

Google Labs no more - suyash
http://labs.google.com
No more cool apps that we can browse via google labs
======
zdw
I get the feeling that the bean counters are taking over Google and slashing
off everything that doesn't have obvious monetization potential.

I mean, I know great people who work there, but overall it seems like they're
turning into Microsoft circa 2000 - they own the industry, they buy startups
and kill the products made by about half of them. Some of their products are
great, but a lot of it is just an obvious monopoly enabled money grab.

I wish this wasn't the case.

~~~
kennystone
You would never seen something like "Labs" from Apple, and everyone applauds
them for "focus".

~~~
rdouble
Apple did have "labs." One of the first thing Steve Jobs did when he returned
was shut it down.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Technology_Group>

~~~
viscanti
That explanation misses a lot of context. It comes across as a criticism, as
if Jobs just didn't see the benefit of research. That's not the case. He
wanted to shrink the things they focused on, so they could put their 'A' team
on every project (which required less projects). The end result was having a
bunch of really talented guys focusing on things that drove business value.

~~~
rdouble
I didn't intend it to be a criticism, just a factual remark. Then again, I
shouldn't have really compared the two. Google labs wasn't really a dedicated
research wing at Google, more like cool stuff people from various teams worked
on in their spare time.

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inconditus
Context: [http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/more-wood-behind-
fewe...](http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/more-wood-behind-fewer-
arrows.html)

~~~
suyash
Thanks!

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machrider
Does anything remotely like Bell Labs exist today? Is it simply not possible
with everyone tightening their belts?

If you're unfamiliar with what came out of Bell Labs, check out this list:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_labs#Discoveries_and_devel...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_labs#Discoveries_and_developments)

Or is it the fate of software innovation that it is to be decentralized and
happen in our spare time now?

~~~
kisielk
Microsoft Research?

~~~
ww520
MS Research is quite good. Done lots of fundamental research work.

~~~
basugasubaku
MSR may be the top organization in computer science today:

[http://academic.research.microsoft.com/RankList?entitytype=7...](http://academic.research.microsoft.com/RankList?entitytype=7&topdomainid=2&subdomainid=0&last=5)

~~~
kisielk
Looks like IBM is quite far up there in terms of publications as well.

~~~
scott_s
We keep our selves busy.

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jroseattle
Notice that the shutdown of all these projects are happening on Larry's watch.
Maybe it's a sharpened focus on ideas that "matter", but Google needs to try
more things not less.

From today's announcement about Q3 results, they still get a huge chunk of
their income from advertising. They are dominant, but without another angle
they are just asking to be disrupted.

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DodgyEggplant
It does align nicely with Steve Yegge's post: strive to be a platform. Let
people build what they need. Don't try to be everything to everybody. Less
products, more services. Maybe right, maybe wrong, but Google shows that they
CAN DECIDE and I applaude them for that.

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nu2ycombinator
I can still access all code labs <http://code.google.com/labs/>

~~~
suyash
ah nice!

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nicklovescode
It was the fragmentation of Google that made it so amazing. So many wonderful
discoveries came from experimentation, and labs was a wonderful way to
organize them. Disappointing.

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incongruity
I can't help but feel that this reflects a change in the mindset of Google –
getting further and further from its scrappy upstart roots which are now long-
since gone...

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csytan
Do they really need Labs now? Google has grown to a size where they can easily
acquire promising young start-ups out in the wild.

One advantage of having Labs back in the day was that projects could have the
backing of Google's infrastructure. Now, with cloud services like AWS, the bar
is set low enough that anyone has access to this kind of stuff. How hard is it
to start a YouTube in this day and age?

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itsnotvalid
The whole domain would redirect back to google.com. Last night when I went to
Googlelabs.com via the newest announcement of retirement of services from
google [1] was indeed the last time I visited it.

The fact that many of the labs projects are still active made it much uneasy
to find those products anymore.

\---

[1]: <http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/fall-sweep.html>

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ck2
Google had record profits - why are they killing all their incubators?

If they kill "20% time" next then we know their best days are over.

~~~
cpeterso
None of the Google engineers I've met had 20% Time projects. They said 20%
Time was not common for application teams because they had more visible
release deadlines than the web teams.

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iradik
I honestly never used it, and am completely unaffected by this.

What was the most successful product that emerged out of google labs?

~~~
wcchandler
Not sure if this includes other services like Gmail Labs, but I relied on
"attachment reminder" throughout college. It has saved me multiple times,
including now in my professional career.

~~~
skystorm
No, Gmail Labs is separate and is not being shut down.

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alexscheelmeyer
I think they are entirely right in shutting down this outward facing display
of unfinished ideas/projects.

I also think they could have done much better than just redirecting it to
google.com. Instead of trying to emulate Apple, they should acknowledge that
their culture is different and very nerdy. So I think what they should have
done instead is to highlight that and use "labs" to instead show off their
technical prowess, much in they same vein as what Festo has done :
<http://www.festo.com/cms/en_corp/9617.htm>

A flapping wings robot, how cool is that?!

Google could really do something similar, and the world would love them for
it. Instead they look more and more like a big corporation with all the boring
"common sense" and mediocrity that comes with it.

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dlss
RIP Google Sets :(

~~~
redler
The logic behind Sets actually lives on, at least for now, within the autofill
feature of Google Spreadsheets. Fill a cell or two with sample data, then
option-drag (control-drag on Windows) the square autofill handle.

~~~
naz
Yes, or if you search for "Oregano" you will notice the auto-complete for
subsequent searches strongly favours herbs and spices.

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clebio
The most disconcerting thing is that a Google search for one of the Labs
projects doesn't handle this change in any elegant way. I went looking for a
description of Google Sets (<http://www.google.com/search?q=google+sets>), but
the most relevant links either redirect or give 404. The one hand doesn't know
what the other is doing.

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FuzzyDunlop
While there's no longer a specific Labs section, they do still have Google
Code, and my guess is that you'll still find the odd experiment popping up on
there every now and then (and naturally gaining publicity through word of
mouth).

~~~
jlees
There are still places within Google where people can run independent projects
and experimental stuff. Innovation isn't dead. :)

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suyash
[http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/more-wood-behind-
fewe...](http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/more-wood-behind-fewer-
arrows.html)

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mkr-hn
There was a great Labs feature I missed after they killed it: "What's around
here?" All the button did was add an asterisk to the search box, and that
still works.

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johnx123-up
RIP. Rebirth of "Google acquisition era" (Jaiku, et al.)?

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mapster
It was an experiment that met it's natural end.

~~~
suivix
Google Labs itself was an experiment? That's very meta.

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suivix
What is happening to Google? I almost feel like it's going through a
transformation like Walter White.

~~~
w1ntermute
They're getting ready to cook up some new projects ;)

~~~
Raphael
Wouldn't Labs be a good place to link to them?

------
magictim
BAD

