6 ms·

How long until the "don't trust Google to not kill a product" feeling becomes so widespread it begins to hurt them? I don't know any historical precedents...

gbN025tt2Z1E2E4 3y ago
It's already happening for years now. Just look at Stadia.
PlutoIsAPlanet 3y ago
It's now a self fulfilling prophecy. No one used Google Stadia because Google kills things with little warning, which subsequently caused Google to kill Stadia. Google will never be able to launch another product.
- treesciencebot 3y ago
  I wouldn't really say that for any of the new products that people actually wanted to use. Including Google Domains (even if it might not be an effective use of workforce for Alphabet).
- eddythompson80 3y ago
  no one used Google Stadia because the business model and service architecture made no sense for a new service and for a company that has a habit of abandoning project that aren't an immediate runaway success stories. Google legitimately thought they can enter a brand new market, and treat it like they are already the largest player in it. They duped themselves by honestly believing that "this is not the gaming market, this the the Cloud Gaming market". They did get most of the "cloud gaming" enthusiasts on board. All 200 of them. They weren't like XBox or Nvidia who just had to go to gaming companies and strike a deal or ask for permission to stream their existing games. They were a new "console", you needed to develop for stadia. They needed to pay millions to incentivize companies to put the effort to port their existing games to stadia. Those companies had no customer for the "stadia console" version of their game other than Google sine no one has a "stadia console" or any way otherwise to play that game. Those tactics may work for Sony or Nintendo or _maybe_ Microsoft. But not for a nobody in the business that literally has no user-base, no games, no history. They had nothing, and tried to pull a "we're the leaders in this market we can do anything we want and everyone will have no option but to take it"
smoldesu 3y ago
Precisely as long as it takes YouTube to fail, which is their last remaining meaningful cash cow (besides advertising).
- sokoloff 3y ago
  Is YouTube even “besides” advertising?
  - yencabulator 3y ago
    I'd say it's "besides ads" just like Search is. It's a destination site that also serves ads, instead of serving ads on other people's destination sites. One could imagine a world where Search and Youtube were separate entities, both using Ads for income. Ads itself is more of a marketplace of eyeballs.
    - sokoloff 3y ago
      To me, that explains why it's "besides AdSense".
alex7734 3y ago
Isn't it already? The list of products killed is so long that most people have probably got burnt at least once by Google. https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://killedbygoogle.com/
Joe_Boogz 3y ago
already happened for me, I've transitioned away from Google almost entirely. The only place I interact with google these days is my Google TV. Here's to hoping they don't drop support for that as well.
o_m 3y ago
It has been like that for a long time, but it seemed like a lot of people thought they wouldn't kill GCP. But this makes sense, they might partition GCP instead of just killing it.
- wsgeorge 3y ago
  > it seemed like a lot of people thought they wouldn't kill GCP I'm one of them. Cloud services is a large opportunity Google will be stupid to ignore/give up. I anticipate the service evolving, but I don't see an outright death of Google Cloud. I'm not throwing Google a challenge ;)
  - re-thc 3y ago
    I would have thought domains is part of cloud.
lordfrito 3y ago
After being an enthusastic early advocate for Google (Gmail since invite in 2004), I've been slowly migrating away from Google for years. The turning point for me was when they killed Google Music, which I had been using for a decade, forcing me to move my large catalog of songs elsewhere. I self host via Plex now. Strike 1. Then they killed the "free domain email", which became freeish (grandfathered) "google workgroups", which became pay up or we kill it. I spent many hours back and forthing with their email support trying to get admin access to my account to no avail. They claimed I needed to reach out to my domain admin. Uhhh sorry I own it and I'm the only guy thats on it or ever used it. There's no one else but me (I never had an admin, as I was just somehow transitioned during the grandfathering). No luck. I (nervously) let Google auto-kill the account, after quickly migrating everything to Fastmail via IMAP (and hand moving my calendar!). Strike 2. Then (long story short) my Google Fi and Google Pixel experience was fine, until it suddenly wasn't. No human to complain to. Top of the line Pixel phone died like 14 months from purchase, no recourse. Buy a new phone or else. Strike 3. The pattern is clear, Google services are fine up until the moment they aren't. At that point you're up a creek, as there are (by design) no humans to complain to. All that is left now is my domain on Google Domains (well that and a free gmail account which I forward), which I figured was safe-ish (as they can't possibly pull the rug out from underneath domain owners can they?). But secretly been monitoring for signs I need to drop that as well. Looks like the time is now. So.... any thoughts on whether Squarespace will be an improvement? Or should I start looking for another domain name registrar?
- _smfg 3y ago
  Maybe start looking. Squarespace charges more for domains (there's a comment thread in here about .com being more expensive).
  - lordfrito 3y ago
    Good thing I paid for a 10 year registration! Got some time to plan.
    - omoikane 3y ago
hbn 3y ago
It seems to me it already has. I spent ~ a decade being pretty immersed in the Google ecosystem, and after going through the ringer dozens of times and finally realizing being one of their users will never stop being an unpaid, unrespected beta tester, I gave up on them. Bought an iPhone and moved services from Google where possible. I remember this[1] article from a few years ago on the subject of Google's shutdowns hurting its brand. It's even funnier to read now with it being written shortly after Stadia's launch. The author and everyone else were pointing out that they have little expectation for the service to be around in a few years. And it turned out we were right! [1] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/04/googles-constant-product-shutdowns-are-damaging-its-brand/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/04/googles-constant-pro...
- noizejoy 3y ago
  > finally realizing being one of their users will never stop being an unpaid, unrespected beta tester … … and AI trainer
screye 3y ago
It already has. There is a reason that GCP has struggled to find their calling.
themadturk 3y ago
Probably not until they sunset free Gmail, at which point there will be millions of voices screaming out in terror.
- _smfg 3y ago
  I've been so nervous about this that I've been preemptively moving my emails over to domains I control (and using Fastmail).
  - drinkmorewater 3y ago
    +1 for Fastmail. Great service
  - qodeninja 3y ago
    protonmail is better, plus their plans have VPN and file storage.
    - _smfg 3y ago
      Protonmail is very expensive for what it is. I don't care about their privacy (it's email) and I don't need anything but an email service that can support 3+ domains.
  - themadturk 3y ago
    I have used Fastmail, and it is good. Currently I'm using my own domain on iCloud+, as I'm already paying Apple for the right to do so. But that's the good thing about owning my own domain...I can take it with me.
- propogandist 3y ago
  [dead]
solarkraft 3y ago
For what I know it already does. I know people considering migrating some infrastructure to the cloud and if they're not already aware of Google's reliability I'll tell them.

