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I find it so frustrating to watch Google fuck-up social. Pulling photos and communications into their own group is clearly conceding defeat. Google's social ini

I find it so frustrating to watch Google fuck-up social. Pulling photos and communications into their own group is clearly conceding defeat. Google's social initiatives are already too splintered. I wish they had some somebody who could cut through all the politics and read tape and build a really great, unified, product. The first thing on my hit list - Material Design. It's just bad. It's too spread out, the animations detract from the experience, and every ui element just seems flaky. ARRG!

agumonkey 12y ago
Isn't it the last stride in the UI/UX though ? we've close the circle, from skeumorphism, to flat, to minimal, to material, software and hardware allowed us to explore, that was cool, but now is the time to get back to function. Maybe.
- mmahemoff 12y ago
  Not a chance. It's an evolution sure (and one I'm happy to be using), but visual design is fashion and will keep on shifting with each iteration being able to draw on its N-1 predecessors.
  - agumonkey 12y ago
    I'm still hoping for a significant slow down. It's not a selling point anymore, this generation have been through many 'promises' of interface design ~innovation and I bet they're not responsive (sic) to it anymore.
  - hessenwolf 12y ago
    Much like any fashion, I think it is a bit more likely it will be drawing on its k unique predecessors :). I saw jean flares in a designer shop yesterday. Really? Again?
martythemaniak 12y ago
It was the senseless need for a unified product that is the source of their social screw up. If they concentrated on making great products which fit together, people would naturally start to use then together without having to be shoved.
- yuhong 12y ago
  Reminds me of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8507236 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8507236
- cmurf 12y ago
  If only it were shoving. I feel like I'm being thrown under a bus every time Google is like "YOU HAVE TO SIGN UP FOR GOOGLE+ TO DO THAT!" and it just makes me want to head to a bar.
- jay_kyburz 12y ago
  No no, unified is important, but if you are going to put all your eggs in one basket it had better be good. And hey, you don't have to get it right the first time, but it needs to grow and evolve as you see the weaknesses. I totally agree that g+ should not have been shoved into every google product, instead it should have been a place you could go to access every google product. I'm still convinced that the power of facebook is there is one url for everything an everyday person needs from the internet. People want one website that has everything.
  - dredmorbius 12y ago
    Enabling unified is fine. Enforcing it, as Google did, against users' express wishes, isn't. When my G+ and YouTube accounts were merged I ended up with (or as) the three top stories on HN (I've got a screenshot on Imgur somewhere, linked from my subreddit). In December Google created a new "myaccounts.google.com" site where it's possible to manage Google accounts, including adding or removing services. While I can remove my YouTube account (there's nothing on it but history), it won't stay removed, thoughct that's in the cards. IOW: Google seem to be taking steps to disaggregate their offerings. Several of the bigger blunders of G+ have revolved around both identity and bundling / tying. #nymwars, forced calendar integration (look up Robert Scoble's rant), the YouTube Anschluss. This is what Microsoft tried in the 1990s. Eventually people rebelled. You cannot force someone to like you. People want convenience, yes. But it doesn't mean it's got to be the same website for all of us -- I'd really like to see federated services solved.
locusm 12y ago
I quite liked the look of it till I spent time in Google Apps admin today! The dropdown control is completely broken, even in Chrome - you cant scroll without it closing on you.

agumonkey 12y ago

Isn't it the last stride in the UI/UX though ? we've close the circle, from skeumorphism, to flat, to minimal, to material, software and hardware allowed us to explore, that was cool, but now is the time to get back to function. Maybe.

mmahemoff 12y ago
Not a chance. It's an evolution sure (and one I'm happy to be using), but visual design is fashion and will keep on shifting with each iteration being able to draw on its N-1 predecessors.
- agumonkey 12y ago
  I'm still hoping for a significant slow down. It's not a selling point anymore, this generation have been through many 'promises' of interface design ~innovation and I bet they're not responsive (sic) to it anymore.
- hessenwolf 12y ago
  Much like any fashion, I think it is a bit more likely it will be drawing on its k unique predecessors :). I saw jean flares in a designer shop yesterday. Really? Again?

martythemaniak 12y ago

It was the senseless need for a unified product that is the source of their social screw up. If they concentrated on making great products which fit together, people would naturally start to use then together without having to be shoved.

yuhong 12y ago
Reminds me of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8507236 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8507236
cmurf 12y ago
If only it were shoving. I feel like I'm being thrown under a bus every time Google is like "YOU HAVE TO SIGN UP FOR GOOGLE+ TO DO THAT!" and it just makes me want to head to a bar.
jay_kyburz 12y ago
No no, unified is important, but if you are going to put all your eggs in one basket it had better be good. And hey, you don't have to get it right the first time, but it needs to grow and evolve as you see the weaknesses. I totally agree that g+ should not have been shoved into every google product, instead it should have been a place you could go to access every google product. I'm still convinced that the power of facebook is there is one url for everything an everyday person needs from the internet. People want one website that has everything.
- dredmorbius 12y ago
  Enabling unified is fine. Enforcing it, as Google did, against users' express wishes, isn't. When my G+ and YouTube accounts were merged I ended up with (or as) the three top stories on HN (I've got a screenshot on Imgur somewhere, linked from my subreddit). In December Google created a new "myaccounts.google.com" site where it's possible to manage Google accounts, including adding or removing services. While I can remove my YouTube account (there's nothing on it but history), it won't stay removed, thoughct that's in the cards. IOW: Google seem to be taking steps to disaggregate their offerings. Several of the bigger blunders of G+ have revolved around both identity and bundling / tying. #nymwars, forced calendar integration (look up Robert Scoble's rant), the YouTube Anschluss. This is what Microsoft tried in the 1990s. Eventually people rebelled. You cannot force someone to like you. People want convenience, yes. But it doesn't mean it's got to be the same website for all of us -- I'd really like to see federated services solved.

locusm 12y ago

I quite liked the look of it till I spent time in Google Apps admin today! The dropdown control is completely broken, even in Chrome - you cant scroll without it closing on you.