

The Google Graveyard - Leave a flower for a deceased Google product - recoiledsnake
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/map_of_the_week/2013/03/google_reader_joins_graveyard_of_dead_google_products.html

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simonsarris
I get it, and we can all have a bit of a laugh/cry here.

But somewhere on Twin Earth, slate.com is publishing an article complaining
about the confusing glut of Google services and how they need to trim their
product line to more relevant pieces.

Not commenting on the loss of Reader itself, but I can't fault a company for
discontinuing (or absorbing/streamlining) products that began as flights of
fancy. If anything, I'm impressed by how many runaway successes Google has
had.

~~~
mistercow
But some of these _didn't_ begin as flights of fancy, but as startups acquired
by Google, and I think that really highlights the problem here, which is
reputation.

When you use a product created by a startup, you realize that there's some
risk that they're not going to make it. An advantage that a company like
Google has is that nobody expects them to go anywhere. So if they create a
service like Google Reader, you might expect that it's going to stick around.

And obviously Google doesn't _owe_ that to anyone. But I'll bet that they've
benefited from people making that assumption, and I'll bet that they'll see
some hurt if people realize that it's not a valid one.

After all, a company that does nothing but reader, has 10% its user base, and
makes money off of those users might actually be profitable. But Google's
model is to give away a thousand loss leaders, and when you play that game,
you have to look at percentages. At this point, I'd be far more likely to take
a chance on a small independent service than any new gadget Google puts out.

~~~
tommi
If you aren't paying anything for the product and there doesn't seem to be a
business model for it, why would you assume it won't go away at some point?

~~~
mistercow
Again, it's about reputation. Most users don't want to have to try to examine
the motives of the people behind every product they use to decide if it's
likely to stick around. Most users have neither the savvy nor the desire to
analyze business models and see if they seem sustainable. They want to say
"Google - that's a solid company, so it should be safe to depend on this."

And if Google keeps invalidating that assumption, people will stop making it.
Instead, they'll say "Google is famous for discontinuing their products, so
I'll hold off on using this until I know it's really, really popular."

And that could make launching new services very difficult for Google in the
future.

------
avolcano
The Google Wave grave reminds me of what a weird non-product that was. Has
anyone done a good post-mortem/retrospective on that? Always seemed ahead of
its time on a lot of levels, especially technically (one of the few times I've
ever seen a single tab crash _all_ of Chrome).

~~~
glabifrons
I hate posting something like this without a link, but I read an article quite
some time ago (supposedly) written by one of the core developers of Wave. To
_massively_ oversimplify the article, he blamed it on having way, way too many
developers working on it at once... lots of inefficiencies crept in as
portions were duplicated, it ended up much more bloated than it should have
been, etc.

IIRC, he also acknowledged many other contributing factors, like the slow
release of the features presented in the original videos (some of which never
were released), people simply not knowing what to do with it, etc.

Something else I remember was that he suggested the code should/could have
been a tiny fraction of the size and dramatically more efficient for what it
did.

I'm not saying I agree with the article at all, it's just what I read. For all
I know it could have been a hoax.

This appears to shed similar light on it:
<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3101201>

Personally, I _loved_ Wave and was hoping to run my own server when they
released what code they did release. Unfortunately, what has come of it is
still lacking key features I'd want before doing so. (I'm not a Java
developer, so would not be able to contribute)

~~~
mark_l_watson
Give Apache Wave a chance. I like the slightly simpler and cleaner UI and it
is easy to install and run.

------
brianwillis
Loving that Google Glass empty grave at the bottom of the page. It seems to be
a product many have already written off as DOA. I'm not sure if that's fair or
not.

~~~
knorby
I don't see how Glass is even close to DOA. Modern smartphones and tablets are
the descendants of product lines with long histories and experienced user
bases. Outside of research projects and limited use systems, Glass has little
to go on, and a very limited number of understanding potential users. Google
is slowly drumming up interest and openly experimenting with its use in
public. Google wants early adopters who are thrilled with an expensive,
potentially life altering product.

~~~
waterlesscloud
It might suffer from version-1-ness, and it might be version 3 or 7 from Apple
or whoever that takes off. It might simply be too early. I'm pretty sure a lot
of the enthusiasm that's around now is going to lead to disappointment when
what people are dreaming about isn't supported by available technology.

The other factor is that the primary concerns are precisely in google's
tonedeaf spots- design and privacy. Google as a company isn't very well
equipped to deal with either of those issues.

------
johnpowell
At least this is still up and running.
<http://www.google.com/campaigns/gonegoogle/demos.html>

~~~
colbyh
I had no idea this existed, goodbye any productivity I was previously
enjoying.

