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Google+ being released to Google App users - only for them to discover that Google+ app on Android and iOS isn't compatible for them. Google Reader being relea
by tobtoh 15y ago
Google+ being released to Google App users - only for them to discover that Google+ app on Android and iOS isn't compatible for them.
Google Reader being released to universal complaints that it's made reading more difficult due to too much whitespace (a mistake that Gmail didn't make even though it uses the same design).
Gmail app being released and seemingly universally panned as being such a bad app, plus it's released with a major bug requiring the app to be pulled.
Since I actively use all three Google products, I'm a little more biased/sensitive to these mis-steps and may be making more of their mistakes than I should. But it seems to me that Google is really struggling to execute anything successfully these days. I can't decide if my expectations of Google has changed, whether Apple has caused me to have higher expectations on the release of a product, or if Google is genuinely stumbling - but my impression is that Google is making basic fundamental errors in the management of their products. Fragmented release dates alienating your loyal users, buggy releases and just outright bad design - to me, it seems like no-one is in control at Google - their work is becoming sloppy and I can only imagine that will hurt their brand in the long term if this isn't turned around.
Edit: Removed the 'over a year late' bit from the first line . Thanks to those who pointed that out - I actually did know it was released this year - I'm probably guilty of running on auto-pilot and inserted a 'cliched phrase' as I typed :S