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I think you're lashing out at Google for a variety of different (and very good!) reasons, but they're outside the range of my comment. People getting banned fro

I think you're lashing out at Google for a variety of different (and very good!) reasons, but they're outside the range of my comment. People getting banned from Google services because of broken automation is bad, of course, but it has nothing to do with the issue of whether migration paths are provided when services are sunsetted at Google. My point is that for Google's core services, they generally due try to migrate users to a product that provides the same basic features, but that this isn't good enough. Forcing users to migrate because of pointless churn in your app offerings is already the problem, regardless of whether the migrations are handled well. Google is worse than Microsoft in this area not because they leave users stranded (usually), but because they're constantly switching their focus in products like messaging.

pishpash 5y ago
That's a shallow distinction. The constant migration is because internally teams are abandoning projects. Whether another team picks up a similar project is a secondary process, and may not happen, then you have a killed product. This is a completely different process than a company deciding to go in a different business direction or making a technical decision to change. Eventually these "core products" will be abandoned, because let's face it, they are not even core products. Core product for GOOG is ads. And that's the difference.
- chipsa 5y ago
  Only things I trust google to keep up at this point is stuff that makes them lots of money(ads) or that they use massively internally(Gmail)
exodust 5y ago
> "they generally do try to migrate users to a product that provides the same basic features" Try telling that to Picasa users. When Google announced it was "moving on from Picasa", they stated: "We apologize for any inconvenience this transition causes, but.... Google Photos is a new and smarter product that offers a better platform for us..." A better platform for Google. Not users. Many Picasa users, like my father, were left frustrated and confused by the change. He was not a "cloud user" of anything, and he took lots of hi-res photos and wanted to manage them locally. Picasa failed to install on Windows 10, and some people were even rolling back to Windows 7/8 just so they could keep using the Picasa application. I hope you don't consider migration from locally controlled photo management to the cloud as "generally the same features", because it isn't.
- mnsc 5y ago
  Picasa taught me to not trust Google and yet I kinda fell for the "unlimited backup of your photos" in "photos". Which were unlimited until it weren't. And now my storage is full and Google is repeatedly threatening to drop emails because they share the same storage.
- hackmiester 5y ago
  Maybe a Windows update fixed this? My parents are still using Picasa.
  - exodust 5y ago
    Okay, maybe. This was years ago when my dad complained about it not working. I installed FastStone Image Viewer as a replacement (what I use), but he preferred Picasa.
    - hackmiester 5y ago
      I will check that out, thanks for mentioning it. I've been low-key sweating about the potential loss of Picasa since it's been unmaintained, but aside from maybe the iPhone photo editor, I have never seen something as easy to use. And honestly, in my opinion, Picasa still has a slight edge over the modern iPhone editor...
blagie 5y ago
No, all of these were places where uses were left stranded. If you started a business which relies on functionality in Manifest V2, and Google wants to block ad blockers with Manifest V3, you're SOL. If you started a small business which makes Workspace apps for local companies, and Google starts requiring a $50k security audits which are greater than your profits, you're SOL, and those local businesses are SOL. And so on. There is no migration path, at least which allows you to stay in business. I'm not talking about changing chat clients. I'm talking about Google razing thousands of small businesses to the ground because they don't matter to a $1.8T goliath. All of these businesses were Google's partners in a Google ecosystem, not competitors. Microsoft -- at least modern Microsoft -- doesn't do this. This is why I always advise people never to rely on Google for B2B. It's transactional; it's fine for making a quick buck if you've got something you think will make you a mint for a year or two, but it's not fine for building a sustainable business.

pishpash 5y ago

That's a shallow distinction. The constant migration is because internally teams are abandoning projects. Whether another team picks up a similar project is a secondary process, and may not happen, then you have a killed product. This is a completely different process than a company deciding to go in a different business direction or making a technical decision to change. Eventually these "core products" will be abandoned, because let's face it, they are not even core products. Core product for GOOG is ads. And that's the difference.

chipsa 5y ago
Only things I trust google to keep up at this point is stuff that makes them lots of money(ads) or that they use massively internally(Gmail)

exodust 5y ago

> "they generally do try to migrate users to a product that provides the same basic features" Try telling that to Picasa users. When Google announced it was "moving on from Picasa", they stated: "We apologize for any inconvenience this transition causes, but.... Google Photos is a new and smarter product that offers a better platform for us..." A better platform for Google. Not users. Many Picasa users, like my father, were left frustrated and confused by the change. He was not a "cloud user" of anything, and he took lots of hi-res photos and wanted to manage them locally. Picasa failed to install on Windows 10, and some people were even rolling back to Windows 7/8 just so they could keep using the Picasa application. I hope you don't consider migration from locally controlled photo management to the cloud as "generally the same features", because it isn't.

mnsc 5y ago
Picasa taught me to not trust Google and yet I kinda fell for the "unlimited backup of your photos" in "photos". Which were unlimited until it weren't. And now my storage is full and Google is repeatedly threatening to drop emails because they share the same storage.
hackmiester 5y ago
Maybe a Windows update fixed this? My parents are still using Picasa.
- exodust 5y ago
  Okay, maybe. This was years ago when my dad complained about it not working. I installed FastStone Image Viewer as a replacement (what I use), but he preferred Picasa.
  - hackmiester 5y ago
    I will check that out, thanks for mentioning it. I've been low-key sweating about the potential loss of Picasa since it's been unmaintained, but aside from maybe the iPhone photo editor, I have never seen something as easy to use. And honestly, in my opinion, Picasa still has a slight edge over the modern iPhone editor...

blagie 5y ago

No, all of these were places where uses were left stranded. If you started a business which relies on functionality in Manifest V2, and Google wants to block ad blockers with Manifest V3, you're SOL. If you started a small business which makes Workspace apps for local companies, and Google starts requiring a $50k security audits which are greater than your profits, you're SOL, and those local businesses are SOL. And so on. There is no migration path, at least which allows you to stay in business. I'm not talking about changing chat clients. I'm talking about Google razing thousands of small businesses to the ground because they don't matter to a $1.8T goliath. All of these businesses were Google's partners in a Google ecosystem, not competitors. Microsoft -- at least modern Microsoft -- doesn't do this. This is why I always advise people never to rely on Google for B2B. It's transactional; it's fine for making a quick buck if you've got something you think will make you a mint for a year or two, but it's not fine for building a sustainable business.