4 ms·

Anyone have any examples of the opposite? Where a feature did actually stand as a product?

by cheeze 7y ago

kposehn 7y ago
I’d say an attempt was made by Microsoft to render the web browser a feature of Windows. That didn’t pan out in the long run as (a) a web browser was a horrid file browser, and (b) IE just wasn’t that good. Because they tried to make it a feature, it lost ground in terms of functionality and performance and users preferred a different option with a better experience. That brings me to another point - you can make a feature into a product by creating a fundamentally better experience. It isn’t easy though and you can find the tide shift against you long run.
- kevingadd 7y ago
  Anyone who says "IE wasn't that good" wasn't making active use of the current browsers at the time for browsing and web development. IE had a better feature set, better development tools, and was generally just more pleasant to use than current Netscape at the time. Stuff like XHR appeared in IE first. Of course IE eventually rotted, but it's silly to claim that low quality was actually the case or that low quality was the result of it being bundled with the OS. It's not as if we had auto-installed monthly or weekly browser updates back then - if you were using Netscape 4 the odds were you didn't update it very often at all. If anything the odds were better that grandma's PC would get a Windows security update/service pack with IE fixes/improvements installed than a critical Netscape update. IMO the point at which IE truly started falling behind was around when Firefox came onto the scene, and once Chrome was a thing its fate was sealed. Before that point I don't think you could realistically argue that it "wasn't that good" because there was no superior alternative out there and it got the job done. Shipping a web view as an OS component is also a good idea in general, as demonstrated by the fact that all the major commercial OS vendors are doing it. Many apps rely on webviews and in the past major software was using IE to render HTML content (Steam, for one example)
  - rangibaby 7y ago
    Firefox became popular because IE was already pretty bad and infested with malware (anyone else remember “Cool Web Search?)
    - LocalH 7y ago
      IE3/4 was pretty good. It wasn't until IE5 that it started to stagnate and rot.
    - kevingadd 7y ago
      At that point in time literally nothing would have stopped bad actors from shipping malicious Firefox extensions. IE only had that problem because it was popular.
terasepu 7y ago
Dropbox. Steve Jobs even called it a “feature,” saying iCloud would put it out of business.
- kposehn 7y ago
  And over time Dropbox ended up creating unique features and a value that stands on its own. In this case, the Apple ecosystem limited Apple’s thinking and both Box and Dropbox were able to move to create unique value. And frankly, good for them.
  - saagarjha 7y ago
    Did it? Pretty much everyone I talk to hates “the new Dropbox” and just wants a folder that syncs.
    - mikl 7y ago
      Yeah, once iCloud Drive gets shared folders, I know a lot of people who’ll be very happy to ditch Dropbox and it’s new “features”.
    - Flockster 7y ago
      Jup! And what's with the pricing? The next best tier is 2 TB? Why isn't there an option, with say 100gb, 3-4 bucks a month and not annoyingly trying to sell me some stuff when I'm just using 25% of my space. I would buy it in an instant.. but for 10 dollars a month so that I use 2% of that space? Sorry, then I will look somewhere else..
  - scarface74 7y ago
    Well, it’s not “valuable” enough to make Dropbox profitable and for the same price you can get Office 365 with 6TB of storage and the complete office suite.
- tomp 7y ago
  The main reason Dropbox exists (along with WhatsApp) is that Apple is unwilling to support its "unique" ecosystem features (iCloud, iMessage) on other platforms (they only make it a "feature" of their own platform to increase its perceived value and attract users). So if you want cross-platform, you have to use 3rd party stuff (Dropbox, WhatsApp).

Anyone have any examples of the opposite? Where a feature did actually stand as a product?

by cheeze 7y ago

Anyone have any examples of the opposite? Where a feature did actually stand as a product?

I’d say an attempt was made by Microsoft to render the web browser a feature of Windows. That didn’t pan out in the long run as (a) a web browser was a horrid file browser, and (b) IE just wasn’t that good. Because they tried to make it a feature, it lost ground in terms of functionality and performance and users preferred a different option with a better experience. That brings me to another point - you can make a feature into a product by creating a fundamentally better experience. It isn’t easy though and you can find the tide shift against you long run.

kevingadd 7y ago
Anyone who says "IE wasn't that good" wasn't making active use of the current browsers at the time for browsing and web development. IE had a better feature set, better development tools, and was generally just more pleasant to use than current Netscape at the time. Stuff like XHR appeared in IE first. Of course IE eventually rotted, but it's silly to claim that low quality was actually the case or that low quality was the result of it being bundled with the OS. It's not as if we had auto-installed monthly or weekly browser updates back then - if you were using Netscape 4 the odds were you didn't update it very often at all. If anything the odds were better that grandma's PC would get a Windows security update/service pack with IE fixes/improvements installed than a critical Netscape update. IMO the point at which IE truly started falling behind was around when Firefox came onto the scene, and once Chrome was a thing its fate was sealed. Before that point I don't think you could realistically argue that it "wasn't that good" because there was no superior alternative out there and it got the job done. Shipping a web view as an OS component is also a good idea in general, as demonstrated by the fact that all the major commercial OS vendors are doing it. Many apps rely on webviews and in the past major software was using IE to render HTML content (Steam, for one example)
- rangibaby 7y ago
  Firefox became popular because IE was already pretty bad and infested with malware (anyone else remember “Cool Web Search?)
  - LocalH 7y ago
    IE3/4 was pretty good. It wasn't until IE5 that it started to stagnate and rot.
  - kevingadd 7y ago
    At that point in time literally nothing would have stopped bad actors from shipping malicious Firefox extensions. IE only had that problem because it was popular.

terasepu 7y ago

Dropbox. Steve Jobs even called it a “feature,” saying iCloud would put it out of business.

kposehn 7y ago
And over time Dropbox ended up creating unique features and a value that stands on its own. In this case, the Apple ecosystem limited Apple’s thinking and both Box and Dropbox were able to move to create unique value. And frankly, good for them.
- saagarjha 7y ago
  Did it? Pretty much everyone I talk to hates “the new Dropbox” and just wants a folder that syncs.
  - mikl 7y ago
    Yeah, once iCloud Drive gets shared folders, I know a lot of people who’ll be very happy to ditch Dropbox and it’s new “features”.
  - Flockster 7y ago
    Jup! And what's with the pricing? The next best tier is 2 TB? Why isn't there an option, with say 100gb, 3-4 bucks a month and not annoyingly trying to sell me some stuff when I'm just using 25% of my space. I would buy it in an instant.. but for 10 dollars a month so that I use 2% of that space? Sorry, then I will look somewhere else..
- scarface74 7y ago
  Well, it’s not “valuable” enough to make Dropbox profitable and for the same price you can get Office 365 with 6TB of storage and the complete office suite.
tomp 7y ago
The main reason Dropbox exists (along with WhatsApp) is that Apple is unwilling to support its "unique" ecosystem features (iCloud, iMessage) on other platforms (they only make it a "feature" of their own platform to increase its perceived value and attract users). So if you want cross-platform, you have to use 3rd party stuff (Dropbox, WhatsApp).