

What the ..., Google stole my ideas? - focuser
http://www.jimulabs.com/blog/2012/07/10/what-the-google-stole-my-ideas/

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buss
This is a troll, right?

Google stole a template wizard and diff tool? From whom -- Microsoft circa
Office 97?

~~~
focuser
didn't mean to post this as a troll. Just wanted to show my exact feeling at
that point.

But again, it's possible too that they might have come up with these features
coincidentally. And I agree code templates are not a new idea.

What I have really learned from this situation is to see these things
positively. Good ideas are just a good start. What really makes the difference
is the underlying execution and the vision behind.

~~~
buss
Ugh, I'm sorry about my previous post. Sometimes I forget that there are real
people on the other end.

I know what it feels like when you think somebody has stolen your idea. It
sucks and feels like whoever stole the idea has robbed you of untold fortunes.

My comment was unnecessarily uncivil, but your idea is still not a _new_ idea.
You already know this, though.

I agree with another commenter; Google is probably not capable of implementing
a feature like this in such a short amount of time so it is likely that they
were already working on this before they saw what you sent them.

Keep coming up with good ideas, and I'll try to think before I speak.

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lukeman
They "stole" visual diff and project templates? Maybe you should have tried to
patent those innovations.

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unreal37
Unlikely that Google didn't even have a clue about adding a template wizard to
ADT in early April, and had the feature added by early May. They can't move
that fast to add features.

~~~
yen223
Templates wizards aren't exactly a new thing...

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wheaties
I think the best lesson here is that if you don't have some amount of traction
or cash pile to back yourself up, don't share unpatentable ideas with someone
who's legal army outnumbers you.

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jack-r-abbit
In all fairness... they did not steal your ideas... you gave them your ideas
in the form of some screencasts. I understand that when you gave them the
screencasts, you were hoping for a different result. But none-the-less... you
gave them the screencasts.

That being said, if they did use your screencasts as inspiration for coding
some features they had never thought of before then that is pretty slimy of
them. But I (and probably you) have no way to know when they started planning
those features.

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antiterra
Good ideas are not rare or inherently valuable. It's like giving someone a
phone number and then being annoyed they didn't let you dial it for them for a
fee or authorial credit.

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useflyer
Please stop trolling Hacker News. If this isn't trolling, please discard your
misconceptions of entrepreneurship circa a dark 1995 basement

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adventureful
Given ideas have approximately zero value, they didn't make off with much.

~~~
jeremy-smyth
You must not have heard of patents.

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barista
Google has proved time and again that it has no regard for IP and Copyright.
So nothing of surprise here. It's the new 800 pound gorilla so the only
recourse I guess is to publicize it and have them acknowledge it.

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ringoboo
Attribution is a basic feature of software. Google should fix this or they
risk appearing slimy.

Google per se is not evil. But it is a competitive environment internally. So
some idiot had the bright idea of ripping off the idea so he or she could look
good internally. Presto - the code appears in the build one morning, and
others to avoid controversy keep quiet. Or the whole team wants to look good
in front of upper management. Either way, it's now in the code line, and if
someone upstairs likes it, it takes on a life of its own. This is how evil
comes into being.

Now Google's brand and PR folks will review this situation, his post, even my
comment, and then may push internally for Google to "do no evil".

Your move, Google.

(Btw, only those who have never or congenitally unable to come up with good
ideas are the ones who cry loudest about how ideas mean nothing)

