

Google Shuts Down Patent Search Homepage, Picasa for Linux & More - sdtransier
http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/20/spring-cleaning-google-shuts-down-patent-search-one-pass-google-related-more/

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atuladhar
Why not link to the horse's mouth:
[http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/spring-cleaning-in-
sp...](http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/spring-cleaning-in-spring.html)

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luser001
Maybe people notice that techcrunch articles get upvoted. Hence they submit TC
articles (to get karma. humans love to have more than their fellow of
anything: green beans, salt rocks, pieces of paper etc).

This can be addressed in two ways:

1) Randomly allow a subset of users to upvote article (like slashdot's
moderation system).

2) Cap karma from articles.

Sorry if I'm massively mistaken and people don't get karma from article
submissions.

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cpeterso
I also wonder if people repost a different article/URL for the same news
story, hoping their post will be the one to get upvoted.

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rhizome
You'd think so, but if you look at both the comments and submissions of
"sdtransfer," the poster of this article, they don't seem like they'd be
terribly hope-y.

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zeruch
At least they are integrating Patent Search into the core (which I think makes
sense and happens to be something I like).

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fierarul
I guess Google should make a point and release a NaCl Picasa version.

If I could grant to a NaCl app the right to read photos from USB attached
cameras and a folder on disk with read/write rights then there wouldn't be a
need for a dedicated Linux version.

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Codhisattva
Isn't this the sound of a company that has reached it's practical limit of
growth?

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astrodust
When you utterly own the search marketing space, yeah, you do run up against a
hard wall unless you can either get that market to grow, or you can weasel
into another market.

Android doesn't seem to have made much of an impact to their profits. Their
other web properties, like Google+, make Apple's legendarily empty "eWorld"
look like a boomtown. It seems like of all their acquisitions, only YouTube
has really changed what Google is.

Still, better to take some projects out back and...bury them...than to
Yahoo!-ize yourself with thousands of semi-popular things you have to maintain
in perpetuity.

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rhizome
Dropping Linux Picasa is tellingly lame.

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jamesaguilar
Telling of what? How few people use it, or . . .?

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alaskamiller
Commitment to excellence.

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jamesaguilar
I disagree that Linux as a supported platform is a significant indicator of
excellence.

~~~
ticks
Support for all three platforms is a requirement for me (and most other
developers I know) these days, it's one of the reasons why I haven't bought
various standard tools including Photoshop... yet use Filezilla, Gimp, Sublime
Text 2, Firefox, Thunderbird, Open Office, Clementine, etc.

~~~
Produce
Holy crap, Clementine is on Windows and I didn't even know it. In case anyone
else needs it - [http://clementine-
player.googlecode.com/files/ClementineSetu...](http://clementine-
player.googlecode.com/files/ClementineSetup-1.0.1.exe)

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Produce
We need more open source cloud based software. The trouble with relying on
services provided by companies and corporations is exactly this - they make no
promise to do a hand-over should the service be discontinued.

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arunoda
Dropping Picasa for Linux is quite okay. Since it's a lame wined one. I hate
it. Having a good HTML5 version would fulfill my needs to does not need a app
for that.

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Kylekramer
One Pass shutdown is most interesting to me. It isn't old cruft that isn't
interesting to Google anymore, it was a pretty bold year old forward looking
project that launched with fanfare (mostly due to the in-app purchase
controversy of time) and apparently just fell flat. Replacing it with a more
Googley type of business like Customer Surveys is probably for the best, but
seems like a retreat.

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tomwaddington
Is anyone else surprised at how many rounds of closures Google seem to
announce? I'm not sure why these were kept through the previous 2 culls.

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rollypolly

      Google Sync for BlackBerry
    

I wonder if this is a subtle way to nudge BBM users towards Android.

~~~
andrewpi
Actually RIM has added a lot of the features of Google Sync into the core of
the consumer-focused BIS service. (thus, Google Sync is less necessary.)

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iamgopal
I was using most of them quite regularly. They are doing this so they all can
focus on what ? Google+ , the shit that all going to do is wasting my time
without helping me in anyway ? Google should change their motto to "Do not do
stupid." with immediate effect.

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denzil_correa
The Patent Search shutdown is a dud to me. I wish the dedicated undiluted
space continued.

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dchest
They didn't shut it down.

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denzil_correa
I forgot to add the word "homepage". They have merged it with the Google
Search results. Probably a side effect of SPYD. Let me try that again.

> The Patent Search "homepage" shutdown is a dud to me. I wish the dedicated
> undiluted space continued.

The voting of comments here represents a fact of life. In no time, you get
downvoted than upvoted. "Negative" opinions prevail over positive ones. Never
understood this mentality.

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juxta
What is the reason why Google is shutting down Patent Search and (they already
shut down Uncle Sam)? I mean - does it really cost them a lot of money to keep
these sites running but not update them? For search products like that they
should at least make a google product archive to at least access some stuff
that could be easily found via those search products even though they no
longer update or provide support for them anymore.

They are going away from their motto of "organize the world's information and
make it universally accessible and useful". Yes you can find patents via other
means or get government info via other means but it's defeating the motto of
making it universally accessible.

Google+ is ruining everything.

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juxta
the reason why i said google+ is ruining everything is referring to how they
are focusing on one thing and that thing is Google+ as per the convo Sergey
had with Jobs about concentrating on one thing and stop turning into
Microsoft.

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sad_panda
And... they aren't shutting down Patent Search. Your rant is baseless.

