6 ms·
Simple: if you make your documents in Markdown, you won't be making them in Google Docs. Stuff made in Google Docs is sticky, increases your dependence on Googl
by RadiozRadioz 3y ago
Simple: if you make your documents in Markdown, you won't be making them in Google Docs. Stuff made in Google Docs is sticky, increases your dependence on Google, and importantly has a valuable network effect due to their collaboration features. It is in Google's best interest to encourage you to rely on their proprietary services instead of offering you alternatives that allow you to switch provider easily.
Additionally, the "people who know what Markdown is but also like trusting Google with their files" demographic is vanishingly small and not who Drive is targeting at all.
- e40 3y agoAgree completely with the first paragraph and disagree completely with the second paragraph. There are lots of us who use Google drive at work that love md.
- afavour 3y agoI’m a developer working at a company that uses GSuite. My personal feelings about trusting Google aren’t really relevant, I’d love to use Markdown in GDoc, as would many of my coworkers!
- m-p-3 3y agoI'd be happy if only they supported the CommonMark format properly in GChat..
- moffkalast 3y agoThere are dozens of you.
- IshKebab 3y agoOutside of HN, people that actually avoid giving Google any data are almost nonexistent. People that use Markdown definitely aren't. There's a huge number of pragmatic developers that use Markdown and Google.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- coldtea 3y agoSeems like people can't fathom that "developers" in general are an insignificant demographic. Google Drive is used by a billion or more (including most Android users). Developers are a handful of millions. Developers that use markdown outside of where they're forced to and actively want Google Drive to support it are even fewer.
- RadiozRadioz 3y agoApologies, that part was primarily intended for home users. Google certainly isn't targeting that demographic, there are much larger ones to go after. If you're forced to use Drive at work, Google isn't targeting you either. It's targeting the C-suites above you who buy the software, and they don't know what Markdown is. The fact that engineers are lamenting the lack of Markdown in Google Drive shows how much influence they have over those decisions.
- coldtea 3y ago>Agree completely with the first paragraph and disagree completely with the second paragraph. There are lots of us who use Google drive at work that love md. That's not incompatible with the demographic being vanishingly small and not who Drive is targeting at all. "A lot of us" can still be an insignificant number compared to the Google Drive userbase and target demographic. Now, "more than 10% of Google Drive users" might start getting somewhere. But I doubt it's even close to 1%. Google Drive is not a tool targeted to developers especially, and developers are not that much of a demographic to matter for mass market services.
- KnobbleMcKnees 3y agoI've seen virtually no use of Google Drive in the wild in my personal life. I've worked at 10k+ orgs that use it exclusively and every minute of every day. I'm not sure where you're getting those stats but a source would be nice. I would suspect that their customer base and/or core usage is made up of far more tech company employees via Cloud and Workspaces than it is average Joes backing up documents.
- coldtea 3y ago>I've seen virtually no use of Google Drive in the wild in my personal life That's what I call a bubble. https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/25/17613442/google-drive-one-billion-users https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/25/17613442/google-drive-one... And that's in 2023. As for the numbers of organizational paying users in 2023 (corporate users) were 6 million, compared to "over a billion" (in 2023). And of those 6 million organizational users of course only a smaller share are developers. Regular file sharing and G-suite stuff for office workers is the order of the day.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- jehb 3y ago> I've seen virtually no use of Google Drive in the wild in my personal life. Really? I'm curious, are the people you know using Dropbox, OneDrive, or something else? Or are they just not sharing files in a public cloud? I started to retort "how do you even collaborate on spreadsheets with your friends?" before realizing maybe I just have some, err, unique friend groups.
- adrianvoica 3y ago'Additionally, the "people who know what Markdown is but also like trusting Google with their files" demographic is vanishingly small and not who Drive is targeting at all.' <--this 200%
- danielbln 3y agoIt's just not true at all. Knowing/using markdown doesn't make you some Richard Stallmann type.
- pluijzer 3y agoMaybe the original author implies that you don't need to be a Richard Stallman type anymore, not to trust Google.
- DangitBobby 3y agoHN/Reddit is a bit of a bubble. Most people trust Google just fine with their files.
- coldtea 3y agoPeople who think Markdown users are a demographic major enough to matter in the context of the Google Drive userbase are also in a bit of a bubble...
- DangitBobby 3y agoYep.
- indymike 3y agoI agree with this. Most people have know idea what markdown is, and if they do use it, it is usually the text format behind a WYSIWYG editor... Some examples: Slack, Github...
- SahAssar 3y ago"people who know what Markdown is" overlaps very much with "people who have to use google docs for work but would prefer a consistent editing experience". Basically every dev I know has to use either teams/sharepoint/office or google docs, but most are also more comfortable with using markdown and use it for technical docs. I'd love to have a google docs option of creating a "simple doc", that is backed by markdown and only supports the basics (headers, paragraphs, lists, maybe tables) and have a WYSIWYG for non-tech people and a (maybe git-based?) workflow for people used to markdown. Something like what azure devops and github does with their wikis.
- watwut 3y agoYes, pretty much this. I use Sharepoint and teams because I have to, not because I would think they are good or because I liked them. Sharepoint in particular is horrible, Teams are only slightly better. I want markdown on sharepoint.
- aquaticsunset 3y agoTry Loop, if your organization has been enabled for it. It's exactly what people here are wishing Google Drive had.
- noisy_boy 3y ago> Basically every dev I know has to use either teams/sharepoint/office or google docs I think there is another sizable set which heavily uses wiki. At my work, most people use it (a very small set of people use SharePoint for mainly PowerPoint or formatting heavy docs).
- SahAssar 3y agoAre those devs not ever collaborating with non-tech people on documents? Also when you say wiki, do you mean a mediawiki instance or the ones included in things like github?
- danielvaughn 3y ago
- hooverd 3y agoWhat's a good wiki with Markdown support? I hate how Confluence doesn't have it, and Jira sort of has it, even though they're supposed to be integrated. Preferably close to GFMD.
- bippihippi1 3y agothat demographic is also likely to have an outaized effect on evangelizing cool new features and getting people to swap over from other products. how much google is trying to grow vs curb competition is the question.
- indymike 3y agoGoogle docs can only represent a subset of the document formatting and features in markdown (yes, there are html literals in markdown, but even then it isn't enough). Markdown could be an import/export format... but I can't see it working well with the Docs editor.
- ELBeavers 3y agoIt's a bit like asking why Markdown isn't supported in Microsoft Word or Apple Pages. Environmental lock-in.
- quickthrower2 3y agodocx is pretty portable as it goes. getting stuff converted (downsampled; in a sense) to markdown is easy enough.