21 ms·
Google has already pulled six products in 2023
- cgio 3y agoIs Fuchsia on this list too, even unofficially so?
- klabb3 3y agoIf I had a penny for every time I hear this.. yes they had big layoffs, but they also hired like crazy for a long time. Fuchsia is maybe 1/4 product and the rest is a long term infrastructure investment. If Google had lost interest they’d have no problem shutting it down by now, for instance stadia rose and fell in a shorter time span than all of fuchsia. I don’t know whether fuchsia will “make it”, heck a frustrated enough SvP can probably kill it if they really wanted to. However, fuchsia never lived in the same world as the rest of Google, or even the platform & ecosystems org (Android & ChromeOS), not really. Nobody ever expected a new OS and kernel to be a mainstream success in single digit years. It’s an insane project to take on, and ironically that insanity keeps a lot of the short term opportunists away, specifically the kind that leaves a crater after them when they leave..
- criddell 3y ago> If Google had lost interest they’d have no problem shutting it down by now It does feel like they’ve lost a lot of interest in Android. It’s too big for Google to just close, but I could see them selling it. If that happens, hopefully it’s to a Microsoft but chances are they will screw us all and sell it to Oracle or Xiaomi. But there are a lot of things that will die before Android or Fuschia. Here’s a list of 270 Google projects (past and present)[1]. I learned about Google Sunroof through this list (rooftop solar calculator) and it’s pretty neat. [1]: https://maheshone.com/google-products-and-services/ https://maheshone.com/google-products-and-services/
- jzb 3y agoOne hopes the Google/Oracle relationship is such that Google would sell Android to any company except Oracle.
- criddell 3y agoThe last thing Google wants is a shareholder lawsuit if they sell it at a discount to somebody else.
- illiarian 3y ago> but I could see them selling it. IMO they are aiming to replace Android with Fuchsia. Because they have full control of Fuchsia, and so-so control of Android. They don't need to sell Android. They can just let it die on its own in AOSP which is already nonviable without Google's services.
- rippercushions 3y agoThe massive Chinese Android ecosystem operates entirely without Google services.
- kmlx 3y ago> hopefully it’s to a Microsoft as long as it's not Microsoft itself of course.
- dmm 3y agoI wish! Android's refusal to implement stateful DHCPv6 is a noble position that Fuchsia cowardly surrendered. https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/36949085 https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/36949085
- hotpotamus 3y agoIs this more than usual?
- thinkingemote 3y agoProbably not, but we are only in the first quarter of the year so far.
- dubcanada 3y agoOuch, not a good look when people lose almost complete faith in your hardware products. Every one I know of has been shut down at this point. Why would I buy a Google Hardware ever? Especially considering how they treated the Onhub... Stadia Onhub Glass
- manojlds 3y agoPixel is doing better than ever though.
- blibble 3y agodid they manage convince to samsung to fix the critical vulnerabilities that require you to turn off your mobile data yet? otherwise you can be pwned by a phone call https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/2023/03/multiple-internet-to-baseband-remote-rce.html https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/2023/03/multiple-inte... phones from mid 2022 seem like abandonware already
- jve 3y agoMisinformation. > require you to turn off your mobile data yet Wifi calling and VoLTE is not mobile data. > phones from mid 2022 seem like abandonware already Samsung supports updates for multiple years. Mid 2022 gets you previous samsung model - S22, where S23 was released this year 2023.
- blibble 3y agosorry, when I said mobile data I actually meant "all cellular communications", which is far more broad for some reason Android allows carriers to hide the VoLTE and Wifi calling toggles in the UI meaning the only fix is to turn cellular connectivity off completely
- coremoff 3y agothose bugs were fixed in early March https://source.android.com/docs/security/bulletin/pixel/2023-03-01 https://source.android.com/docs/security/bulletin/pixel/2023...
- bigyikes 3y agoSurely the people working at Google understand how all these shutdowns look to outsiders, right? I have to imagine so… they’re smart people, and a ton of them lurk here on HN. It’s interesting to me that they continue to spawn and nix products like this despite the reputation damage it causes. Anyone wanna bet on if/when Bard gets axed?