------
calebgilbert
One of the graves missing in this article is for the Google Finance API which
was deprecated last year. (much to the chagrin of many people, including
myself)

------
Eduard
And where is Google's "Knol" - the encyclopedia only the upper 1 percent could
edit?

~~~
eridius
3rd row from the bottom, right side.

------
ancarda
No grave for Google Power Meter? I feel like the only person on earth who used
it.

~~~
pageld
I used it and it was amazing. My utility replaced it with something called
SmartHub, which is almost as good. You just can't embed it anywhere. I always
like using the iGoogle thing with my power widget on there. Could always tell
when I didn't shut down the computer.

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exDM69
Google Code Search is the only service I have been missing. And it is not on
this list.

Code search had a good regex search and nice options for searching based on
metadata. GitHub's newly launched code search is not good enough (yet) and
doesn't have a big enough haystack to search in.

The prime use case for code search was finding example code of badly
documented APIs.

~~~
Al-Khwarizmi
It _is_ on the list!

------
newishuser
I'm probably in the minority here, but I've actually never used a single one
of those services.

~~~
skore
Tried - one or two. Actually used, productively - zero.

------
nvarsj
One notable ommission - Google Answers. It was like stack overflow but better.
Answers were based on research, not popular opinion. And you could get answers
for even obscure questions. I really miss that service.

------
bestest
Sorry, but I could not resist it. It's hacker news afterall isn't it.

Feel free to use this link to place a flower on Google Glass (feel free to
modify the placement of the flower too, and the type!):

[http://slate-interactives-
prod.elasticbeanstalk.com/googleGr...](http://slate-interactives-
prod.elasticbeanstalk.com/googleGraves/submitFlower.php?callback=jQuery17105476576050277799_1363538224992&flowerType=9&serviceID=41&flowerPositionX=50&flowerPositionY=50&_=1363538242328)

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geetee
When are they going to kill Gmail?

~~~
dendory
When it's no longer profitable, like (almost) every other business on Earth.

~~~
baby
I don't agree, Gmail is also really useful to them. I'm pretty sure all their
employees use it. What was the percentage of their employees using Knol or
Google Reader for example? I bet it was a small percentage.

------
lrei
Feedburner is next.

------
lambtron
Interesting to see the products that Google has deceased over time. Would also
be interesting to see what products are up-and-coming and what products are
still alive (would be a cool road map of the company's pipeline and future).

Seems like Google still strives for the move fast, iterate approach with their
products, throwing spaghetti on the wall and seeing if it sticks. Though it
may break a few hearts here and there (yes, I once was an avid user of Google
Reader), Google has a plan for everything.

------
chasing
Where's Dodgeball?

------
anderhalv
Instead if a Google Graveyard, I would a Google Rumors Buyer's Guide. A site
where I can see how long it has been since a certain Google product has
received an update, helping users to assess if they should start using it or
better look for an alternative. The shutdown of Reader got me worried about
FeedBurner, Google Groups, Picasa Web Albums, Google Code, etc., and I'd like
to know if it is warranted.

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marshray
It seemed like "Google Tech Talks" used to be a thing and sometimes I miss
that.

~~~
isbadawi
Still there: <http://www.youtube.com/user/GoogleTechTalks/>

~~~
marshray
Thanks. Maybe it was in the transition from Google Video to YouTube I felt
something went missing. Perhaps I'm mistaken.

~~~
saraid216
You're probably missing Google Video.

~~~
twoodfin
I miss Google Video for one simple reason: Download links.

------
Apocryphon
And completely missing in action: the Nexus Q.

~~~
vxNsr
Well for the moment that only MIA, supposedly it'll make an appearance some
time this year, hopefully before Google I/O or else that would be quite
embarrassing.

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tomkludy
Wish I could leave a flower for G+

Unfortunately it is a zombie, dead but doesn't realize it yet.

