://trevorlinton.github.io/ http://trevorlinton.github.io/

jonathanpoulter 10y ago

Could they presumably write it as a non-native app? Would there be any issues with that? Presumably the "chrome" around a webpage isn't particularly intensive?

adrianN 10y ago
Firefox wants to do that: https://github.com/browserhtml/browserhtml https://github.com/browserhtml/browserhtml
collinmanderson 10y ago
Can't do cross-origin requests. It would need to be an electron-style app.