- usrusr 3y agoWhat would you consider a lesson lernt from that perception? Never ever start anything new unless you want to bet the company on running it forever?
- detourdog 3y agoGOOG went wrong when they stopped using XMPP, CALDAV and forked Webkit. Those actions broke cross platform development and re-ignited the browser wars. I see those moves as totally motivated by privacy invasion of the users. Never trust a free product with advertising.
- chongli 3y agoI've never worked at Google so take my opinion with a grain of salt. Everything I've heard (mostly on HN) about working there is that there are simply too many perverse incentives to abandon products. People get promoted for creating exciting new products and then leave those products behind at their new position. Up-and-comers are also incentivized to do the same thing. There seems to be no appetite whatsoever for hiring "steady hand on the tiller" type people. The whole company DNA is built around hiring elite graduates fresh out of school. It's the classic "too many chefs in the kitchen" problem.
- ghaff 3y agoPut in concrete terms, do you want to be one of the two engineers exiled to maintaining Reader because you pissed someone off to keep the geeks off Google’s back?
- fnordian_slip 3y agoI have never even heard of Google Jacquard, was it maybe advertised more in the US than in Europe? It seems like an interesting concept, since hands-free control of your phone via speech is often too awkward to use in public imho. Maybe it'll come back when the hardware is able to shrink even more, making it less conspicuous.
- 4ninesfine 3y agoI actually got a Levi's / google jacquard trucker jacket (on a good sale). It had potential but Google never seemed to do anything with it. It's pretty inconspicuous already but the Google app for it is very limited. If they open source it I think we could have some fun with the tech.
- Double_a_92 3y agoI tried reading the product page an I feel like I'm having a stroke... How hard can it be to explain what it actually is? So far I roughly got "tracker that connects to a trucker jacket". WHAT? And then all it was was basically a touch sensor for your jacket sleeve, that you can use to control your phone.
- tjpnz 3y agoGCP on the chopping block if it doesn't start making gains on Azure by EOY?
- papito 3y agoYes. "This person said the group’s leaders didn’t explicitly state what would happen to the cloud division if it didn’t reach a top two position by 2023. A commonly held view inside the group was that Google wouldn’t continue investing money if it failed to it meet its goal, the person said. " https://www.theinformation.com/articles/google-brass-set-2023-as-deadline-to-beat-amazon-microsoft-in-cloud?utm_source=hackernews&utm_medium=unlock https://www.theinformation.com/articles/google-brass-set-202...
- illiarian 3y agoThey have insanely expensive multi-year contracts with quite a few huge companies (and probably government agencies, too). You don't just shut GCP down.
- zvrba 3y agoYou don't just shut it down, but discontinue further sales instead so that existing contracts die gracefully.
- surgical_fire 3y agoYes, Google is known for discontinuing things gracefully. I almost want GCP to fail just for the popcorn factor.
- acheron 3y agoHaving consulted at government agencies, it’s all AWS and Azure that I’ve seen. There’s a lot of government out there so I wouldn’t be incredibly surprised if somebody somewhere is using GCP but it’s not at all common as far as I can tell.
- mrweasel 3y ago
- rvz 3y agoStadia was so predictable, obvious and was just too easy [0] and had no chance in surviving. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27039202 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27039202
- tjpnz 3y agoTerrible business model, all kinds of weird limitations on what devices could run it and tech which never lived up to the marketing. Very predictable.
- esskay 3y agoand this is why I wont use Google products. You can't trust them not to pull the plug.
- draugadrotten 3y agoA missed opportunity! First you consult on implementing the Google product, then later you consult again to migrate away from it! Double dipping. Bonus points if migrating from the axed Google product to a new Google product.
- Andrew_nenakhov 3y ago[flagged]
- usrusr 3y agoI love these Google shutdown posts: whenever a headline like this comes up I wonder how many of those former Google products I've actually heard of.
