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I know it's en vogue to bash Google's products these days, but Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Drive are or were class-leading products. They might not be any mo

I know it's en vogue to bash Google's products these days, but Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Drive are or were class-leading products. They might not be any more, but at one point they were among the best and definitely had huge impacts on the industry. Search as well, and although it has issues these days, no one else really does it better. You know they shipped a brilliant product when it was so ubiquitous that their name was literally turned into one of the most common verbs in modern language.

midoridensha 4y ago
Don't forget Google Maps. It's still class-leading, by a long stretch; nothing comes even close for navigating Tokyo.
- WastingMyTime89 4y ago
  > It's still class-leading, by a long stretch City Mapper is nicer for all the cities I have tried. Google Maps UX is terrible if you want to use public transports.
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  - midoridensha 4y ago
    What exactly is the problem with Google Maps UX on public transports? It works amazingly well for me.
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    - WastingMyTime89 4y ago
      For Paris, it poorly tells you where to enter stations. It gives exit as street names whereas Paris metro exits use numbers. It doesn’t tell you where you should stand in the train to easily grab the next train. It doesn’t show if there is an incident on the line it’s suggesting you take. It’s extremely annoying going back and forth between the solutions it’s suggesting.
      - midoridensha 4y ago
        In Tokyo, it's fantastic in my experience. It tells me exactly which exit number to use from the station (and some Metro stations have many different exits), it tells me exactly when the train will leave (and when the next one leaves in case I miss it), which car to sit in for the most efficient transfer, etc. It tells you if there's an incident and your train will be late, etc. It does everything you complain about here. Perhaps this is a problem with local teams (or perhaps a lack thereof)? Tokyo has 2 large Google locations so all the localization work is done here.
tssva 4y ago
> Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Drive are or were class-leading products. They might not be any more, but at one point they were among the best and definitely had huge impacts on the industry. I still find them to be fantastic products and happily use them daily.

midoridensha 4y ago

Don't forget Google Maps. It's still class-leading, by a long stretch; nothing comes even close for navigating Tokyo.

WastingMyTime89 4y ago
> It's still class-leading, by a long stretch City Mapper is nicer for all the cities I have tried. Google Maps UX is terrible if you want to use public transports.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- midoridensha 4y ago
  What exactly is the problem with Google Maps UX on public transports? It works amazingly well for me.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - WastingMyTime89 4y ago
    For Paris, it poorly tells you where to enter stations. It gives exit as street names whereas Paris metro exits use numbers. It doesn’t tell you where you should stand in the train to easily grab the next train. It doesn’t show if there is an incident on the line it’s suggesting you take. It’s extremely annoying going back and forth between the solutions it’s suggesting.
    - midoridensha 4y ago
      In Tokyo, it's fantastic in my experience. It tells me exactly which exit number to use from the station (and some Metro stations have many different exits), it tells me exactly when the train will leave (and when the next one leaves in case I miss it), which car to sit in for the most efficient transfer, etc. It tells you if there's an incident and your train will be late, etc. It does everything you complain about here. Perhaps this is a problem with local teams (or perhaps a lack thereof)? Tokyo has 2 large Google locations so all the localization work is done here.

tssva 4y ago

> Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Drive are or were class-leading products. They might not be any more, but at one point they were among the best and definitely had huge impacts on the industry. I still find them to be fantastic products and happily use them daily.