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Customers/users/developers don't care what the reasons are, only that it continues to happen. What is especially irksome to many is that they are shutting down

by blihp 8y ago

Customers/users/developers don't care what the reasons are, only that it continues to happen. What is especially irksome to many is that they are shutting down products/services that found an audience... just not one large enough, fast enough to Google's taste. The more they shut down products, the longer many are going to wait before even considering using one of their new products/services especially if there's a cost associated with it. It becomes a self-reinforcing cycle: Google launches a new product, customers/users/developers wait to see if Google is really serious about it, Google shuts down product because it never attracts the critical mass it needs to see, customers/users/developers get even more jaded toward the next one... rinse and repeat.

JohnWilcox 8y ago
It’s odd that Google/Alphabet doesn’t understand this basic negative feedback loop. It has become apparent to me, even if you ignore the rot that has pervaded throughout the organization, which is manifesting itself in Search results.
- chibg10 8y ago
  I'm sure individuals within the company understand it. Maybe even most individuals. Get people in large groups though and throw career advancement in the mix for highly career-driven Googlers and all of a sudden what everyone knows to be good for the group ceases up be relevant.
kian 8y ago
I couldn't agree more here. If only they had a habit of keeping services in beta until they could earn a net profit, and then released them. Then, if for some reason they can't find the level of profits that Google wants for them, they could spin the product off as a separate company and forget about it instead of shutting it down.
- mvexel 8y ago
  That reminds me of the early days of Flickr, which was very visibly in beta for years (it was on the logo). That gave me an appropriate level of anxiety about the longevity of the service. (Well, that and the fact that all the page urls still had a .gne extension, suggesting that Flickr was perhaps not their end game.) Then they went into 'gamma'!? for another couple of years before it finally became just Flickr.
  - Twirrim 8y ago
    > and the fact that all the page urls still had a .gne extension What's significant about .gne as an extension? Not sure I've consciously come across that one before.
    - mz00 8y ago
      It’s an allusion to Game Neverending, which eventually led to development of Flickr
griffordson 8y ago
Google also kills entire niches in the short term by doing this stuff. Almost nobody is going to try to compete with them head on so if they are in a niche with a product that eventually gets killed, all progress stops in that niche for potentially years.

by blihp 8y ago

JohnWilcox 8y ago

It’s odd that Google/Alphabet doesn’t understand this basic negative feedback loop. It has become apparent to me, even if you ignore the rot that has pervaded throughout the organization, which is manifesting itself in Search results.

chibg10 8y ago
I'm sure individuals within the company understand it. Maybe even most individuals. Get people in large groups though and throw career advancement in the mix for highly career-driven Googlers and all of a sudden what everyone knows to be good for the group ceases up be relevant.

kian 8y ago

I couldn't agree more here. If only they had a habit of keeping services in beta until they could earn a net profit, and then released them. Then, if for some reason they can't find the level of profits that Google wants for them, they could spin the product off as a separate company and forget about it instead of shutting it down.

mvexel 8y ago
That reminds me of the early days of Flickr, which was very visibly in beta for years (it was on the logo). That gave me an appropriate level of anxiety about the longevity of the service. (Well, that and the fact that all the page urls still had a .gne extension, suggesting that Flickr was perhaps not their end game.) Then they went into 'gamma'!? for another couple of years before it finally became just Flickr.
- Twirrim 8y ago
  > and the fact that all the page urls still had a .gne extension What's significant about .gne as an extension? Not sure I've consciously come across that one before.
  - mz00 8y ago
    It’s an allusion to Game Neverending, which eventually led to development of Flickr

griffordson 8y ago

Google also kills entire niches in the short term by doing this stuff. Almost nobody is going to try to compete with them head on so if they are in a niche with a product that eventually gets killed, all progress stops in that niche for potentially years.