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That explanation helps but doesn't explain why new chat apps get greenlit more often than new local shopping sites, social networks or balloonshots.

andrewstuart2 4y ago
Promotion Driven Development combined with https://xkcd.com/927/ https://xkcd.com/927/ and a heaping helping of decentralized decision making and probably charisma in order to convince someone that This Time It's Different™.
- travisgriggs 4y ago
  A never ending boatload of enabling cash from the golden goose of adtech monopoly certainly contributes to this as well?
  - YZF 4y ago
    Definitely. Basically the business results (ad revenue) is more or less decoupled, in the short and medium terms, from what I would guess 90% of engineers in Google do. So calculate digits of Pi, write books and blog posts, write chat apps, reinvent any wheel possible, rewrite code all the time. A lot of Google's software is actually becoming worse, search, chat, navigation/maps as the 10% that are doing valuable work are fighting entropy and the other 90%. Pure speculation (other than the part about their software becoming worse) so would be interested in the insider's take here. That said it's a pattern I've seen in other places. It's crazy that with so many people of this caliber they're basically spinning their wheels in many areas. Some progress in a few areas, like cloud.
ClumsyPilot 4y ago
Why is everyone sidestepping the most potent explanation - incompetent leadership.
coldtea 4y ago
>That explanation helps but doesn't explain why new chat apps get greenlit more often than new local shopping sites, social networks or balloonshots. Who said those other (local shopping sites, social networks or balloonshots) aren't green lit just as often, and discarded just as fast when they get bored, from Google? E.g. social networks: Remember Orkut? Wave? Plus?
- akkartik 4y ago
  The last of those was 10 years ago. They seem to have learned from their experience there. It's only chat apps that seem a stubborn blind spot.
deleted 4y ago
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Macha 4y ago
Bigger potential gains, the market is controlled by competitors (FB's Whatsapp in Europe, Apple's iMessage in the US), easiest to convince an exec to greenlight it.

andrewstuart2 4y ago

Promotion Driven Development combined with https://xkcd.com/927/ https://xkcd.com/927/ and a heaping helping of decentralized decision making and probably charisma in order to convince someone that This Time It's Different™.

travisgriggs 4y ago
A never ending boatload of enabling cash from the golden goose of adtech monopoly certainly contributes to this as well?
- YZF 4y ago
  Definitely. Basically the business results (ad revenue) is more or less decoupled, in the short and medium terms, from what I would guess 90% of engineers in Google do. So calculate digits of Pi, write books and blog posts, write chat apps, reinvent any wheel possible, rewrite code all the time. A lot of Google's software is actually becoming worse, search, chat, navigation/maps as the 10% that are doing valuable work are fighting entropy and the other 90%. Pure speculation (other than the part about their software becoming worse) so would be interested in the insider's take here. That said it's a pattern I've seen in other places. It's crazy that with so many people of this caliber they're basically spinning their wheels in many areas. Some progress in a few areas, like cloud.

ClumsyPilot 4y ago

Why is everyone sidestepping the most potent explanation - incompetent leadership.

coldtea 4y ago

>That explanation helps but doesn't explain why new chat apps get greenlit more often than new local shopping sites, social networks or balloonshots. Who said those other (local shopping sites, social networks or balloonshots) aren't green lit just as often, and discarded just as fast when they get bored, from Google? E.g. social networks: Remember Orkut? Wave? Plus?

akkartik 4y ago
The last of those was 10 years ago. They seem to have learned from their experience there. It's only chat apps that seem a stubborn blind spot.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

Macha 4y ago

Bigger potential gains, the market is controlled by competitors (FB's Whatsapp in Europe, Apple's iMessage in the US), easiest to convince an exec to greenlight it.