>there are a couple, but that's because they have so many more products than any other company. I'm sure if you looked at it percentage wise, they're actually probably on the lower end compared to most other companies.
First cut from just checking Wikipedia. Number of google services: 117. Number of discontinued google services: 43.
A better metric would be average lifetime of a product, otherwise comparing companies with different ages is meaningless. Of course, you have to do something to account for products that haven't yet been killed.
I'd say 0, since eyeballing the list almost none of them seem to be B2B type products.
This is by far the most pervasive comment on HN regarding Google ("Oh, they launched something, don't use it because they will retire it soon. Look what happened to Reader!"). Its also completely misleading when applied to Google Cloud Platform which has been around for almost 9 years now without deprecating any service.
>I'd say 0, since eyeballing the list almost none of them seem to be B2B type products.
If moving the goalposts is allowed then fair enough, it can be any number you choose.
>This is by far the most pervasive comment on HN regarding Google ("Oh, they launched something, don't use it because they will retire it soon. Look what happened to Reader!").
Yes, hello, reality calling - Google has a PR problem, as a direct result of canceling services. This PR problem is bleeding into their commercial offerings precisely because of their reliance and cultivation of grassroots, technology-minded consumer mind share. "Man, I killed all those bees but for some reason now my honey production has dropped right off. Could there be a connection???"
Someone did not properly cost this into the decision to terminate those services, and it's now biting the organization. It should be.
He's not moving the goalposts. This thread is about a b2b product, which he claims are unlikely to be shut down. If you're trying to extrapolate about a b2b product from past experience about free software, you should justify that.
Google's cloud offerings are generally going to have more robust SLA's attached to them, that include various guarantees wrt. service deprecation, that probably compare with other vendors in the same space.
So I do think "moving goalposts" here is probably right. Comparing Reader, Buzz or Google Code to GCP offerings probably is an apples to oranges comparison. In other words, not very useful.
This comes across as a somewhat hysterical response to a fairly measured comment ("Yes, hello, reality calling").
That doesn't feel like the HN ethos. People working for any company should feel comfortable posting here, without feeling like they are the subject of a witch hunt imho.
I've stopped recommending the Home the people because of this. It may seem minor, but the shopping list -> Keep was the simplest, most useful feature that Home had, and Google managed to ruin it.
Used gCSE as a primary add-on service across a few hundred sites. The twilighting of the product was a major hiccup in our business.
Through Google Apps there was once a custom URL shortener service ( Google Short Links) that I used to track and shorten hundreds of affiliate links and perform a manner of A/B testing. They sunsetted that service breaking all those links ( and considerable cashflow)
If you dig deep into Adwords or Doubleclick Knowledge base its fairly common to come across broken links, outdated information.
Was a big fan of the Picasa product as I took the time to tag and categorize a huge library of photos which has been long since pulled into Google Photos ( a superior service, but I liked the option of local management for more private photos)
I am very reliant on Google products and services and have been for about a decade. I generally expect that services will disappear, customer service will be non-existent or consist of a series of clueless email from all across the globe. Spend a half million in Adwords, Partner Agency, previously Engage partner - the staff they push on you on that side mostly seem as if they wanted different jobs and generally provide completely dense suggestions (knowledge of adwords interface but no real business acumen ) Adsense! Was once getting between $100-$400 a day in adsense results. All disappeared over night for as single event of clickfraud (likely from a competitor aiming for exactly that result). They even cancelled the last check they sent.
Generally,I've found not worth adopting a G product without an easy exit option or known replacement service.
Even the core search product has suffered but many wouldn't notice - many advanced operators were dropped or limited, regional selection in advanced options minimized, very precise searches made ineffective due to lack of use.
Just meant to say, boy cancelling Google custom search sucked and then reminded how many otherwise Ive been screwed by my reliance.
I specifically said products that made a big impact. Look at those 43 services on that list, and tell yourself, would you have engineers waste precious time maintaining that service which hardly get used, or would you rather have them spend said time on developing on newer better tool that have a much bigger impact?
It's not always an easy decision, but my point is that there's a balance to be hit here. There are definitely time where discontinuing products is the right choice and the time is much better spent working on something else. I'd argue that a company which NEVER discontinues anything no matter how old and unused it is is a company that won't go far.
First cut from just checking Wikipedia. Number of google services: 117. Number of discontinued google services: 43.
So what's that.. about 40%?