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What's really funny about this is that video conferencing during meetings is really good inside of google. They have a winner product on their hands and don't k

What's really funny about this is that video conferencing during meetings is really good inside of google. They have a winner product on their hands and don't know how to get it to businesses where they would make tons of money. So amazingly bad at turning innovation into product.

praneshp 8y ago
> What's really funny about this is that video conferencing during meetings is really good inside of google I've heard the opposite of this from some googler friends.
- what_ever 8y ago
  Hah, I completely disagree with them. VC/Calendar/Mail integration is amazing here. Disc: Googler.
codemac 8y ago
They offer it on their website: https://gsuite.google.com/products/hangouts-meet-hardware/ https://gsuite.google.com/products/hangouts-meet-hardware/ But the prices are steep compared to what a lot of small to medium businesses are willing to pay for when they think they can just use their laptops.
- jpatokal 8y ago
  The link above is for the hardware version. If you just want the software, you can use Hangouts Meet, which is free to install and also included in G Suite. Disclaimer: I work at Google, but not on Hangouts.
  - taytus 8y ago
    Hangouts meet is different than just hangouts? Sorry for the silly question but I honestly have no idea anymore.
    - guu 8y ago
      Yes, “hangouts meet” and “hangouts chat” are separate apps for gsuite customers. For consumers there is the “hangouts” app which this article is about.
- Eridrus 8y ago
  Huh, if this existed and I had known about this 3 years ago, it would have been a trivial purchase at the startup I was at. We ended up moving everyone to headset mics and doing all our meetings with remote people on computers, despite a lot of people in one place, since otherwise remote folks just couldn't hear what was going on reliably. Which worked, but had it's own limitations. Probably a harder sell for larger companies with more rooms, and less remote employees, but I have never had a complaints about audio with these things.
basch 8y ago
it says "for consumers" google is repositioning hangouts and google+ as competitors to office 365 teams and yammer. facebook is working on workplace. compared to how google usually kills products, this does seem somewhat foward looking to a near future workplace social battle.
ucaetano 8y ago
Unsurprisingly, consumers and enterprise want, and use, different products, and in different ways.
kenhwang 8y ago
We used the Google ecosystem for business for a while. It's good if you have really good internet; absolutely useless if you don't. Other conferencing software degraded more gracefully. I suspect Google is better at investing in and upkeeping their corporate internet infrastructure than most companies. Other problem was that they never really added new features, and had the least features to begin with, so eventually the IT department and their feature sheet based comparison went with a competitor.

praneshp 8y ago

> What's really funny about this is that video conferencing during meetings is really good inside of google I've heard the opposite of this from some googler friends.

what_ever 8y ago
Hah, I completely disagree with them. VC/Calendar/Mail integration is amazing here. Disc: Googler.

codemac 8y ago

They offer it on their website: https://gsuite.google.com/products/hangouts-meet-hardware/ https://gsuite.google.com/products/hangouts-meet-hardware/ But the prices are steep compared to what a lot of small to medium businesses are willing to pay for when they think they can just use their laptops.

jpatokal 8y ago
The link above is for the hardware version. If you just want the software, you can use Hangouts Meet, which is free to install and also included in G Suite. Disclaimer: I work at Google, but not on Hangouts.
- taytus 8y ago
  Hangouts meet is different than just hangouts? Sorry for the silly question but I honestly have no idea anymore.
  - guu 8y ago
    Yes, “hangouts meet” and “hangouts chat” are separate apps for gsuite customers. For consumers there is the “hangouts” app which this article is about.
Eridrus 8y ago
Huh, if this existed and I had known about this 3 years ago, it would have been a trivial purchase at the startup I was at. We ended up moving everyone to headset mics and doing all our meetings with remote people on computers, despite a lot of people in one place, since otherwise remote folks just couldn't hear what was going on reliably. Which worked, but had it's own limitations. Probably a harder sell for larger companies with more rooms, and less remote employees, but I have never had a complaints about audio with these things.

basch 8y ago

it says "for consumers" google is repositioning hangouts and google+ as competitors to office 365 teams and yammer. facebook is working on workplace. compared to how google usually kills products, this does seem somewhat foward looking to a near future workplace social battle.

ucaetano 8y ago

Unsurprisingly, consumers and enterprise want, and use, different products, and in different ways.

kenhwang 8y ago

We used the Google ecosystem for business for a while. It's good if you have really good internet; absolutely useless if you don't. Other conferencing software degraded more gracefully. I suspect Google is better at investing in and upkeeping their corporate internet infrastructure than most companies. Other problem was that they never really added new features, and had the least features to begin with, so eventually the IT department and their feature sheet based comparison went with a competitor.