gbN025tt2Z1E2E4 3y ago

It's already happening for years now. Just look at Stadia.

PlutoIsAPlanet 3y ago

It's now a self fulfilling prophecy. No one used Google Stadia because Google kills things with little warning, which subsequently caused Google to kill Stadia. Google will never be able to launch another product.

treesciencebot 3y ago
I wouldn't really say that for any of the new products that people actually wanted to use. Including Google Domains (even if it might not be an effective use of workforce for Alphabet).
eddythompson80 3y ago
no one used Google Stadia because the business model and service architecture made no sense for a new service and for a company that has a habit of abandoning project that aren't an immediate runaway success stories. Google legitimately thought they can enter a brand new market, and treat it like they are already the largest player in it. They duped themselves by honestly believing that "this is not the gaming market, this the the Cloud Gaming market". They did get most of the "cloud gaming" enthusiasts on board. All 200 of them. They weren't like XBox or Nvidia who just had to go to gaming companies and strike a deal or ask for permission to stream their existing games. They were a new "console", you needed to develop for stadia. They needed to pay millions to incentivize companies to put the effort to port their existing games to stadia. Those companies had no customer for the "stadia console" version of their game other than Google sine no one has a "stadia console" or any way otherwise to play that game. Those tactics may work for Sony or Nintendo or _maybe_ Microsoft. But not for a nobody in the business that literally has no user-base, no games, no history. They had nothing, and tried to pull a "we're the leaders in this market we can do anything we want and everyone will have no option but to take it"

smoldesu 3y ago

Precisely as long as it takes YouTube to fail, which is their last remaining meaningful cash cow (besides advertising).

sokoloff 3y ago
Is YouTube even “besides” advertising?
- yencabulator 3y ago
  I'd say it's "besides ads" just like Search is. It's a destination site that also serves ads, instead of serving ads on other people's destination sites. One could imagine a world where Search and Youtube were separate entities, both using Ads for income. Ads itself is more of a marketplace of eyeballs.
  - sokoloff 3y ago
    To me, that explains why it's "besides AdSense".

