5 ms·

So now they have two cloud storage products, called Cloud Firestore and Cloud Filestore? Their branding team is on top of their game, as always.

lazharichir 8y ago
Firestore is a NoSQL database, Filestore is a file storage system. If you can discern between "now" and "not" then you can deal with "Firestore" and "Filestore"...
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- ademup 8y ago
  I am a bit embarrassed, but I had to read your comment twice to see that you mentioned two different products in your first sentence. So for me at least, GP comment is accurate.
  - chrisjc 8y ago
    I still had to read your comment to notice the difference.
- phamilton 8y ago
  Except "w" and "t" aren't similar in pronunciation. While "r" varies a lot in pronunciation across languages and regional dialects, there are many languages where the two ("r" and "l") require the same tongue position and a few languages where the two are (overly simplified) equivalent.
- pvg 8y ago
  'now' and 'not' are almost always trivially identifiable from context, even when misspelled. Firestore and Filestore are not.
- klodolph 8y ago
  Most people can tell the difference between /naʊ/ and /nɑt/. I mean, just look at them... one ends with a consonant, one doesn't, and the vowels are reasonably different. The difference here is between /faɪl/ and /ˈfaɪəɹ/, which is much more subtle. It comes down to the difference between /l/ and /əɹ/. The [ə] is an uncommon vowel in languages, unstressed, and mostly subsumed by nearby sounds. And worse, more than a billion people on the planet grew up speaking a language which doesn't distinguish the [l] and [ɹ] sounds (they're both approximants with only slight differences in articulation). So when you say "file" or "fire" these people can't distinguish which one you're saying, and when they say it they use something like the tap [ɾ] or retroflex [ɻ] instead, both of which sound ambiguous to native English speakers. Or some non-native speakers will use [l] exclusively, for both /l/ and /ɹ/.
  - lazharichir 8y ago
    That's very scientific but most people will read it, not write it. And most people will use one, and not even acknowledge the existance of the other. Sure, they are one-letter away from the other, it's a fact. But to turn this into a problem, well.. no...
    - jfrankamp 8y ago
      The parent gave a phonetic explanation that has nothing to do with writing but rather hearing and speaking about it. For a billion people they aren't one letter away from each other, they're ~ the same. That's the point.
    - klodolph 8y ago
      This is a problem if you work with an international team, especially if you talk over video links which are usually less than ideal.
  - jpatokal 8y ago
    FWIW, while Japanese doesn't distinguish L and R, "fire" is transliterated as ファイア faia while "file" is ファイル fairu. So the difference is reasonably clear.
luryus 8y ago
Between Cloud Storage, Cloud Datastore, Cloud Firestore and now Cloud Filestore the naming of these services is frustratingly confusing. Oh and of course there are also BigQuery and BigTable, which do not really give any clearer picture of the actual service. I've used GCP extensively for more than a year now and I still get confused about the different storage services way too often.
- manigandham 8y ago
  AWS uses random unique names and Azure uses more standard component names, while GCP seems to be in the middle. No approach is "the best". They're all very different services and if you're going to use them then you would've read the overview anyway.
  - awad 8y ago
    Having a product overview is still not an excuse for terrible naming.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
- mehblahwhatevs 8y ago
  I came in here to say the same thing. "Google Cloud Storage" could be a product but also the encompassing category of all the things you mentioned? Also on the Firebase pricing page (https://firebase.google.com/pricing https://firebase.google.com/pricing) they have a "Realtime Database", is that related to datastore or cloud storage? They also have another item there just labeled "Storage". Is that one of the above? And at the bottom you get "Google Cloud Platform" on the "Blaze Plan". Is that the products you mentioned that all start with "Cloud"?
- mr_isomies 8y ago
  Don't forget Firestore Functions and Google Cloud Functions. Actually do forget, because the first is just a wrapper for the second and they are literally the same thing... Mmmmm
deesix 8y ago
Disclosure: I work on GCP Thanks for the feedback. As the person that named both products, I can say we spent a ton of time debating this but we felt that the fact one is an enterprise file share and the other a document database service focused on mobile and web would mean very little conflict for customers. We will keep an eye on any customer confusion it might cause.
- ak217 8y ago
  Not only is it confusingly similar to other storage products, but the abbreviations collide among all of them. GCF means how many different things now? (I always considered it to mean Google Cloud Functions - kind of an important product.) Don't underestimate the importance of these things. I can't even talk to my colleagues about your products without us all misunderstanding each other.
- some_account 8y ago
  You made the wrong choice.
- pinewurst 8y ago
  What about when the names are spoken, especially by non-native English speakers? They're close homonyms.
- ttul 8y ago
  This will be extremely confusing for Japanese and Korean speakers.
  - borplk 8y ago
    This will be extremely confusing for anyone.
  - deesix 8y ago
    Disclosure: I work on GCP Thanks for highlighting. We were aware of this and working with the local sales teams to make it as easy as possible.
faitswulff 8y ago
Between Cloud Storage, Cloud Firestore, and Cloud Filestore, I can't make heads or tails of the situation without diving into the docs. I was confused when they introduced Cloud Firestore to compete with their Realtime Database (https://firebase.google.com/docs/database/rtdb-vs-firestore https://firebase.google.com/docs/database/rtdb-vs-firestore). Now it seems like they're doing it again with Storage vs Filestore, not to mention the horrendous choice of names.
- lathiat 8y ago
  Cloud Filestore specifically gives you a multi-host NFS interface (for traditional filesystem applications) like Amazon EFS - for applications you cant easily modify to use other APIs it appears like a normal filesystem. Cloud Storage is an API-level object store (e.g. S3) that requires specific application support.
mholt 8y ago
I had to read your comment 3 times before I noticed the difference.

lazharichir 8y ago

Firestore is a NoSQL database, Filestore is a file storage system. If you can discern between "now" and "not" then you can deal with "Firestore" and "Filestore"...

