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The problem is that Google has a credibility problem wrt supporting their products over long periods of time. Even if this particular report is wrong, it's sti
by downerending 7y ago
The problem is that Google has a credibility problem wrt supporting their products over long periods of time. Even if this particular report is wrong, it's still "true" in that sense.
For potential users, why should we take the risk when there are other competitors that don't have this problem?
- shantly 7y agoIf they'd even make some sub-brand explicitly for "shit we're serious about and promise we'll continue to invest in for a really long time"—and then actually stick by that—it'd go a long way. I think it's having no reliable indicator of their level of seriousness or commitment to a given product or service that's the main source of irritation for people. It's all just "Google" and who knows what the hell that means, this time.
- rhizome 7y agoAt this point my imagination says it would take 5-10 years of vocalized committment to any one thing for them to make a dent in their reputation.
- shantly 7y agoI think it's one of those "the best time to start was 10 years ago; the second best time to start is today" sorts of things.
- asah 7y agoIn theory, they use the "beta" label for this. In practice, they've been sloppy in both directions, with Gmail being in beta way too long.
- londons_explore 7y agoGoogle could fix this credibility problem in a single step by simply saying "We won't materially change documented functionality of services A, B, or C in the next 5 years. Upon breach of this promise, we will pay any affected user $10M". If they did that, I'd trust them. If they breached my trust, I'd get a cool $10M. They wouldn't shutdown the service because of the extreme financial disincentive to do so.
- servercobra 7y agoThat opens them up to a ton of liability (what if something unforeseen happens), for very little gain. I can't imagine any company doing something like that.
- jacquesm 7y agoThen maybe don't be in the infrastructure business?
- rhizome 7y agoReally. Google seems like a corporate incarnation of Engineer's Disease.
- londons_explore 7y agoThe gain is hundreds of millions of dollars of new business that they are currently losing to competitors who don't have a reputation for dropping services.
- cglace 7y agoYou just gave the potential upside without highlighting the very real downsides.
- jacques_chester 7y agoThere are lawyers for covering the obvious foreseeables. For the rest, there are more lawyers. Providing credible hostages is a good way to build trust. Such a promise would be fairly credible if drafted properly.
- topkai22 7y agoI semi-seriously wonder if they just brought back Google Reader and seriously supported it how much goodwill they'd regain. Not that they haven't killed hundreds of other products, but that one just sticks out so much.