alex7734 3y ago

Isn't it already? The list of products killed is so long that most people have probably got burnt at least once by Google. https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://killedbygoogle.com/

Joe_Boogz 3y ago

already happened for me, I've transitioned away from Google almost entirely. The only place I interact with google these days is my Google TV. Here's to hoping they don't drop support for that as well.

o_m 3y ago

It has been like that for a long time, but it seemed like a lot of people thought they wouldn't kill GCP. But this makes sense, they might partition GCP instead of just killing it.

wsgeorge 3y ago
> it seemed like a lot of people thought they wouldn't kill GCP I'm one of them. Cloud services is a large opportunity Google will be stupid to ignore/give up. I anticipate the service evolving, but I don't see an outright death of Google Cloud. I'm not throwing Google a challenge ;)
- re-thc 3y ago
  I would have thought domains is part of cloud.

lordfrito 3y ago

After being an enthusastic early advocate for Google (Gmail since invite in 2004), I've been slowly migrating away from Google for years. The turning point for me was when they killed Google Music, which I had been using for a decade, forcing me to move my large catalog of songs elsewhere. I self host via Plex now. Strike 1. Then they killed the "free domain email", which became freeish (grandfathered) "google workgroups", which became pay up or we kill it. I spent many hours back and forthing with their email support trying to get admin access to my account to no avail. They claimed I needed to reach out to my domain admin. Uhhh sorry I own it and I'm the only guy thats on it or ever used it. There's no one else but me (I never had an admin, as I was just somehow transitioned during the grandfathering). No luck. I (nervously) let Google auto-kill the account, after quickly migrating everything to Fastmail via IMAP (and hand moving my calendar!). Strike 2. Then (long story short) my Google Fi and Google Pixel experience was fine, until it suddenly wasn't. No human to complain to. Top of the line Pixel phone died like 14 months from purchase, no recourse. Buy a new phone or else. Strike 3. The pattern is clear, Google services are fine up until the moment they aren't. At that point you're up a creek, as there are (by design) no humans to complain to. All that is left now is my domain on Google Domains (well that and a free gmail account which I forward), which I figured was safe-ish (as they can't possibly pull the rug out from underneath domain owners can they?). But secretly been monitoring for signs I need to drop that as well. Looks like the time is now. So.... any thoughts on whether Squarespace will be an improvement? Or should I start looking for another domain name registrar?

_smfg 3y ago
Maybe start looking. Squarespace charges more for domains (there's a comment thread in here about .com being more expensive).
- lordfrito 3y ago
  Good thing I paid for a 10 year registration! Got some time to plan.
  - omoikane 3y ago

hbn 3y ago

It seems to me it already has. I spent ~ a decade being pretty immersed in the Google ecosystem, and after going through the ringer dozens of times and finally realizing being one of their users will never stop being an unpaid, unrespected beta tester, I gave up on them. Bought an iPhone and moved services from Google where possible. I remember this[1] article from a few years ago on the subject of Google's shutdowns hurting its brand. It's even funnier to read now with it being written shortly after Stadia's launch. The author and everyone else were pointing out that they have little expectation for the service to be around in a few years. And it turned out we were right! [1] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/04/googles-constant-product-shutdowns-are-damaging-its-brand/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/04/googles-constant-pro...

noizejoy 3y ago
> finally realizing being one of their users will never stop being an unpaid, unrespected beta tester … … and AI trainer

screye 3y ago

It already has. There is a reason that GCP has struggled to find their calling.

themadturk 3y ago

Probably not until they sunset free Gmail, at which point there will be millions of voices screaming out in terror.

_smfg 3y ago
I've been so nervous about this that I've been preemptively moving my emails over to domains I control (and using Fastmail).
- drinkmorewater 3y ago
  +1 for Fastmail. Great service
- qodeninja 3y ago
  protonmail is better, plus their plans have VPN and file storage.
  - _smfg 3y ago
    Protonmail is very expensive for what it is. I don't care about their privacy (it's email) and I don't need anything but an email service that can support 3+ domains.
- themadturk 3y ago
  I have used Fastmail, and it is good. Currently I'm using my own domain on iCloud+, as I'm already paying Apple for the right to do so. But that's the good thing about owning my own domain...I can take it with me.
propogandist 3y ago
[dead]

solarkraft 3y ago

For what I know it already does. I know people considering migrating some infrastructure to the cloud and if they're not already aware of Google's reliability I'll tell them.