Not harsh at all. I follow Google very closely. At one point literally 5-10 consecutive speeches/ keynotes/ interviews by Pichai over a period of 3 years appeared to be the same charismaless, PR written statements.
It's fine if it's the same thing (in case you want to articulate a particular vision), the problem is it's dull, boring, no vision at all. Pichai is hailed as a great PM for stuff like Chrome etc.
But I don't see what he has brought to the table as the CEO. I feel like Google has a lot of great engineers who've stuck around for 15-20 years, that's their core asset, but they need more direction, vision, strategy. Apple has a solid team of designers and product people who've stuck around for decades. Google needs more product people or more importantly a strong directive from the top (Pichai) to dominate in an area like hardware, AR.
Like one thing which I am especially baffled by is Google's lack of action in the AR space. Meanwhile, Apple's been ramping up small acquistions over the past 3-4 years to assemble solid talent,IP. It's going to take a lot of time for Google to catch up in AR.
yeah, you might be right, I feel like Google's upto some good stuff with Stadia. Only one thing: maybe they shouldn't have launched as it's quite incomplete. Why the fuck would they want to piss off gaming community+developers.
And by the time Stadia improves in 2-3 years, there might be significant churn - both from gamers and developers. Like the experience might be good, but is it mindblowing?
Yeah, even in Google app, Assistant I saw some good stuff in the beginning but the past 1.5 years has just been random stuff.
In case of Android where customizability is what people boost about, Apple's been doing a lot of good custom stuff natively.
Apple did such an amazing job with Shortcuts(yes i know it's acquired), Google just recently launched Blocks, even that's shit. Though, there are third party communities like Automate, Macrodroid, then Google comes up with half-fledged launch.
Heck, when I heard Google isn't doing a virtual I/O this year, it sent off such a weak vibe.
I mostly see it from a product+$ point of view. Stadia is the new one where I feel Google is def committed. Apart from that the old guard( 1B+ apps) is doing fine.
Area 120 is just a way to kill stuff, though i think 1-2 things have been integrated in main apps.
I am divided on Google's culture of experimentation. So far it's not been impressive( long-term or short-term). Take ATAP, X Labs and now Area 120. In the beginning this (X labs, ATAP) was what I liked a lot about Google, but as a public company repeated experiments which don't turn into products is demotivating.
And their main competition is Apple.
Apple ships opinions( firm product vision ) whereas Google's been shipping experiments. Facebook too in some ways.
Google has no brand sense left. This is an app used by so many kids, who love it, and they are shutting it down. Instead they shouldn't have launched it.
I understand user studies, but this makes no sense. And no matter how they brand it ( they literally opened a new division Area 120) which speacializes in killing products. lol), this is BS.
Where's the product strategy? vision? If they wanted to study the demand and then move it Assistant eventually, then they should've launched it on the Assistant in the first place.
The mass userbase of the native app doesn't validate whether people will find the assistant experience frictionless.
Anyways, i am just spitballing (maybe this time they have a strategy!), but one thing is quite clear that they're actively destroying brand value across demographics.
I love google products so this is kind of frustrating. I've been wondering for past 2-3 years whether they even realise how brand image damage stuff like this causes?
Also, I am just a college student and I'd love to know from SV folks if you think that apart from the old Google products, their is lack of vision in new products? lack of vision in new PMs?
Is Google not able to attract good talent anymore in terms of Product Strategy, Mgmt, Branding? Is it deteriorating?
I've always felt that Google is terrible at perception management.
Happy to be corrected in case something above didn't make sense :)
Your email input box might need some tweaks. I entered my email and had a space after it ( i actually used a text expander to quickly input it resulting in the extra space), it showed "Invalid Email"
Then, I obviously removed the space and got the login link, BUT others might get confused leading to unwanted churn ( in case they also put an extra space)
A few suggestions. Please include some links to who the maker is, whether you store searches or not etc.
The tool is great. I love it. was going to build something similar myself, but the website contains no info, have an about section or something, more info signals trusts in the product.
btw, while writing this comment, decided to dig around, clicked on the Tweet button, and got to know the source/creator.
But, seriously a lot of twitter power users use advanced search a lot, including me, so including links to your profile/work would be beneficial to you.
This app @Voice Aloud Reader is great for all kinds of docs. You can even long press paras in Chrome Android and in the long-press menu there'll be an option for Reading it Aloud.
epub,PDF etc. supported too, all details in app description.
yesterday I exported and closed 706 tabs in Android Chrome. Natively, you can't export/bookmark tabs in bulk on Android. I used adb to get json list, then converted json to csv and a custom python script to get an HTML file from the csv and export them to a folder in Bookmarks Bar.
Now, thinking of using some newsletter automation to deliver 5 links from those folders daily so that I can remove them over time.
I have made this wiki/directory using Webflow+Jetboost(for the filters, search). a one stop wiki for COVID-19 resources: trackers, dashboards, projects, hackathons, guides, donations, masks, ventilators, volunteering opportunities, offers/free tools. Something for everybody.
I am aware that categories aren't shown on each item right now. That's an issue with Webflow, workaround a bit complex. Will try to implement.
Also, this is my 1st Show HN :)
I am available on Twitter[1] for any feedback.
Twitter announcement [2]
But I don't see what he has brought to the table as the CEO. I feel like Google has a lot of great engineers who've stuck around for 15-20 years, that's their core asset, but they need more direction, vision, strategy. Apple has a solid team of designers and product people who've stuck around for decades. Google needs more product people or more importantly a strong directive from the top (Pichai) to dominate in an area like hardware, AR.
Like one thing which I am especially baffled by is Google's lack of action in the AR space. Meanwhile, Apple's been ramping up small acquistions over the past 3-4 years to assemble solid talent,IP. It's going to take a lot of time for Google to catch up in AR.