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Interesting that they would launch this as a totally separate product and not as a part of G Suite. Do you think they want to create some distance between them
by arkitaip 6y ago
Interesting that they would launch this as a totally separate product and not as a part of G Suite.
Do you think they want to create some distance between them and the rest of Google because ofd Google's reputation of shutting down products? Or maybe they want to launch a product outside the usual bureaucracy?
- ocdtrekkie 6y ago"At Area 120, we work on 20% projects 100% of the time." It literally just has no backing by Google's corporate or business goals.
- lallysingh 6y agoTo be fair, does that mean anything?
- lern_too_spel 6y agoIt means that the PM cares less about the users than the PM for a 100% time Google product cares the users, which is already very little.
- arkitaip 6y agoRight but you can be sure that many people across several teams inside of Google have thought about creating a Airtable clone. Somehow Google greenlit this as a standalone product amongst many other options...
- dragonwriter 6y ago> Somehow Google greenlit this as a standalone product amongst many other options... Even before the “internal incubator” that this came out of, Google hasn't been known for doing a single exclusive offering in a space, so this probably wasn't centrally green lot (because otherwise “internal incubator” makes little sense), and it's release wouldn't (even if it was) exclude another Google offering in the same space. The competitive process you imagine just doesn't seem likely to even approximate the truth.
- baskire 6y agoAka we will kill this at any time.
- danudey 6y ago"We exist only to design and launch products, which earns us huge bonuses, and not to actually maintain or improve them, which earns us nothing."
- marcinzm 6y agoHow is that different from the rest of Google?
- WorldMaker 6y agoHonesty and self-awareness?
- baq 6y agoRisking comments that HN is becoming reddit: thatsthejoke.gif
- paranoidrobot 6y ago> "At Area 120, we work on 20% projects 100% of the time." I laughed at that, at first, thinking it were a joke. No, no that's a quote from https://area120.google.com/ https://area120.google.com/
- mey 6y agoThanks for the clarification, I also thought the parents comment was snark. Obviously that is not ocdtrekkie's fault.
- hobofan 6y agoGoogle Maps was a 20% eons ago, wasn't it? So there is a chance that it becomes part of Google's corporate goals, e.g. making G Suite essential to businesses.
- solresol 6y agoNo, it started as a purchase of where2 and has had full time staff ever since google bought it.
- hobofan 6y agoSorry, after looking it up, I think I confused it with GMail.
- buitreVirtual 6y agoWhy hasn't Google taken G suite seriously already? The only gem is Gmail. The rest feels like toys (i.e. 20% projects).
- howlgarnish 6y agoI've used G Suite exclusively for something like 7-8 years now. The core products (Docs, Sheets, Slides) are rock solid and well integrated, and I've never found myself missing a feature. The drawing tool (what is it even called? Draw? Drawings?) is a bit of a toy, but there are plenty of alternatives.
- gowld 6y agoIt's the reverse: GSuite products have a mandatory minimum level of support (and integrate with the Suite). Area 120 is for standalone products that have zero promise of support.