
Niantic Labs splitting from Google - martindale
https://plus.google.com/+Ingress/posts/GVvbYZzWyTT
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gkoberger
Given that they didn't mention Alphabet, it seems safe to assume they mean
_really_ independent, not Alphabet-independent. I wonder if this was Niantic's
or Google's decision.

EDIT: I assume Google still has equity, hence why they were mentioned. You
can't spin out without the parent company getting _something_.

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jfoster
But they also say: "... with some amazing new partners joining Google as
collaborators and backers."

The timing would also suggest that it could be part of Alphabet.

On the other hand, why wouldn't they even mention Alphabet if they were
becoming a subsidiary?

I'm confused. At a minimum, it sounds like Google is somehow still involved.

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libria
It could also be referring to more of the partnerships they've had in the
past, such as the company branded game items (AXA, MUFG, Softbank).

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kissickas
Niantic has been notoriously slow at infrastructure upgrades, shutting down
huge parts of the game (like the Intel Map[0] practically required for large-
scale operations) during peak hours, which are always of course during events.
Could it be that they needed to spin off from Google in order to get access to
AWS, among other things?

[0] [https://www.ingress.com/intel](https://www.ingress.com/intel)

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karl42
I don't see a reason why they wouldn't be able to scale on Google's could. So
I don't think that has anything to do with the spinoff.

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brianchu
Interesting hearsay on Reddit (via Twitter)
[https://twitter.com/MikeIsaac/status/631630506300448769](https://twitter.com/MikeIsaac/status/631630506300448769),
claiming it was spun off because it wasn't considered valuable.

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morganvachon
The Resistance (including me) and Enlightened in my area have really scaled
back lately; even Hangouts/Slack chat is getting quiet. I don't know if that's
a sign of things worldwide (it seems Japan is hot and heavy in the game right
now according to one of our agents who just got back from there) but it
appears a lot of the long-time players are stepping out of the game. We also
see a ton of newbies come and quickly go, often never reaching past level 3 or
so. I think that is partly due to the group mods no longer actively recruiting
them into the group and helping with training.

I realize churn is a common occurrence with any MMO, but Ingress always seemed
like more than a game; our group socializes outside of the game and I wouldn't
be surprised if we all remained in contact long after Niantic shuts it down.

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numinit
Still very active everywhere I've played.

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greyman
I am playing in Europe for about 12 months, and while the game is still going
on, the number of players doesn't increase...some are joining, and about the
equal amount leaves. So I wonder if the game had its peak already. After a few
months it becomes kind of repetitive... but anyway, it's a good game, I enjoy
playing it, especially if I come to some new city.

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mappu
The Ingress game was a thinly-veiled way to fill in location data where Google
didn't have coverage in it's own database, right? Why would they let this
strategic asset go? I bet Mozilla MLS would love to have this kind of popular
data source.

It's like how DNS queries to 8.8.8.8 can allow Google to find more of the web
to spider.

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JoshTriplett
> It's like how DNS queries to 8.8.8.8 can allow Google to find more of the
> web to spider.

Any links discussing that?

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mappu
Nothing clear-cut, sorry. Although their policy does say they permanently log
all requested domains.

Anecdotally, i run a private community site on "foo".dyndns.org with no
inbound links anywhere, never submitted to google webmaster tools, but it
shows up in a google search for "foo". Google public DNS is widely used
amongst community members.

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jmgrosen
Hmmm.... does this mean totally independent or part of Alphabet?

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nadams
Ingress is a great idea - but poorly implemented. I have cheated (not with
malicious intent - I just wanted to prove that it could be done), and heard of
other potential cheating cases as well.

I definitely wouldn't use GPS as a sole indicator of someone's position for a
game.

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simonw
Do you think that's a solvable problem? I would imagine it isn't, outside of
using statistical analysis to spot obvious widespread cheating.

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troymc
The solution is to use other sources of location information in addition to
GPS.

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jklp
Can't those other sources also be spoofed?

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nadams
> Can't those other sources also be spoofed?

It's a lot harder to spoof say for example APs near you, signal strength to a
cell tower, and/or IP geolocation - than a GPS signal.

If you can spoof all of that - you probably aren't interested in playing a
game like ingress. You have your own more interesting game you play...

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jklp
Ah yep makes sense!

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banderon
I haven't seen Ingress get to the front page since I joined, so I needto take
this opportunity to shout out to my fellow resistance crew!

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afarrell
How do you feel about Justinian's actions in response to the riots?

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LeonB
background:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nika_riots](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nika_riots)
...from AD 532.

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banderon
Thanks, I had no idea about the reference!

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afarrell
I've been trying to turn the blue/green parallel into a solid history joke for
about a year, but I think I still missed the mark.

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jploh
A source inside Niantic hinted something to do with 3D, not sure if it's
related to Project Tango. Target release is the same time on the next event
series (Oct-ish 2015). Some employees that I know were originally Googlers
chose to stay with Google.

I do hope Niantic Labs finds more success in this move.

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ArekDymalski
If NIA isn't becoming a part of Alphabet, I'm quite sure soon I'll have more
free time to pursue other hobbies. My reaction is quite ambivalent...

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sloanesturz
I feel like this has to mean becoming a subsidiary of Alphabet (and is
probably the first of many Google divisions to become an Alphabet subsidiary).

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QuercusMax
Nope. Not part of Alphabet. Definitely on its own, but still partly owned by
Google. (I'm a Googler who works with somebody who just transferred out of
Niantic.)

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Kiro
How do these splits work? Is Google still a shareholder or something? If not,
why would they just give up on this for free?

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afarrell
I wonder if that convention they were planning to hold is still going to
happen.

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Sanddancer
Probably. They're saying additional backers, and google's staying on, which
strongly suggests that they're in it for the long haul.

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lnanek2
Good news for them, I guess. This way they can write iOS, Windows Phone, etc.
clients to go with their Android one. Also ditch the unsupportive parent
company (more wood behind fewer arrows and all that) known for killing
projects.

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syntheticnature
An official iOS app already exists.

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reilly3000
Apparently the N namespace was already reserved on the alphabet.