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
ademup 8y ago
I am a bit embarrassed, but I had to read your comment twice to see that you mentioned two different products in your first sentence. So for me at least, GP comment is accurate.
- chrisjc 8y ago
  I still had to read your comment to notice the difference.
phamilton 8y ago
Except "w" and "t" aren't similar in pronunciation. While "r" varies a lot in pronunciation across languages and regional dialects, there are many languages where the two ("r" and "l") require the same tongue position and a few languages where the two are (overly simplified) equivalent.
pvg 8y ago
'now' and 'not' are almost always trivially identifiable from context, even when misspelled. Firestore and Filestore are not.
klodolph 8y ago
Most people can tell the difference between /naʊ/ and /nɑt/. I mean, just look at them... one ends with a consonant, one doesn't, and the vowels are reasonably different. The difference here is between /faɪl/ and /ˈfaɪəɹ/, which is much more subtle. It comes down to the difference between /l/ and /əɹ/. The [ə] is an uncommon vowel in languages, unstressed, and mostly subsumed by nearby sounds. And worse, more than a billion people on the planet grew up speaking a language which doesn't distinguish the [l] and [ɹ] sounds (they're both approximants with only slight differences in articulation). So when you say "file" or "fire" these people can't distinguish which one you're saying, and when they say it they use something like the tap [ɾ] or retroflex [ɻ] instead, both of which sound ambiguous to native English speakers. Or some non-native speakers will use [l] exclusively, for both /l/ and /ɹ/.
- lazharichir 8y ago
  That's very scientific but most people will read it, not write it. And most people will use one, and not even acknowledge the existance of the other. Sure, they are one-letter away from the other, it's a fact. But to turn this into a problem, well.. no...
  - jfrankamp 8y ago
    The parent gave a phonetic explanation that has nothing to do with writing but rather hearing and speaking about it. For a billion people they aren't one letter away from each other, they're ~ the same. That's the point.
  - klodolph 8y ago
    This is a problem if you work with an international team, especially if you talk over video links which are usually less than ideal.
- jpatokal 8y ago
  FWIW, while Japanese doesn't distinguish L and R, "fire" is transliterated as ファイア faia while "file" is ファイル fairu. So the difference is reasonably clear.

luryus 8y ago

Between Cloud Storage, Cloud Datastore, Cloud Firestore and now Cloud Filestore the naming of these services is frustratingly confusing. Oh and of course there are also BigQuery and BigTable, which do not really give any clearer picture of the actual service. I've used GCP extensively for more than a year now and I still get confused about the different storage services way too often.

manigandham 8y ago
AWS uses random unique names and Azure uses more standard component names, while GCP seems to be in the middle. No approach is "the best". They're all very different services and if you're going to use them then you would've read the overview anyway.
- awad 8y ago
  Having a product overview is still not an excuse for terrible naming.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
mehblahwhatevs 8y ago
I came in here to say the same thing. "Google Cloud Storage" could be a product but also the encompassing category of all the things you mentioned? Also on the Firebase pricing page (https://firebase.google.com/pricing https://firebase.google.com/pricing) they have a "Realtime Database", is that related to datastore or cloud storage? They also have another item there just labeled "Storage". Is that one of the above? And at the bottom you get "Google Cloud Platform" on the "Blaze Plan". Is that the products you mentioned that all start with "Cloud"?
mr_isomies 8y ago
Don't forget Firestore Functions and Google Cloud Functions. Actually do forget, because the first is just a wrapper for the second and they are literally the same thing... Mmmmm

deesix 8y ago

Disclosure: I work on GCP Thanks for the feedback. As the person that named both products, I can say we spent a ton of time debating this but we felt that the fact one is an enterprise file share and the other a document database service focused on mobile and web would mean very little conflict for customers. We will keep an eye on any customer confusion it might cause.

ak217 8y ago
Not only is it confusingly similar to other storage products, but the abbreviations collide among all of them. GCF means how many different things now? (I always considered it to mean Google Cloud Functions - kind of an important product.) Don't underestimate the importance of these things. I can't even talk to my colleagues about your products without us all misunderstanding each other.
some_account 8y ago
You made the wrong choice.
pinewurst 8y ago
What about when the names are spoken, especially by non-native English speakers? They're close homonyms.
ttul 8y ago
This will be extremely confusing for Japanese and Korean speakers.
- borplk 8y ago
  This will be extremely confusing for anyone.
- deesix 8y ago
  Disclosure: I work on GCP Thanks for highlighting. We were aware of this and working with the local sales teams to make it as easy as possible.

faitswulff 8y ago

Between Cloud Storage, Cloud Firestore, and Cloud Filestore, I can't make heads or tails of the situation without diving into the docs. I was confused when they introduced Cloud Firestore to compete with their Realtime Database (https://firebase.google.com/docs/database/rtdb-vs-firestore https://firebase.google.com/docs/database/rtdb-vs-firestore). Now it seems like they're doing it again with Storage vs Filestore, not to mention the horrendous choice of names.

lathiat 8y ago
Cloud Filestore specifically gives you a multi-host NFS interface (for traditional filesystem applications) like Amazon EFS - for applications you cant easily modify to use other APIs it appears like a normal filesystem. Cloud Storage is an API-level object store (e.g. S3) that requires specific application support.

mholt 8y ago

I had to read your comment 3 times before I noticed the difference.