3 ms·

> People will tolerate sub-optimal experiences Implying the Google Search homepage loading experience is sub-optimal? Chrome starts loading it before you finis

by alpb 5y ago

> People will tolerate sub-optimal experiences Implying the Google Search homepage loading experience is sub-optimal? Chrome starts loading it before you finish typing google.com on your keyboard.

hetspookjee 5y ago
I think most products from Microsoft are relevant in this context. Teams is horrible and every week another thing breaks. Almost every page by Microsoft takes more than 10 seconds to load on my side. Yet everyone including me uses it.
- pas 5y ago
  captive audience!
iamleppert 5y ago
I don’t think the actual experience is sub optimal. It’s not quite there yet, but give it another 10 years and it might be. However, from a pure engineering perspective, I think most people agree that the page weight has increased at a rate that is unjustified considering the core features and functionality have been relatively static. So why the bloat? Engineers can tell of course. The margins of acceptance have gone way up thanks to faster devices and connections, but that still doesn’t explain why they don’t seem to care to optimize anymore. In optimize, I’m talking about it from a pure engineering perspective: what is the minimum amount of data needed to do the job of displaying a list of search results? Some people have forgotten that a list and some simple formatting is all there is to it. It’s not a web app, it has minimal interactivity, and relatively basic features. The fact that it has ballooned to 500k just proves that even Google is not immune. Maybe more resistant than other giant tech companies who’s software just keeps getting larger but not immune. Remember that code is data too. 500k isn’t a lot in today’s world but multiply that by how much traffic they receive and it is. I’m not saying Google search isn’t a well designed product that doesn’t work well, but from a pure first principles perspective it does seem quite bloated based upon what it used to be.
- majani 5y ago
  I'm convinced that Google's massive push into NLP has a lot to do with this shift. Their next chapter is turning the search engine into a smart assistant and they seem to be willing to sacrifice quality in the short term for this broader goal

by alpb 5y ago

> People will tolerate sub-optimal experiences Implying the Google Search homepage loading experience is sub-optimal? Chrome starts loading it before you finish typing google.com on your keyboard.

hetspookjee 5y ago

I think most products from Microsoft are relevant in this context. Teams is horrible and every week another thing breaks. Almost every page by Microsoft takes more than 10 seconds to load on my side. Yet everyone including me uses it.

pas 5y ago
captive audience!

iamleppert 5y ago

I don’t think the actual experience is sub optimal. It’s not quite there yet, but give it another 10 years and it might be. However, from a pure engineering perspective, I think most people agree that the page weight has increased at a rate that is unjustified considering the core features and functionality have been relatively static. So why the bloat? Engineers can tell of course. The margins of acceptance have gone way up thanks to faster devices and connections, but that still doesn’t explain why they don’t seem to care to optimize anymore. In optimize, I’m talking about it from a pure engineering perspective: what is the minimum amount of data needed to do the job of displaying a list of search results? Some people have forgotten that a list and some simple formatting is all there is to it. It’s not a web app, it has minimal interactivity, and relatively basic features. The fact that it has ballooned to 500k just proves that even Google is not immune. Maybe more resistant than other giant tech companies who’s software just keeps getting larger but not immune. Remember that code is data too. 500k isn’t a lot in today’s world but multiply that by how much traffic they receive and it is. I’m not saying Google search isn’t a well designed product that doesn’t work well, but from a pure first principles perspective it does seem quite bloated based upon what it used to be.

majani 5y ago
I'm convinced that Google's massive push into NLP has a lot to do with this shift. Their next chapter is turning the search engine into a smart assistant and they seem to be willing to sacrifice quality in the short term for this broader goal