3 ms·

Sundar did nothing but failed projects. Google is still where it was many years ago.

pphysch 4y ago
My Google phone can instantly translate almost any foreign language, embedded in an image, without an internet connection. Pretty sure that was not a thing 8 years ago. If/when Google embeds an (local and/or lightweight) Bard model into every Pixel phone, that will be a game-changer.
- gchokov 4y ago
  That was a feature of google translate many years ago. Absolutely nothing new.
  - ROTMetro 4y ago
    And was came from a purchase of Word Lens not something in house if I remember right.
- pleadthefifth 4y ago
  While cool, that's a feature, not a product. Sundar has not led the company on any new products that have succeeded. The chat apps failed, Meet/Hangouts/whatever lost to Zoom, Stadia got cancelled, etc. All their current cash cows made their names before him. At least he didn't oversee the introduction of Google Plus, though.
  - thehappypm 4y ago
    He’s leading Google Cloud to strong growth, which is more important than something niche but innovative like Stadia.
    - htrp 4y ago
      Technically they poached Thomas Kurian from Oracle for that.....
      - pleadthefifth 4y ago
        That's fine, Kurian is under Sundar too. But GCP isn't winning.
- rippercushions 4y ago
  That's WordLens, which Google acquired in 2014, 9 years ago. https://techcrunch.com/2014/05/16/google-has-acquired-quest-visual-the-maker-of-camera-based-translation-app-word-lens/amp/ https://techcrunch.com/2014/05/16/google-has-acquired-quest-...
  - pphysch 4y ago
    Do you have a source that WordLens worked without an internet connection?
    - int_19h 4y ago
      If it didn't, surely that wasn't a tech limitation? Google Translator itself has had offline translation capabilities for many years now, and Bing had that feature even longer. Offline OCR has been around even longer.
    - rippercushions 4y ago
      Yes, offline capability was there since day one. The Android version of Word Lens actually launched last month [June 2012]. All of the features that made the iOS app interesting are available in the Android version, including completely offline translations. https://lifehacker.com/word-lens-for-android-brings-offline-visual-language-t-5924330 https://lifehacker.com/word-lens-for-android-brings-offline-...

My Google phone can instantly translate almost any foreign language, embedded in an image, without an internet connection. Pretty sure that was not a thing 8 years ago. If/when Google embeds an (local and/or lightweight) Bard model into every Pixel phone, that will be a game-changer.

gchokov 4y ago
That was a feature of google translate many years ago. Absolutely nothing new.
- ROTMetro 4y ago
  And was came from a purchase of Word Lens not something in house if I remember right.
pleadthefifth 4y ago
While cool, that's a feature, not a product. Sundar has not led the company on any new products that have succeeded. The chat apps failed, Meet/Hangouts/whatever lost to Zoom, Stadia got cancelled, etc. All their current cash cows made their names before him. At least he didn't oversee the introduction of Google Plus, though.
- thehappypm 4y ago
  He’s leading Google Cloud to strong growth, which is more important than something niche but innovative like Stadia.
  - htrp 4y ago
    Technically they poached Thomas Kurian from Oracle for that.....
    - pleadthefifth 4y ago
      That's fine, Kurian is under Sundar too. But GCP isn't winning.
rippercushions 4y ago
That's WordLens, which Google acquired in 2014, 9 years ago. https://techcrunch.com/2014/05/16/google-has-acquired-quest-visual-the-maker-of-camera-based-translation-app-word-lens/amp/ https://techcrunch.com/2014/05/16/google-has-acquired-quest-...
- pphysch 4y ago
  Do you have a source that WordLens worked without an internet connection?
  - int_19h 4y ago
    If it didn't, surely that wasn't a tech limitation? Google Translator itself has had offline translation capabilities for many years now, and Bing had that feature even longer. Offline OCR has been around even longer.
  - rippercushions 4y ago
    Yes, offline capability was there since day one. The Android version of Word Lens actually launched last month [June 2012]. All of the features that made the iOS app interesting are available in the Android version, including completely offline translations. https://lifehacker.com/word-lens-for-android-brings-offline-visual-language-t-5924330 https://lifehacker.com/word-lens-for-android-brings-offline-...