- quickthrower2 3y agoHow safe is Firebase?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- alex7734 3y agohttps://killedbygoogle.com https://killedbygoogle.com
- iLoveOncall 3y agoThe list is a bit dishonest. Google Code Jam was not a product, and it was an event that was a net loss in terms of revenue, which is hard to justify maintaining when you are cutting thousands of jobs. Google Street View is part of Google Maps, the post even says so. Google OnHub is a one time hardware product. Nobody is blaming Nintendo for killing the Gameboy Color when it stopped producing it. I don't see how any of the 6 things mentioned here have been unjustifiably "killed".
- cultureswitch 3y agoExtremely disingenuous point you're making about OnHub. Nintendo didn't remotely remove functionalities from the Gameboy Color. Google did that with OnHub. Arguing "it's hardware" doesn't work when the features are cloud-based and the company shuts down the servers. It's bait and switch, pure and simple.
- iLoveOncall 3y agoSo is the expectation for every single cloud-connected item or online product that the servers remain online ad vitam aeternam so that future archeologists can still use the item when it's rediscovered and restored in 10,000 years? You just have the wrong expectation for online products.
- rpdillon 3y agoStrawman. I bought a router. I never expect any router to stop working because the manufacturer flips a switch.
- iLoveOncall 3y ago> I bought a router. You bought a connected router. Again, you just have the wrong expectation for online products. The fact that it was maintained for 8 years should be praised.
- 3y ago
- mpsprd 3y agoWhen hear about hardware products turning into bricks after the manufacturer pulled the plug on cloud services, I wonder how long it will still be legal. Legislation should be put in place so that features not requiring a connection shall work offline. In north America, there is a lot of political pressure for some environmental issues but nothing about planned obsolescence.
- muyuu 3y ago> Legislation should be put in place so that features not requiring a connection shall work offline. I'm afraid that in most cases that is just impossible, because the service is essentially all in the "cloud" by design. Perhaps the company should be forced to sustain service for a minimum warranty period like in the EU with their 2-years minimum legislation, which has cost repercussions onto the user. But really in most cases the problem is that it's so accepted to be sucked into subscription deals where the company can change their end of the deal at a moment's notice, and where you might just lose a lot of invested time and effort, let alone data and privacy, and essentially nothing of that can be properly compensated.
- ed_mercer 3y agoWhy does Google get grilled so badly for pulling products? Don’t other companies do the exact same thing, and isn’t it their full right to abandon projects when it no longer makes sense?
- adamors 3y agoWhat other company has a literal graveyard of products? https://killedbygoogle.com https://killedbygoogle.com
- izacus 3y agoPretty much every single corporation of that size and age. And many startups too (they call it "pivoting" though - it's not like startup workers complaining over Google here are first in line to maintain failing products forever).
- jsnell 3y agoAmazon and Microsoft would have graveyeards just as large, if compiled via the same criteria. You know all that shit Google gets about chat apps? Microsoft has also launched and killed more than a dozen of them. Jeff Bezos used to brag about how many failed products they launched and killed. So it comes back to the question that ed_mercer had: why is there such a double standard? Why does somebody obsessively maintain that site, and why does a large part of the HN audience love spamming "when will Google cancel search lol" into any discussion about Google, when Amazon putting two bullets into the neck of yet another product goes unnoticed?
- JumpCrisscross 3y ago> Microsoft has also launched and killed more than a dozen of them Microsoft is religious about maintaining backward compatibility and support. They also have some concept of service, which makes cancellations smoother. (All this makes product development aware of the costs of abandonment. Google doesn’t have that in its culture, and it’s a constant problem with hiring from them now.)
- remirk 3y agoThe dedicated Streetview app was finally killed because streetview is already integrated in regular google maps. To me, that seems like a good reason to discontinue the dedicated app. I don't get the reasoning behind this article. Half of this list is side projects which didn't work out, which is understandable to a certain degree. The article feels like blogspam riding on the hypetrain of people disliking when google discontinues products like Stadia.
