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From the blog post: "more than 99% of them had no activity in the last month" https://developers.googleblog.com/en/google-url-shortener-links-will-no-longer-be-
by mrcslws 1y ago
From the blog post: "more than 99% of them had no activity in the last month"
https://developers.googleblog.com/en/google-url-shortener-links-will-no-longer-be-available/ https://developers.googleblog.com/en/google-url-shortener-li...
This is a classic product data decision-making fallacy. The right question is "how much total value do all of the links provide", not "what percent are used".
- bayindirh 1y ago> The right question is "how much total value do all of the links provide", not "what percent are used". Yes, but it doesn't bring in the sweet promotion home, unfortunately. Ironically, if 99% of them doesn't see any traffic, you can scale back the infra, run it in 2 VMs, and make sure a single person can keep it up as a side quest, just for fun (but, of course, pay them for their work). This beancounting really makes me sad.
- ahstilde 1y ago> just for fun (but, of course, pay them for their work). Doing things for fun isn't in Google's remit
- ceejayoz 1y agoIt used to be. AdSense came from 20% time!
- kevindamm 1y agoAlas, it was, once upon a time.
- morkalork 1y agoThen they shouldn't have offered it as a free service in the first place. It's like that discussion about how Google in all its 2-ton ADHD gorilla glory will enter an industry, offer a (near) free service or product, decimate all competition, then decide its not worth it and shutdown. Leaving a desolate crater behind of ruined businesses, angry and abandoned users.
- jsperson 1y agoI’m still sore about reader. Gap has never been filled for me.
- kmeisthax 1y ago[dead]
- quesera 1y agoConfiguring a static set of redirects would take a couple hours to set up, and literally zero maintenance forever. Amazon should volunteer a free-tier EC2 instance to help Google in their time of economic struggles.
- bayindirh 1y agoThis is what I mean, actually. If they’re so inclined, Oracle has an always free tier with ample resources. They can use that one, too.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- socalgal2 1y agoIf they wanted the sweat promotion they could add an interstitial. Yes, people would complain, but at least the old links would not stop working.
- handsclean 1y agoI don’t think they’re actually that dumb. I think the dirty secret behind “data driven decision making” is managers don’t want data to tell them what to do, they want “data” to make even the idea of disagreeing with them look objectively wrong and stupid.
- HPsquared 1y agoIt's a bit like the the difference between "rule of law" and "rule by law" (aka legalism). It's less "data-driven decisions", more "how to lie with statistics".
- HPsquared 1y agoIndeed. I've probably looked at less than 1% of my family photos this month but I still want to keep them.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- fizx 1y agoDon't be confused! That's not how they made the decision; it's how they're selling it.
- esafak 1y agoSo how did they decide?
- nemomarx 1y agoI expect cost on a budget sheet, then an analysis was done about the impact of shutting it down
- sltkr 1y agoYou can't get promoted at Google for not changing anything.
- chneu 1y agonew person got hired after old person left. new person says "we can save x% by shutting down these links. 99% arent used" and the new boss that's only been there for 6 months says "yeah sure". Why does google kill any project? the people who made it moved on, the new people dont care because it doesn't make their resume look any better. basically nobody wants to own this service and it requires upkeep to maintain it alongside other google services. google's history shows a clear choice to reward new projects, not old ones. https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://killedbygoogle.com/
- ratg13 1y agoThey launched Firebase Dynamic Links and someone didn't like the overlap.
- esafak 1y agoWhat fraction of indexed Google sites, Youtube videos, or Google Photos were retrieved in the last month? Think of the cost savings!
- nomel 1y agoYoutube already does this, to some extent, by slowly reduce the quality of your videos, if they're not accessed frequently enough. Many videos I uploaded in 4k are now only available in 480p, after about a decade.
- firefax 1y ago> "more than 99% of them had no activity in the last month" Better to have a short URL and not need it, than need a short URL and not have it IMO.
- sltkr 1y agoI bet 99% of URLs that exist on the public web had no activity last month. Might as well delete the entire WWW because it's obviously worthless.
- chneu 1y agoWhere'd all my porn go!?
- FredPret 1y ago"Data-driven decision making"
- SoftTalker 1y agoFrom Google's perspective, the question is "How many ads are we selling on these links" and if it's near zero, that's the value to them.