3 ms·

That is if you don't count the cost of them or the possible damage to the brand that the killed projects might result in.

weird-eye-issue 4y ago
Yeah you're right nobody is using anything Google makes
- viscanti 4y ago
  It's possible for there to be damage to a brand without it sending overall usage to zero. Maybe someone would be skeptical of future social networks or URL shorteners or news reading apps or video chat apps from Google. It's conceivable that some of those (or any of a number of other failed products) could keep them from getting adoption elsewhere in the future.
- throwawaylinux 4y ago
  I'm not sure how to answer this. Do you really believe you addressed what I wrote with a logically sound rebuttal? I would be happy to try to explain my position if you were making a genuine attempt.
  - whynaut 4y ago
    I don’t think they are being sarcastic, given the context
    - throwawaylinux 4y ago
      They're definitely being sarcastic, the question is whether they thought they were making some useful point. Obviously damage to the brand does not mean their users will immediately go to zero. You can see the damage to their brand that their project cancellation strategy causes in nerd forums like this all the time. Now probably that's not a big concern in the large scheme and they've decided the impact is reasonable, but if people think public moves like these are not considered carefully considered in this light, they just don't have a grasp of the reality of how corporations manage an asset worth hundreds of billions of dollars. And the idea that because the balance may not be hurting them now, that the marginal costs and benefits for increasing the number of projects and project failures remain static and therefore increasing them can only help, is just laughable, and you don't need an economics degree to figure that out. So I try to give the benefit of the doubt and give the benefit of the doubt even this kind of cheap rhetorical device and illogical point, but it's hard to imagine someone actually thought they were making a good point.
      - whynaut 4y ago
        > it's hard to imagine someone actually thought they were making a good point. That’s why assumed it wasn’t sarcastic. As a sarcastic comment it feels flippant and dismissive. So I thought a better perspective was that they were referencing Google’s social and messaging products. I have no way to know but fortunately, it matters not.
- danielvaughn 4y ago
  It's a fair point and I don't think you should be downvoted. Though I have to disagree - for instance, when choosing whether to go with AWS or GCP... Like yes, Google is probably not going to kill GCP. But it's not doing very well compared to Amazon, and then there's no guarantee that any product within GCP is going to exist for the long run. To think that a major part of your cloud infrastructure might just be dropped, that makes it too risky for me personally. There's a general expectation that if I'm going to take a risk on a product, that they're in it for the long haul. Google is too big to be "in for the long haul" on really anything except their core products.
- bruce511 4y ago
  Clearly people are using things Google makes. Search, Gmail, YouTube spring to mind. But I'm not personally looking to use anything _new_ that Google makes. Wave, reader, goofke+, hangouts, and a bunch of others came and went. Basically when compared to behemoths like search and Gmail most really good things are complete failures. Unfortunately this reputation is starting to ge an issue outside, and inside, the company. Outside I'm personally reluctant to use anything "Google new". I can imagine that inside when you're working on your 3rd or 4th cancelled Google project, you passion is, well, dulled.

weird-eye-issue 4y ago

Yeah you're right nobody is using anything Google makes

viscanti 4y ago
It's possible for there to be damage to a brand without it sending overall usage to zero. Maybe someone would be skeptical of future social networks or URL shorteners or news reading apps or video chat apps from Google. It's conceivable that some of those (or any of a number of other failed products) could keep them from getting adoption elsewhere in the future.
throwawaylinux 4y ago
I'm not sure how to answer this. Do you really believe you addressed what I wrote with a logically sound rebuttal? I would be happy to try to explain my position if you were making a genuine attempt.
- whynaut 4y ago
  I don’t think they are being sarcastic, given the context
  - throwawaylinux 4y ago
    They're definitely being sarcastic, the question is whether they thought they were making some useful point. Obviously damage to the brand does not mean their users will immediately go to zero. You can see the damage to their brand that their project cancellation strategy causes in nerd forums like this all the time. Now probably that's not a big concern in the large scheme and they've decided the impact is reasonable, but if people think public moves like these are not considered carefully considered in this light, they just don't have a grasp of the reality of how corporations manage an asset worth hundreds of billions of dollars. And the idea that because the balance may not be hurting them now, that the marginal costs and benefits for increasing the number of projects and project failures remain static and therefore increasing them can only help, is just laughable, and you don't need an economics degree to figure that out. So I try to give the benefit of the doubt and give the benefit of the doubt even this kind of cheap rhetorical device and illogical point, but it's hard to imagine someone actually thought they were making a good point.
    - whynaut 4y ago
      > it's hard to imagine someone actually thought they were making a good point. That’s why assumed it wasn’t sarcastic. As a sarcastic comment it feels flippant and dismissive. So I thought a better perspective was that they were referencing Google’s social and messaging products. I have no way to know but fortunately, it matters not.
danielvaughn 4y ago
It's a fair point and I don't think you should be downvoted. Though I have to disagree - for instance, when choosing whether to go with AWS or GCP... Like yes, Google is probably not going to kill GCP. But it's not doing very well compared to Amazon, and then there's no guarantee that any product within GCP is going to exist for the long run. To think that a major part of your cloud infrastructure might just be dropped, that makes it too risky for me personally. There's a general expectation that if I'm going to take a risk on a product, that they're in it for the long haul. Google is too big to be "in for the long haul" on really anything except their core products.
bruce511 4y ago
Clearly people are using things Google makes. Search, Gmail, YouTube spring to mind. But I'm not personally looking to use anything _new_ that Google makes. Wave, reader, goofke+, hangouts, and a bunch of others came and went. Basically when compared to behemoths like search and Gmail most really good things are complete failures. Unfortunately this reputation is starting to ge an issue outside, and inside, the company. Outside I'm personally reluctant to use anything "Google new". I can imagine that inside when you're working on your 3rd or 4th cancelled Google project, you passion is, well, dulled.