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Judging by my own initial thoughts to this and the confirming commentary, I'd say that Google sure has built quite a reputation.

bushbaba 5y ago
To be fair they just raised GCP prices this week.
AceJohnny2 5y ago
That's the point of brands! I don't understand how they don't understand the damage they've done to themselves in certain circles. Clearly their brand is still valuable to a wider audience. I've long wondered why companies don't put their more experimental stuff under a different brand ("X by Google"-- no not that X), and promote them to full brand-name once they've gone reliable. Probably they want such experiments to get a boost from being associated with the better brand, and they figure the brand stain of stopping those experiments isn't so bad. But these things build up over time, and each individual product manager probably don't think they're the last straw... Another thought is that Google comes from an era of much more experimental web. Now the Internet is a much more established market, and platform stability is more a premium. Google is having trouble transitioning from their wilder younger days (of just a few years ago) to a more reliable company.
- chaostheory 5y ago
  > I've long wondered why companies don't put their more experimental stuff under a different brand ("X by Google"-- no not that X), and promote them to full brand-name once they've gone reliable. They still have most of the Alphabet to do this too. I'm still surprised they didn't already do it years ago.
oh_sigh 5y ago
Query your non-hn friends about Google. I swear there are people who just ctrl-f for Google on hn and post the same "when's it going to be cancelled?" I would wager that almost all of these posters just happen to have philosophical/political problems with Google too.
- humanwhosits 5y ago
  Just because non-hn crowd isn't aware of it, doesn't mean it isn't a big problem
  - oh_sigh 5y ago
    Reputation is almost entirely wrapped up in awareness. Is it possible for something to have a bad reputation, but no one knows it?
- 0xbadcafebee 5y ago
  Absolutely, HN's echo chamber is not reflective of normal people. But there is a growing worldwide discontent with FAANG's domineering influence. Google is hammered almost as much as Meta by political/regulatory bodies, and news of that influences how regular people see those companies. The ever-encroaching ads also push people towards competitors. Wait a few years and most users will be looking for alternatives.
stickfigure 5y ago
I don't know about your initial thoughts, but I'm wondering how long until Google Domains has its own chat app.
Slade1 5y ago
Most users on this site would cut off their own thumbs before saying something about Google that isn't negative; it's just one of the hallmarks of the HN community. To everyone complaining about the possibility of you google account getting false flagged as TOS violation: do you actively use this reason to avoid all other domain providers like GoDaddy who can terminate your account? Just make a separate email account that exists solely to manage your domains, and this advice goes for using ANY domain registrar/provider.
- efdee 5y ago
  The point is against putting all your eggs in one basket (especially with said basket's track record). Sure, GoDaddy could. But then I just lose my domains. If Google does it, I lose all my eggs.
- jackvalentine 5y ago
  > To everyone complaining about the possibility of you google account getting false flagged as TOS violation: do you actively use this reason to avoid all other domain providers like GoDaddy who can terminate your account? My domain provider is only used as a domain provider, everything else - email, hosting etc is elsewhere. I won’t wake up one morning and find that I’ve been caught in some kind of youtube purge that disables my account.

bushbaba 5y ago

To be fair they just raised GCP prices this week.

AceJohnny2 5y ago

That's the point of brands! I don't understand how they don't understand the damage they've done to themselves in certain circles. Clearly their brand is still valuable to a wider audience. I've long wondered why companies don't put their more experimental stuff under a different brand ("X by Google"-- no not that X), and promote them to full brand-name once they've gone reliable. Probably they want such experiments to get a boost from being associated with the better brand, and they figure the brand stain of stopping those experiments isn't so bad. But these things build up over time, and each individual product manager probably don't think they're the last straw... Another thought is that Google comes from an era of much more experimental web. Now the Internet is a much more established market, and platform stability is more a premium. Google is having trouble transitioning from their wilder younger days (of just a few years ago) to a more reliable company.

chaostheory 5y ago
> I've long wondered why companies don't put their more experimental stuff under a different brand ("X by Google"-- no not that X), and promote them to full brand-name once they've gone reliable. They still have most of the Alphabet to do this too. I'm still surprised they didn't already do it years ago.

oh_sigh 5y ago

Query your non-hn friends about Google. I swear there are people who just ctrl-f for Google on hn and post the same "when's it going to be cancelled?" I would wager that almost all of these posters just happen to have philosophical/political problems with Google too.

humanwhosits 5y ago
Just because non-hn crowd isn't aware of it, doesn't mean it isn't a big problem
- oh_sigh 5y ago
  Reputation is almost entirely wrapped up in awareness. Is it possible for something to have a bad reputation, but no one knows it?
0xbadcafebee 5y ago
Absolutely, HN's echo chamber is not reflective of normal people. But there is a growing worldwide discontent with FAANG's domineering influence. Google is hammered almost as much as Meta by political/regulatory bodies, and news of that influences how regular people see those companies. The ever-encroaching ads also push people towards competitors. Wait a few years and most users will be looking for alternatives.

stickfigure 5y ago

I don't know about your initial thoughts, but I'm wondering how long until Google Domains has its own chat app.

Slade1 5y ago

Most users on this site would cut off their own thumbs before saying something about Google that isn't negative; it's just one of the hallmarks of the HN community. To everyone complaining about the possibility of you google account getting false flagged as TOS violation: do you actively use this reason to avoid all other domain providers like GoDaddy who can terminate your account? Just make a separate email account that exists solely to manage your domains, and this advice goes for using ANY domain registrar/provider.

efdee 5y ago
The point is against putting all your eggs in one basket (especially with said basket's track record). Sure, GoDaddy could. But then I just lose my domains. If Google does it, I lose all my eggs.
jackvalentine 5y ago
> To everyone complaining about the possibility of you google account getting false flagged as TOS violation: do you actively use this reason to avoid all other domain providers like GoDaddy who can terminate your account? My domain provider is only used as a domain provider, everything else - email, hosting etc is elsewhere. I won’t wake up one morning and find that I’ve been caught in some kind of youtube purge that disables my account.