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Google has made some unpopular developer-facing moves lately (App Engine pricing changes come to mind), and it seems entirely out-of-character. From now on, an

Google has made some unpopular developer-facing moves lately (App Engine pricing changes come to mind), and it seems entirely out-of-character. From now on, any API announcement from Google should be accompanied with a GIANT expiration date stamped all over it by default. Then, if it keeps going... happy surprise!

rcfox 15y ago
That's silly. They wouldn't develop something with the plan of cancelling it.
- kelnos 15y ago
  Why not? Roll something out, and say you'll commit to providing it for a certain amount of time. If, after that time, it doesn't seem worth it to keep it going (by any metric you decide), pull it. You've given fair warning. Of course, I imagine that sort of thing would hurt adoption quite a bit.
  - esrauch 15y ago
    Most of the APIs are going to be up for 3 more years, the only one you can possibly complain about is the Translate API.
SriniK 15y ago
Google is doing the right thing that would be typical for an internet company. For any product they would need to have maintainers/owners who are continuously updating and monitoring. It is completely waste of time to maintain unused stuff.
- alanh 15y ago
  You are making a false assumption. I personally use the FeedBurner API to keep track of feed subscribers, for example, and it was deprecated yesterday.
  - orillian 15y ago
    ....and you still have 3 years to use it! (granted no more development will be done on the API.) So over the next three years which is like an eon in web years you can look for an alternative. Frankly Goolge might even bring out an alternative.
    - alanh 15y ago
      Eh, don’t forget that migrating users from one feed to another would be a huge pain in the ass.
  - tonfa 15y ago
    Yes, and it is deprecated, not shutdown: "we have no current plans to remove existing functionality".
    - alanh 15y ago
      Fair point, but isn’t that basically what deprecation is? A communication that something will likely stop working at some point?
      - lurker19 15y ago
        Yes, so you may have to spend some of that money you have not been paying Google for Feedburner, and use it to build or buy a replacement.
      - tonfa 15y ago
        Not always, it might also mean they moved it into maintenance mode.
bane 15y ago
I agree, something strange is definitely going on internally at Google. I actually attribute it to starting with the shutdown of Wave and the floundering about with Buzz and other products since then. One thing that Google has been excellent at doing is building up the perception that they have near limitless computing power at their disposal. These kinds of shutdowns, and the reasons given, are doing immense harm to that cultivated image.
- rachelbythebay 15y ago
  Computing power, sure, but who's running it?
redler 15y ago
Google seems to be really good at starting projects and really bad at stopping them.

rcfox 15y ago

That's silly. They wouldn't develop something with the plan of cancelling it.

kelnos 15y ago
Why not? Roll something out, and say you'll commit to providing it for a certain amount of time. If, after that time, it doesn't seem worth it to keep it going (by any metric you decide), pull it. You've given fair warning. Of course, I imagine that sort of thing would hurt adoption quite a bit.
- esrauch 15y ago
  Most of the APIs are going to be up for 3 more years, the only one you can possibly complain about is the Translate API.

SriniK 15y ago

Google is doing the right thing that would be typical for an internet company. For any product they would need to have maintainers/owners who are continuously updating and monitoring. It is completely waste of time to maintain unused stuff.

alanh 15y ago
You are making a false assumption. I personally use the FeedBurner API to keep track of feed subscribers, for example, and it was deprecated yesterday.
- orillian 15y ago
  ....and you still have 3 years to use it! (granted no more development will be done on the API.) So over the next three years which is like an eon in web years you can look for an alternative. Frankly Goolge might even bring out an alternative.
  - alanh 15y ago
    Eh, don’t forget that migrating users from one feed to another would be a huge pain in the ass.
- tonfa 15y ago
  Yes, and it is deprecated, not shutdown: "we have no current plans to remove existing functionality".
  - alanh 15y ago
    Fair point, but isn’t that basically what deprecation is? A communication that something will likely stop working at some point?
    - lurker19 15y ago
      Yes, so you may have to spend some of that money you have not been paying Google for Feedburner, and use it to build or buy a replacement.
    - tonfa 15y ago
      Not always, it might also mean they moved it into maintenance mode.

bane 15y ago

I agree, something strange is definitely going on internally at Google. I actually attribute it to starting with the shutdown of Wave and the floundering about with Buzz and other products since then. One thing that Google has been excellent at doing is building up the perception that they have near limitless computing power at their disposal. These kinds of shutdowns, and the reasons given, are doing immense harm to that cultivated image.

rachelbythebay 15y ago
Computing power, sure, but who's running it?

redler 15y ago

Google seems to be really good at starting projects and really bad at stopping them.