
Google Optimize is coming soon - tobltobs
https://optimize.google.com/
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StevePerkins
It's interesting that I'm so conditioned at this point, I read the title as "
_closing_ soon".

I thought this was simply product that I hadn't heard about before, and Google
was pulling the plug on it.

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mostly_harmless
I don't get the "Google shutting down a product" meme. I can't think of
anything they've shutdown without a replacement, except for Reader. Are people
still sour about that?

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grzm
This Wikipedia article provides a pretty large list if you're interested:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Discontinued_Google_s...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Discontinued_Google_services)

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andrethegiant
Their marketing[1] site does a better job at describing what it actually does.

[1]
[https://www.google.com/analytics/optimize/](https://www.google.com/analytics/optimize/)

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ckelly
Goolge had a similar product called Google Website Optimizer that it shut down
years ago:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Website_Optimizer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Website_Optimizer)

[https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2661700?hl=en](https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2661700?hl=en)

Some screenshots still floating around:

[http://imgur.com/a/eReWQ](http://imgur.com/a/eReWQ)

[http://imgur.com/a/7XydI](http://imgur.com/a/7XydI)

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Veratyr
"Shut down" is a little deceptive:

"Google announced that GWO as a separate product would be retired as of 1
August 2012, and its functionality would be integrated into Google Analytics
as Google Analytics Content Experiments."

They just merged it into another product, where it still exists today:
[https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1745152?hl=en](https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1745152?hl=en)

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comboy
I wonder how is this Google Optimize different from what's available in GA
today.

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kstenerud
I really hate that you have to log in to see anything google these days, be it
blogs or even regular websites :/

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rrdharan
The proper landing page (as posted above as well) does not need a login:
[https://www.google.com/analytics/optimize/](https://www.google.com/analytics/optimize/)

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AndrewUnmuted
Just want to note that, on iOS at least, I cannot access the announcement
without first signing in to a Google account. Perhaps there's a more neutral
source for information relating to the announcement that doesn't require
Google sign in?

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zouhair
And again Google is doing the same mistake of hyping a thing and limiting it
to just invitees. By the time they launch it no one would care.

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vslira
"Advanced statistical modeling

Optimize uses Bayesian statistical methods to model the real-world performance
of your experiments, giving you more accurate results."

Since this is basically a landing page, I find it interesting that "Bayesian"
was the adjective used to amplify "statistics". They're targeting to the right
market (as you would expect from Google, of course)

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shortformblog
I've tried the beta of this. It's really interesting.

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tswartz
What did you find interesting about it? How does it compare to Optimizely?

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k2xl
How does this differ than just regular A/B testing tools?

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jrpt
And Optimizely is available today.

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jameslk
Except Google Optimize will be free[1]. There's services that I've used with
free plans that I later upgraded to paid plans (Mouseflow and Gleam.io come to
mind), just because I knew I wasn't going to be hassled after a 14 or 30 day
trial. Sadly that is not the case with Optimizely. I would personally wait for
Google Optimize to come out of beta.

1\.
[https://www.google.com/analytics/optimize/compare/](https://www.google.com/analytics/optimize/compare/)

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hbosch
I wonder if they will Optimize the grey Google logo color against that red
header. Hurts my eyes.

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zeta0134
I especially like the word "beta" which is the same color as the background. I
tried to select the logo after you pointed it out and stumbled on that.

Seems like the background color changed after they picked font colors and they
forgot to adjust.

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et-al
It could be following Material design guidelines.

The latest version of the iOS Gmail app (v5, released back in the Nov) now
uses a red banner as well and it was so eye-bleedingly distracting I had to
find a way to intercept my request to the AppStore to download the old version
again.

What's crazy too is that after the version bump, Google had to release 7
updates in succession to regain most of the functionality they lost (and
probably to reset the mediocre App Store ratings).

If anyone wants/needs to revert back to the old 4.x version of the Gmail app,
lemme know and I can post up some resources.

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ClassyJacket
Material design is a disaster for usability. Android became a bloated, spaced
out mess, where you'd fit three menu items on a six inch screen. Information
density on the desktop is a joke too.

You can genuinely see more content on an old 3.5 inch iPhone screen than on a
5.2 inch Android screen. Open the Settings app, for example.

Then there's the FAB buttons that go _over the top_ of content, and right
where your thumb wants to scroll.

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et-al
Yeah, lack of content density was yet another reason why I reverted. Too much
space was being spent on unnecessary elements like the ubiquitous circle
avatars. icanreadthankyou.