- gondaloof 3y agoYou could say the same about Google Earth on mobile. Do you need a separate app? I’m honestly surprised it still exists.
- mulmboy 3y agoGoogle earth on mobile lets you load up local KML files, which I don't think normal maps does
- Kye 3y agoGoogle has never been great at integrating their acquisitions. Even their own video search still can't seem to match YouTube's search for things on YouTube even with exact titles. Google Earth started as Keyhole. It's the K in KML. It gained notoriety pre-acquisition for being used in reporting on the invasion of Iraq. Maps was a different company. You can export and import KML in Maps, but it's in a separate custom map interface under Saved->Maps. It's not integrated with the main interface like in Earth as far as I can tell. If there's a way to load them like overlays in Earth, that would be useful.
- mrguyorama 3y agoLast I knew, Google Earth on desktop also lets you play with local KML files.
- FinnKuhn 3y agowait, how is this comment already in the article?
- kome 3y agohey, random googler(s) maintaining google scholar: thank you! it's awesome.
- vogon_laureate 3y agoThe Google Graveyard [1] grows. [1]: https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://killedbygoogle.com/
- andreygrehov 3y agoI wonder if the death of CodeJam hints the end of LC-style interviews.
- pulpfictional 3y agoMissing Grasshopper, Google's gamified interactive Javascript teaching project. It's pretty cool.
- digdigdag 3y agoBeyond the serious dependability questions Google raises, I feel bad for the millions of units of OnHub, Nest, Stadia, and other hardware that are still perfectly functional, but rendered obsolete because of what amounts to high level, corporate financial decisions. Any company engaging in mass market IoT sales should be compelled, for the sake of consumer confidence and protection, of an "exit plan" to allow fully localized control of these devices -- independent of an upstream server or system.
- donkeyd 3y ago> I feel bad for the millions of units of [...] Stadia In their defense, Stadia consisted of a ChromeCast and a controller which are both still useful.
- muyuu 3y agoaccording to the article, they are refunding all Stadia hardware and software purchases done through their store they don't say the same about their wiretap wifi router thingy
- nobody9999 3y agoAnd are they reimbursing all the developers they conned^W enticed into developing exclusive content for Stadia?
- muyuu 3y agodoubtful, it's Google after all
- Reason077 3y agoStadia is probably the saddest one. Great technology that was never really given a chance.
- surgical_fire 3y agoNothing sad about Stadia dying. Google is probably the last company I would want having any kind of leverage in my hobby.
- Reason077 3y agoSad because they had the best technology and UX of any game streaming service out there. But also the least business acumen, marketing skills, and perseverance.
- Reason077 3y agoGoogle must perform periodic ritual sacrifice of some of its own. It is the natural order of things. Failure to do so would anger the internet gods.
- jsemrau 3y agoWhom do I have to contact to get acquired for 100M by Google and then shutdown with a full stock vesting after 6 months?
- onlyrealcuzzo 3y agoUsually you need a good product and then Google contacts you...
- Zigurd 3y agoThese decisions look rational. Not capricious. Stuff that isn't reaching a sustainable audience at Google scale, and that can't be spun-off, like Niantic, for example, should get cut.
- sidibe 3y agoHN has 2 perma-front page topics: Google shutting down something noone has ever heard of Is it just me or has Google search gotten worse?
- porkbeer 3y agoPerhaps because those are constant issues people here deal with. Many of us older geeks remember championing google as one of the few open and trustworthy tech giants, but that ship sailed over a decade ago.
- Varqu 3y agoAt this point, what is the reason to use Google Cloud or any other critical service, if you have a clear track of record with higher probability that it will be shutdown sooner or later?
- nova22033 3y agoGoogle code jam is not a product. I doubt most people had heard of the other products..except stadia
- imtemplain 3y ago[dead]
- elesiuta 3y agoThey also killed all offline music support for Fitbit https://9to5google.com/2023/01/17/fitbit-pandora-deezer-support/ https://9to5google.com/2023/01/17/fitbit-pandora-deezer-supp...
