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Google shuts down several of countless, FREE APIs, on which the foundations of many startups rest. "Google is just another company who doesn't care about devel
by orblivion 15y ago
Google shuts down several of countless, FREE APIs, on which the foundations of many startups rest.
"Google is just another company who doesn't care about developers."
What? A little gratitude, at least, before suggesting how things could be better.
- chc 15y agoGratitude for what? Ripping out "the foundations of many startups"? In many cases, offering something and then rescinding at the last minute is worse than not offering in the first place. (I'm not personally mad and wouldn't have built a business around this API. But creating false expectations is not a good thing.)
- orblivion 15y agoThat's reasonable, but I think it's sortof unclassy to ignore the fact that they "cared" (as much as a company can really care) enough to offer it in the first place, and everything else they still offer. On the other hand I'm having mixed feelings now, trying to reconcile this with the way I feel about how Facebook's privacy policy affects users. I just don't get the impression that Google is careless the same way.
- r00fus 15y agoThe problem is not that google is shutting down some of it's free APIs. Many folks are crying out for a paid version of the Translate API for example. I question the motive behind shuttering a useful and unparalleled API like translate without considering putting a pricetag on it.