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The risky part is driving people away from Google products and services via uncertainty. Is now the time to put all your eggs into the Google Voice basket? Buy

by jsz0 15y ago

The risky part is driving people away from Google products and services via uncertainty. Is now the time to put all your eggs into the Google Voice basket? Buy a bunch of Chrome PCs? I understand why they have to do it but it will definitely cause some people to adopt more of a wait-and-see approach.

robryan 15y ago
Depends who the alternative is, startups are generally far worse when asking this question.
gbelote 15y ago
That's a good point, but I don't think that'll be a significant psychological effect in practice. Terminating less popular services (like Buzz) early in his reign doesn't make me doubt their ability to follow through with products like Google Voice or Chrome PCs. I think it's more likely to have an opposite effect: it shows good judgement. Things may change and a formally-promising product may start looking grim. At that point this decision may make that product's future seem more uncertain, but I'd expect uncertainty to be dominated more by the product's poor performance/grimness.
nikcub 15y ago
This is what Microsoft understands that Google doesn't. Your platform users come first, before anything else. Microsoft assured that their platforms were good because they used their own platforms themselves. For eg. all Microsoft windows software would use the same API's that third-party developers would use. You look at Google and for them the platform and developers are secondary. API's are not only an afterthought (such as in Google+) but they are something that other people use, not Google. They kill services and API's because they don't need them and it doesn't effect them - but it does effect the users. I can still run SimCity or Test Drive on Windows 7, which makes me, as a user, confident that Microsoft will never throw me under the bus. This means that if you are an IT manager, you can make multi-million dollar purchasing decisions knowing that the technology will still be around and supported since Microsoft use it themselves. Google could kill any API, and they have, and it doesn't impact themselves because they don't use these API's themselves, but they are asking developers to. Google will never become the Microsoft of the web until they start using their own API's and until they start respecting their customers with long-term support.
- yeggeyegge 15y ago
  Yegge, is that you?
smutticus 15y ago
The only way to get real focus in a company is to kill projects. It's not pretty and it pisses the people off who were working on those projects. But it is absolutely necessary to get focused and start making a few great things instead of lots of OK things.
abraham 15y ago
In the short term yes. But once they get past killing all the current cruft we will see fewer products being supported for longer.

by jsz0 15y ago

robryan 15y ago

Depends who the alternative is, startups are generally far worse when asking this question.

gbelote 15y ago

That's a good point, but I don't think that'll be a significant psychological effect in practice. Terminating less popular services (like Buzz) early in his reign doesn't make me doubt their ability to follow through with products like Google Voice or Chrome PCs. I think it's more likely to have an opposite effect: it shows good judgement. Things may change and a formally-promising product may start looking grim. At that point this decision may make that product's future seem more uncertain, but I'd expect uncertainty to be dominated more by the product's poor performance/grimness.

nikcub 15y ago

This is what Microsoft understands that Google doesn't. Your platform users come first, before anything else. Microsoft assured that their platforms were good because they used their own platforms themselves. For eg. all Microsoft windows software would use the same API's that third-party developers would use. You look at Google and for them the platform and developers are secondary. API's are not only an afterthought (such as in Google+) but they are something that other people use, not Google. They kill services and API's because they don't need them and it doesn't effect them - but it does effect the users. I can still run SimCity or Test Drive on Windows 7, which makes me, as a user, confident that Microsoft will never throw me under the bus. This means that if you are an IT manager, you can make multi-million dollar purchasing decisions knowing that the technology will still be around and supported since Microsoft use it themselves. Google could kill any API, and they have, and it doesn't impact themselves because they don't use these API's themselves, but they are asking developers to. Google will never become the Microsoft of the web until they start using their own API's and until they start respecting their customers with long-term support.

yeggeyegge 15y ago
Yegge, is that you?

smutticus 15y ago

The only way to get real focus in a company is to kill projects. It's not pretty and it pisses the people off who were working on those projects. But it is absolutely necessary to get focused and start making a few great things instead of lots of OK things.

abraham 15y ago

In the short term yes. But once they get past killing all the current cruft we will see fewer products being supported for longer.