- hiccuphippo 3y agoHow about the opposite? What products did Google create in the last few years that had staying power?
- AraceliHarker 3y agoI wish I could still use Site Block, the predecessor of the Chrome extension Personal Blocklist. It was convenient because it could sync the sites I blocked with my Google account, so I could block them on my smartphone too.
- xnx 3y agoWhat you call a "shutdown spree" I call a "focus fest".
- insane_dreamer 3y agoThis is why I can’t bring myself to buy any google product since there’s a good chance it won’t be supported in a couple of years.
- JustSomeNobody 3y agoI've heard of half of those. Never used any (street view is included in maps, so I never used a dedicated app).
- enono 3y agoDamn this thread really brought out all the google shills
- ChildOfChaos 3y agoHonestly still missing Stadia so much. Not a heavy gamer, but Stadia was awesome for game nights with friends and also the play while someone watches along feature was great. I'd always wanted to play Red Dead redemption 2 (which was on Stadia) but my PC can run it, so I bought it for my birthday, 110 gb download, had to install the epic launcher, then the rockstar launcher, then it complained about not being able to verify the files, then it locked me out of my account due to some linking issue between the two, then it just kept refusing to start saying it was already running and then many, many hours later, I was able to sit down and play it for an hour and a half which is all i wanted, which wasn't really worth it in the end. Why is the user experience and entry into gaming so rough/awful?
- xhrpost 3y agoWhile Valve has made a decent cloud download platform, it seems other publishers have struggled to keep up in terms of quality and performance of their cloud systems. It's a bit puzzling to me since this is where companies make their money now. I'm only guessing, but I would think that having higher priorities like DRM, analytics/tracking, profit squeezing (remember Blizzard's first platform requiring you to help P2P share game downloads with other users?), etc., ultimately gets in the way of a good user experience.
- dgellow 3y agoDidn't Stadia compete more with consoles than PC gaming? You don't have that launcher bullshit to deal with if you're using a PS4 (or whatever other console you like). Edit: If I were you I would try out GeForce Now[0], you can connect your Steam account and play your game with a decent experience. I don't believe they have Red Dead Redemption 2, but next time you want to play just 30min-1h, it could be a good option. [0] https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce-now/ https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce-now/
- seaal 3y agoI'd hesitate to buy anything on the EGS, partially because Steam will give you a refund if you have less than 2 hours playtime on a game. Rockstar games are also made with a focus towards consoles first so there are often bugs on the PC port that can ruin your experience, like the notorious GTA loading issues that were fixed by one guy[0]. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26296339 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26296339
- anonymouse008 3y agoTax people: is this all a response to 174 and capitalizing R&D / Software expenses you think?
- ssharp 3y agoI know that "never used these!" is a common trope with these sunsets, but Google also shuts down products that have big impacts to users. The shutdown of Universal Analytics and, to a less extent, Optimize, is having a pretty big impact to most website.
- eecc 3y agoFine, let them destroy their brand altight; but "landfilling" perfectly good hardware for no other reason other than "we can't be bothered" should be made illegal and severely punished. This is the mindset that brought us to blow 420 ppm, and it needs to stop. Apple abandoned AirPort access points 5 years ago in 2018, and still got security updates a year later. Dammit!
- mztwo 3y agoGoogle is where projects go to die. Several friends who have joined via M&A have shared they had little expectations of seeing their babies continue in any way, shape of form after purchase by Google. While I don't know this founder, his excellent writeup summarizes my understanding of the culture w/r/t innovation: https://medium.com/@pravse/the-maze-is-in-the-mouse-980c57cfd61a https://medium.com/@pravse/the-maze-is-in-the-mouse-980c57cf...
- dahwolf 3y agoStadia for sure is the notable one. When first announced it was met with skepticism after which Google insisted that they'd be in it for the long term. Well, guess not. It just cements an already shaky reputation. Don't depend on anything Google personally or in business if you have a choice. They still don't care though, they seem immune to market forces and things like "customers".
