4 ms·

I assume Google abandoned this along with all their earlier mission statements in favour of building another chat app.

by voisin 4y ago

emanuensis 4y ago
Supposedly all at Library of Congress (LoC) anyone have experience using it there?
b112 4y ago
I can't imagine a life at google. So much promise, all turned to ash.
- UkrainianJew 4y ago
  More like an ad company driven by dark patterns that needs to pretend being good and nice and innovative as otherwise it will lose goodwill just like Facebook did.
  - klipt 4y ago
    I think the Google founders were inherently nicer people than the Facebook founder, but their companies ended up converging on advertising because that's really the only way their products could be profitable.
    - discordance 4y ago
      Is that really the only way to be profitable though? I believe going public inevitably leads to needing to follow growth, which then eventually corrupts virtuous missions.
lupire 4y ago
Could you take a moment to check it Google Books search still exists? I'll give you a hint: https://books.google.com/?hl=en https://books.google.com/?hl=en > Search the world's most comprehensive index of full-text books.
- voisin 4y ago
  I know it exists, but it has appeared to languish for years. They rely on third parties now for inclusion of books, whereas in the early days they innovated on their own with specialized scanning technology. They seemed quite proud of it a decade ago. When was the last time Google has touted their books project? Have they even integrated searching books into their main search (which was supposed to catalogue And make searchable all the world’s information)? It hasn’t been killed but it is clearly a zombie.
  - londons_explore 4y ago
    It was paralyzed by legal disputes with book publishers. In the years the lawsuits were going on, nearly everyone left the project. And then the lawyers have put in so many red lines that it's nearly impossible to make any changes to it.
    - voisin 4y ago
      Yup, I read about that on Wikipedia, but I can't help but not care. If a company touts massive initiatives and then gets bogged down in lawsuits, it seems like they didn't do the basic due diligence to avoid that. (Uber, AirBNB, and others seem to also have these headwinds, though not to the extent that it led to permanent paralysis, so maybe Google made a bet they thought they'd win and then didn't, whereas these other companies did.). I can't help but wonder why, with Google's resources vs. Uber or AirBNB, they couldn't keep moving forward if they wanted to. Strike deals, pay people, whatever. If it matters (i.e. if it involved ads) they would have done it. Given Google's behaviour since the end of their period of true innovative excellence, I don't cut them much slack.
      - twicetwice 4y ago
        This well-written article, "Torching the Modern-Day Library of Alexandria"[0], might change your mind on that. I found it to be a compelling and tragic story. Edit: actually, I think this would make a good submission. Looks like it hasn't been posted since 2017. [0]: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/04/the-tragedy-of-google-books/523320/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/04/the-t...

I assume Google abandoned this along with all their earlier mission statements in favour of building another chat app.

by voisin 4y ago

I assume Google abandoned this along with all their earlier mission statements in favour of building another chat app.

emanuensis 4y ago

Supposedly all at Library of Congress (LoC) anyone have experience using it there?

b112 4y ago

I can't imagine a life at google. So much promise, all turned to ash.

UkrainianJew 4y ago
More like an ad company driven by dark patterns that needs to pretend being good and nice and innovative as otherwise it will lose goodwill just like Facebook did.
- klipt 4y ago
  I think the Google founders were inherently nicer people than the Facebook founder, but their companies ended up converging on advertising because that's really the only way their products could be profitable.
  - discordance 4y ago
    Is that really the only way to be profitable though? I believe going public inevitably leads to needing to follow growth, which then eventually corrupts virtuous missions.

lupire 4y ago

Could you take a moment to check it Google Books search still exists? I'll give you a hint: https://books.google.com/?hl=en https://books.google.com/?hl=en > Search the world's most comprehensive index of full-text books.

voisin 4y ago
I know it exists, but it has appeared to languish for years. They rely on third parties now for inclusion of books, whereas in the early days they innovated on their own with specialized scanning technology. They seemed quite proud of it a decade ago. When was the last time Google has touted their books project? Have they even integrated searching books into their main search (which was supposed to catalogue And make searchable all the world’s information)? It hasn’t been killed but it is clearly a zombie.
- londons_explore 4y ago
  It was paralyzed by legal disputes with book publishers. In the years the lawsuits were going on, nearly everyone left the project. And then the lawyers have put in so many red lines that it's nearly impossible to make any changes to it.
  - voisin 4y ago
    Yup, I read about that on Wikipedia, but I can't help but not care. If a company touts massive initiatives and then gets bogged down in lawsuits, it seems like they didn't do the basic due diligence to avoid that. (Uber, AirBNB, and others seem to also have these headwinds, though not to the extent that it led to permanent paralysis, so maybe Google made a bet they thought they'd win and then didn't, whereas these other companies did.). I can't help but wonder why, with Google's resources vs. Uber or AirBNB, they couldn't keep moving forward if they wanted to. Strike deals, pay people, whatever. If it matters (i.e. if it involved ads) they would have done it. Given Google's behaviour since the end of their period of true innovative excellence, I don't cut them much slack.
    - twicetwice 4y ago
      This well-written article, "Torching the Modern-Day Library of Alexandria"[0], might change your mind on that. I found it to be a compelling and tragic story. Edit: actually, I think this would make a good submission. Looks like it hasn't been posted since 2017. [0]: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/04/the-tragedy-of-google-books/523320/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/04/the-t...