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Is Google's rate of shutting down products really high or is this some cognitive bias (more headlines, more prominent products, higher number of products in the

by jstx1 5y ago

Is Google's rate of shutting down products really high or is this some cognitive bias (more headlines, more prominent products, higher number of products in the first place etc.)?

bluGill 5y ago
It isn't high directly. However they do tend to shut down a lot of things that others have bought into fully and such people have reason to get mad about it. Often it isn't really feasible to switch away from their products - in this case because your car is directly tied to it. If Google wants to play in the automotive space they need to have 20 years between announced shutdown and discontinuation, with 5 of those years being for automakers to transition, then the next 15 of support for people who have cars. Move fast and break things doesn't fly in the safety matters world of cars.
izacus 5y ago
They're on the high side, but they are still not as hard as most SV startups. They do have a horrible habit of rewriting and rebranding products instead of iteratively fixing them. This Auto example is one of them. There's no reason why this transition couldn't be seamless under Auto name - but they instead decided to bleed internal politics into public product strategy.
- HWR_14 5y ago
  > They're on the high side, but they are still not as hard as most SV startups. Google isn't an SV startup. It's the fourth largest company in the world (and one of the three bigger is Saudi Arabia's oil field). It should therefore be judged against other behemoths. And to support products for a reasonable amount of time. I can still get parts for a 45 year old Toyota directly from the company.
namelessoracle 5y ago
Hasn't it been noted that the way you get promoted at Google is participating in launching new products and that they dont really reward good maintenance of existing products? If so it's just everyone working the incentives.
- tehjoker 5y ago
  If so, then the incentives are doing what they are designed to do and Google just doesn't maintain products. When executives design incentives, usually it's kind of obvious what most of the effects and side-effects will be. If something "bad" starts happening, they tweak the system. If it's left in place, it's working as designed.
okamiueru 5y ago
https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://killedbygoogle.com/

by jstx1 5y ago

Is Google's rate of shutting down products really high or is this some cognitive bias (more headlines, more prominent products, higher number of products in the first place etc.)?

bluGill 5y ago

It isn't high directly. However they do tend to shut down a lot of things that others have bought into fully and such people have reason to get mad about it. Often it isn't really feasible to switch away from their products - in this case because your car is directly tied to it. If Google wants to play in the automotive space they need to have 20 years between announced shutdown and discontinuation, with 5 of those years being for automakers to transition, then the next 15 of support for people who have cars. Move fast and break things doesn't fly in the safety matters world of cars.

izacus 5y ago

They're on the high side, but they are still not as hard as most SV startups. They do have a horrible habit of rewriting and rebranding products instead of iteratively fixing them. This Auto example is one of them. There's no reason why this transition couldn't be seamless under Auto name - but they instead decided to bleed internal politics into public product strategy.

HWR_14 5y ago
> They're on the high side, but they are still not as hard as most SV startups. Google isn't an SV startup. It's the fourth largest company in the world (and one of the three bigger is Saudi Arabia's oil field). It should therefore be judged against other behemoths. And to support products for a reasonable amount of time. I can still get parts for a 45 year old Toyota directly from the company.

namelessoracle 5y ago

Hasn't it been noted that the way you get promoted at Google is participating in launching new products and that they dont really reward good maintenance of existing products? If so it's just everyone working the incentives.

tehjoker 5y ago
If so, then the incentives are doing what they are designed to do and Google just doesn't maintain products. When executives design incentives, usually it's kind of obvious what most of the effects and side-effects will be. If something "bad" starts happening, they tweak the system. If it's left in place, it's working as designed.

okamiueru 5y ago

https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://killedbygoogle.com/