4 ms·

Google needs to buy Discord, do the gluey bits to integrate it into GSuite, shut down all its other chat offerings, and then let them do their thing.

by mike_d 6y ago

chippiewill 6y ago
What Google heard is: buy discord, glue it into everything and then shut it all down after 2 years.
- xapata 6y ago
  I'm imagining a meeting a few years back, at Google: "Ok, you know our motto, 'Don't be Evil.'?" Heads nod. "What if ... what if ... what if we simplify that?" "How so?" "Just cut off the first word, 'Be Evil.' Simple, elegant." "I like it!" ---- Jokes aside, I think Google does a pretty good job of keeping the major products steady. Our little cohort on HN isn't a great sample for determining what "major" is.
  - slenk 6y ago
    Google Play Music, Hangouts, AngularJS, Works with Nest API.... They've killed off a lot of buds, but they've also killed some great products. https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://killedbygoogle.com/
  - gertlex 6y ago
    Seems to me that either "Hangouts" (or whatever it's been most recently renamed to) is "major," and so many might argue it proves you false regarding "steady," OR it's not major, and discord would thus not be major and likewise not be kept "steady".
    - xapata 6y ago
      That's a fair assessment.
s3r3nity 6y ago
Given some of their moves with Google Workspace tying together Gmail / Meet / Chat, I doubt they could get away with this without significant antitrust issues. They still haven’t fully closed on their Fitbit acquisition, so I’d expect they’d have a tough hill to climb for a Discord or a Slack.
- texasbigdata 6y ago
  Would antitrust cover....a hypothetical unlimited budget de novo build? Sort of acquihiring without going after Discord employees.
  - s3r3nity 6y ago
    It would if they build a completely free product to price out competitors. Then there's an easy case to be made that they're leveraging market power / dominance in one market to undercut rivals in another (e.g. running this new service with negative profits to gain market share before eventually boosting prices later.)
rfw300 6y ago
Yeah, Google has a chat app addiction that’s not going to be solved by buying yet another chat app. Relevant XKCD: https://xkcd.com/927/ https://xkcd.com/927/

Google needs to buy Discord, do the gluey bits to integrate it into GSuite, shut down all its other chat offerings, and then let them do their thing.

by mike_d 6y ago

Google needs to buy Discord, do the gluey bits to integrate it into GSuite, shut down all its other chat offerings, and then let them do their thing.

chippiewill 6y ago

What Google heard is: buy discord, glue it into everything and then shut it all down after 2 years.

xapata 6y ago
I'm imagining a meeting a few years back, at Google: "Ok, you know our motto, 'Don't be Evil.'?" Heads nod. "What if ... what if ... what if we simplify that?" "How so?" "Just cut off the first word, 'Be Evil.' Simple, elegant." "I like it!" ---- Jokes aside, I think Google does a pretty good job of keeping the major products steady. Our little cohort on HN isn't a great sample for determining what "major" is.
- slenk 6y ago
  Google Play Music, Hangouts, AngularJS, Works with Nest API.... They've killed off a lot of buds, but they've also killed some great products. https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://killedbygoogle.com/
- gertlex 6y ago
  Seems to me that either "Hangouts" (or whatever it's been most recently renamed to) is "major," and so many might argue it proves you false regarding "steady," OR it's not major, and discord would thus not be major and likewise not be kept "steady".
  - xapata 6y ago
    That's a fair assessment.

s3r3nity 6y ago

Given some of their moves with Google Workspace tying together Gmail / Meet / Chat, I doubt they could get away with this without significant antitrust issues. They still haven’t fully closed on their Fitbit acquisition, so I’d expect they’d have a tough hill to climb for a Discord or a Slack.

texasbigdata 6y ago
Would antitrust cover....a hypothetical unlimited budget de novo build? Sort of acquihiring without going after Discord employees.
- s3r3nity 6y ago
  It would if they build a completely free product to price out competitors. Then there's an easy case to be made that they're leveraging market power / dominance in one market to undercut rivals in another (e.g. running this new service with negative profits to gain market share before eventually boosting prices later.)

rfw300 6y ago

Yeah, Google has a chat app addiction that’s not going to be solved by buying yet another chat app. Relevant XKCD: https://xkcd.com/927/ https://xkcd.com/927/