- marricks 3y agoCheck out some of the recent highlights from https://killedbygoogle.com https://killedbygoogle.com - All Google Code Competitions, which had gone on for 19 years - Jacquard, there IOT clothing attempt, around for 9 years - Stadia, shorter but their cloud gaming attempt around for 3 years Google killing Jacquard and Stadia seems run of the mill but the first one! When I was in college I remember people talking about google code jam and I wasn't even into coding then. That seems like a big retreat and I must have missed HN discussing it because, just wow.
- jpswade 3y agoIt's because Google actively celebrates and encourages failure - if the evidence is there, they will kill it and actively reward this behaviour. At Google, this is how you get promoted and bonused.
- Workaccount2 3y agoFire Sundar. The guy just rides on the wave of money that search brings in. Otherwise it's just failed project after failed project. Google has this stupid process where they spin up a new idea, cripple the launch, cripple support, cripple maintenance, and then kill the project for lack of success a year later leaving the few suckers who held out with faith in them high and dry. For me personally, Allo was the final straw. I did the footwork of getting people to switch to it, had some mild success, and then google pulled the rug making me look like an idiot.
- dgellow 3y agoJust curious to hear from other engineers, do those constant product shutdowns impact the way you evaluate Google technologies when considering developing new products? I don't expect Go, Android, Tensorflow to disappear or lose their Google backing any time soon, but I've personally felt uncomfortable using Angular, Flutter (and Dart), and services on GCP to build anything serious.
- jacknews 3y agoI was going to comment on another post, about the validity of CS style leetcode puzzles in interviews, and that Goole seems to have been at the forefront of this trend: Not only do they not necessarily predict competence at solving real-world problems, they possibly select for people who treat complex real-world problems as a CS exercise, and just look at the result for Google - numerous projects that try to solve the wrong problem, others that solve it in a way that doesn't align with the audience, etc. The algorithms are probably efficient though.
- never_inline 3y agoGoing by this logic, most of these shut-down projects should be coming from India (and possibly eastern European countries?), where the bar of DSA problems is much higher due to competition. I too dislike the pervasiveness of the narrow type of DSA problems (because it comes at the cost of other computer science topics, scales linearly with practice after some point, and selects for people who have time to practice them). But DSA puzzles aren't what you should be blaming for closing down stadia.
- jacknews 3y ago"where the bar of DSA problems is much higher due to competition." I don't see any logic there. Companies in the rest of the world are less focused on DSA as a hiring metric, in my understanding. Why are Google projects closed? Why are they started? I believe Google are heavily focused on data and metrics and algorithms, and I think that is definitely a factor.
- randgoog 3y agoYou're implying that engineers have a say in product decisions. They often don't. A lot of what we are told to build comes from upper management unfortunately. I wouldn't blame eng interviewing practices on this particular issue.
- ulfw 3y agoNone of those "products" (really just features. What is the point of a Streets View "app"?) made any sense to begin with. Goes to show that Google has been a free-for-all for too long. Who allowed these things to be built (waste of resources) and launched (bad for brand and marketing as they won't be able to succeed anyway) is beyond me. What's going on at Google nowadays?!
- kevstev 3y agoThis list doesn't include dropcam, though I guess its a bit different in scope. Last week I received a notice that my dropcams will just be bricked in April 2024- they will just stop working because they are "too hard to support." I have neither asked for, nor received, a single feature from what I bought, I just want it to continue working. With prior products, they were "free" so it was kind of acceptable that they were discontinued, but now I have a real tangible thing, that Google has just decided to shut off and that's that. I will never buy something without open standards again. My expectation is that at some point in the life of these cameras they would support RTSP but they never did, and I now see more than ever that that was a feature, not a bug. I will never make that mistake again.
- iomike 3y ago[dead]
- Olumde 3y agoA few hours ago I was searching for an application to display 3d data. I came across a Goole project. I didn't even look at it twice.