3 ms·

They kept Google Reader for 8 years before shooting it...

Adaptive 14y ago
That's a very relevant point. I'd say that for about 4 or 5 years it was in a safe, stable zone in the product strategy, but for the past 3-4 it was a dead app walking. Those last 4 years also say Wave, Buzz and other very big, public launches of products that were killed within a year each. Clearly Google saw that it was flinging spaghetti at the wall just to see what stuck and decided 1) be really careful about big public announcements, people get excited, the product doesn't deliver and we look bad then 2) refocus (even if I don't like the strategy, at least they have one, so this is good, assuming they really are focused) The problem is that they are now gun shy about saying anything clearly, apparently. It's like a teenager that buys a new outfit they really like and mentions it only casually because if they get rebuffed by the peers for wearing it, they can always claim they didn't like it that much. Sometimes you have to just define your own style and wear the outfit, man. Be proud. That's what Google is missing.
pasbesoin 14y ago
And Wave was the next big thing, until they suddenly put a bullet in it. Yes, it was "opened" and the code persists, to some extent. I think a lot of people here on HN may nonetheless be pissed that, in the process, they absorbed and then destroyed the official, supported version of EtherPad. Maybe EtherPad as company / commercialized product wouldn't have made it... But, maybe it would have. Regardless, Google burned a lot of good will with that one, too. And, as numerous commenters have pointed out with respect to Keep: Google Notebook. P.S. In my opinion, what killed Wave was not the technology (or, "concept"), but in part a batshit heavy and obscure UI. One of the early signs of Google's trend towards a "design ueber alles" failing. Having spent many years in corporate environments, I saw Wave (as technology/"concept") as a real solution to a number of longstanding, pernicious problems I'd encountered with electronic communication, and its effect upon work, in those environments. I never used Reader much (signed up and subscribed to the same feeds I already followed, but a local reader was quicker and easier for me). But I gather from many comments that its key, distinguishing features were not the straightforward feed processing but the "social" aspect of the product. The "network" and "meta" that Reader enabled. For a company that (Google+, etc.) seems particularly interested at present in focusing on "network", this seems to be a particularly boneheaded move. I also agree with the philosophy of "don't piss off the alpha nerds... although I don't particularly like the descriptor "alpha". They have a canny knack of revealing the interesting (and "interesting" is what sells, online). And of being good hires, for creating same.

That's a very relevant point. I'd say that for about 4 or 5 years it was in a safe, stable zone in the product strategy, but for the past 3-4 it was a dead app walking. Those last 4 years also say Wave, Buzz and other very big, public launches of products that were killed within a year each. Clearly Google saw that it was flinging spaghetti at the wall just to see what stuck and decided 1) be really careful about big public announcements, people get excited, the product doesn't deliver and we look bad then 2) refocus (even if I don't like the strategy, at least they have one, so this is good, assuming they really are focused) The problem is that they are now gun shy about saying anything clearly, apparently. It's like a teenager that buys a new outfit they really like and mentions it only casually because if they get rebuffed by the peers for wearing it, they can always claim they didn't like it that much. Sometimes you have to just define your own style and wear the outfit, man. Be proud. That's what Google is missing.

pasbesoin 14y ago

And Wave was the next big thing, until they suddenly put a bullet in it. Yes, it was "opened" and the code persists, to some extent. I think a lot of people here on HN may nonetheless be pissed that, in the process, they absorbed and then destroyed the official, supported version of EtherPad. Maybe EtherPad as company / commercialized product wouldn't have made it... But, maybe it would have. Regardless, Google burned a lot of good will with that one, too. And, as numerous commenters have pointed out with respect to Keep: Google Notebook. P.S. In my opinion, what killed Wave was not the technology (or, "concept"), but in part a batshit heavy and obscure UI. One of the early signs of Google's trend towards a "design ueber alles" failing. Having spent many years in corporate environments, I saw Wave (as technology/"concept") as a real solution to a number of longstanding, pernicious problems I'd encountered with electronic communication, and its effect upon work, in those environments. I never used Reader much (signed up and subscribed to the same feeds I already followed, but a local reader was quicker and easier for me). But I gather from many comments that its key, distinguishing features were not the straightforward feed processing but the "social" aspect of the product. The "network" and "meta" that Reader enabled. For a company that (Google+, etc.) seems particularly interested at present in focusing on "network", this seems to be a particularly boneheaded move. I also agree with the philosophy of "don't piss off the alpha nerds... although I don't particularly like the descriptor "alpha". They have a canny knack of revealing the interesting (and "interesting" is what sells, online). And of being good hires, for creating same.