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They shut down Google Reader then put up a pointless map hack. Recognize that putting this together took a bunch of people's time and energy, not to mention pr

They shut down Google Reader then put up a pointless map hack. Recognize that putting this together took a bunch of people's time and energy, not to mention processing power, server load, etc. All reasons for shutting down Reader. What is the message Google is communicating to everyone? "We're still fun, just less useful?" Sorry if I don't have room to appreciate their "corporate whimsy" anymore.

mikeash 14y ago
You could have been out helping people instead of writing this comment.
dag11 14y ago
Not saying either is right or wrong, but there's a difference between a major product and what was likely a side project of a few employees.
jblock 14y ago
Project decisions aren't binary. I'd assume that people that worked on Reader didn't work on this.
branciforte3241 14y ago
Reader was based on a very old Google platform that was no longer viable. Porting Reader to the new infrastructure essencially meant rebuilding the entire thing as a new project. The amount of work does not even compare to an April Fools hack by the Maps team. Can we please stop using everything that Google does as an excuse to complain about Reader?
- TillE 14y ago
  Where are you getting that information?
dkssi 14y ago
I guess they made us all last-day-of-March fools.
- eliben 14y ago
  As in fools that forget that their couch is not the center of the earth? Wake up, it's April 1st in some parts of the world now. As an exercise in self-education, go find out which.
  - dkssi 14y ago
    First, it's my bed. Second, I didn't know the world was round, I've always thought it was flat. Google's official blog post: "Find treasure with Google Maps Sunday, March 31, 2013 at 10:37 AM" The YouTube video accompanying that post, published on March 31, 2013. And Hacker News is a US-based and US-focused website. So excuse me for letting my US bias creep into my throwaway comment. But I apologize to all those in Iran who are celebrating April Fools Day right now.
    - eliben 14y ago
      Yes, published USA time, but most of the world's population is living in April 1st now (India, China, Japan - all Asia essentially, Australia and so on). So it's not only Iran.
trvrprkr 14y ago
This riff is getting really old. People used Google Reader. Google took it away for its own reasons. It was Google's to take away. If anything, this creates a slight inconvenience to its users but a huge opportunity for someone else to come along and innovate. Especially in a company the size of Google, there is no mutual exclusivity between working on Product X and implementing minuscule feature Y.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
anigbrowl 14y ago
I'm annoyed about Google Reader too but give it a rest already. This is a whole different scale of project.
lubujackson 14y ago
Why downvote this comment instead of engage? I thought Hacker News was supposed to be about discussion not Reddit upvote battles.
8ig8 14y ago
> What is the message Google is communicating to everyone? "April Fools'"
tibbon 14y ago
20% time?
amartya916 14y ago
The comparison is moot (different scales/time and effort). Also, don't trivialize the importance of having fun and being able to do so in a fairly large company.

mikeash 14y ago

You could have been out helping people instead of writing this comment.

dag11 14y ago

Not saying either is right or wrong, but there's a difference between a major product and what was likely a side project of a few employees.

jblock 14y ago

Project decisions aren't binary. I'd assume that people that worked on Reader didn't work on this.

branciforte3241 14y ago

Reader was based on a very old Google platform that was no longer viable. Porting Reader to the new infrastructure essencially meant rebuilding the entire thing as a new project. The amount of work does not even compare to an April Fools hack by the Maps team. Can we please stop using everything that Google does as an excuse to complain about Reader?

TillE 14y ago
Where are you getting that information?

dkssi 14y ago

I guess they made us all last-day-of-March fools.

eliben 14y ago
As in fools that forget that their couch is not the center of the earth? Wake up, it's April 1st in some parts of the world now. As an exercise in self-education, go find out which.
- dkssi 14y ago
  First, it's my bed. Second, I didn't know the world was round, I've always thought it was flat. Google's official blog post: "Find treasure with Google Maps Sunday, March 31, 2013 at 10:37 AM" The YouTube video accompanying that post, published on March 31, 2013. And Hacker News is a US-based and US-focused website. So excuse me for letting my US bias creep into my throwaway comment. But I apologize to all those in Iran who are celebrating April Fools Day right now.
  - eliben 14y ago
    Yes, published USA time, but most of the world's population is living in April 1st now (India, China, Japan - all Asia essentially, Australia and so on). So it's not only Iran.

trvrprkr 14y ago

This riff is getting really old. People used Google Reader. Google took it away for its own reasons. It was Google's to take away. If anything, this creates a slight inconvenience to its users but a huge opportunity for someone else to come along and innovate. Especially in a company the size of Google, there is no mutual exclusivity between working on Product X and implementing minuscule feature Y.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

anigbrowl 14y ago

I'm annoyed about Google Reader too but give it a rest already. This is a whole different scale of project.

lubujackson 14y ago

Why downvote this comment instead of engage? I thought Hacker News was supposed to be about discussion not Reddit upvote battles.

8ig8 14y ago

> What is the message Google is communicating to everyone? "April Fools'"

tibbon 14y ago

20% time?

amartya916 14y ago

The comparison is moot (different scales/time and effort). Also, don't trivialize the importance of having fun and being able to do so in a fairly large company.