Google podcasts is shutting down(support.google.com)
support.google.com
Google podcasts is shutting down
https://support.google.com/youtubemusic/answer/14151168?hl=en
164 comments
YouTube is effectively a Google Podcasts platform already.
Paying for YouTube Premium to avoid ads is some of the best money I spend each month. I wish I could do the same for Spotify podcast ads. I do pay for Spotify already to avoid ads in music, but I can't seem to avoid them for the Joe Rogan Experience.
Paying for YouTube Premium to avoid ads is some of the best money I spend each month. I wish I could do the same for Spotify podcast ads. I do pay for Spotify already to avoid ads in music, but I can't seem to avoid them for the Joe Rogan Experience.
Lots of podcasts do not exist on YouTube. There is no way to subscribe to feeds or auto-download episodes or any of the dozens of quality of life features that podcast users have been enjoying for over a decade.
I subscribe to YouTube Premium but to consider it a replacement to a proper podcasting app seems naive to me.
I subscribe to YouTube Premium but to consider it a replacement to a proper podcasting app seems naive to me.
If you like things inshittified, then it seems like a great idea. Let's put big tech in between me and the things I want to consume, when there's no need, and let them begin to try to make money off of it and make everything worse!
You mean like introducing ever increasing ad loads and removing background playback to a premium tier to create “value” for subscriptions while simultaneously trying to resurrect cable television despite the Internet being a thing, for example?
I love how hard people will advocate for their YouTube subscriptions like it’s the best thing ever.
YouTube’s recent changes are so Hollywood entertainment exec-esque lately (hey you got to make earnings at all costs!), as they gradually enshitify the Internet’s most popular and important content type, and they can do pretty much whatever they want because, really, they are an effective monopoly for UGC video delivery.
People LOVE espousing their “ad free subscriptions” and rail about the cost of video infrastructure, because they probably don’t remember when copyright broke down and there was a glimmer of the lack of false scarcity digital delivery actually could have created. You can’t download a car.
Google and Comcast literally were the ones who killed off peer-to-peer and decentralized solutions and made sure no competitor emerged. Bram Cohen had it right, but freedom scared big tech and video killed the radio star.
But please tell me how awesome YouTube “ad free” accounts are. In the meantime, enjoy shorts!
I miss the free Internet and actual disruptive innovation so much.
I love how hard people will advocate for their YouTube subscriptions like it’s the best thing ever.
YouTube’s recent changes are so Hollywood entertainment exec-esque lately (hey you got to make earnings at all costs!), as they gradually enshitify the Internet’s most popular and important content type, and they can do pretty much whatever they want because, really, they are an effective monopoly for UGC video delivery.
People LOVE espousing their “ad free subscriptions” and rail about the cost of video infrastructure, because they probably don’t remember when copyright broke down and there was a glimmer of the lack of false scarcity digital delivery actually could have created. You can’t download a car.
Google and Comcast literally were the ones who killed off peer-to-peer and decentralized solutions and made sure no competitor emerged. Bram Cohen had it right, but freedom scared big tech and video killed the radio star.
But please tell me how awesome YouTube “ad free” accounts are. In the meantime, enjoy shorts!
I miss the free Internet and actual disruptive innovation so much.
Curiously, the reply to yours calling out all these "YT premium is great" replies as potential Google employees was flagged. Why? It's not an invalid assumption.
I err on the side of people have been so sick of YT's badgering that Premium truly feels like a great solution - despite that only being the case because of Google creating the problem in the first place.
I err on the side of people have been so sick of YT's badgering that Premium truly feels like a great solution - despite that only being the case because of Google creating the problem in the first place.
Because it violates this site’s guidelines:
“Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents, and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken.”
“Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents, and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken.”
Enshittification is becoming a big deal on YouTube. The set of topics that YouTubers need to walk on eggshells around in order to avoid being demonitized is getting out of control, and is becoming increasingly reminiscent of the sort of constant, normalized self-censorship that's accepted as the norm on the internet in China. And it's entirely driven by the whims of advertisers.
But, also, I feel like they've sort of got me as a captive audience right now because YouTube's the only video platform that has a sizable international creator base.
But, also, I feel like they've sort of got me as a captive audience right now because YouTube's the only video platform that has a sizable international creator base.
I'm able to subscribe to podcast feeds and have auto-downloads on the YT Music app.
> Lots of podcasts do not exist on YouTube
You can subscribe to any podcast (RSS/Atom) feed via the YouTube Music app.
You can subscribe to any podcast (RSS/Atom) feed via the YouTube Music app.
> Paying for YouTube Premium to avoid ads is some of the best money I spend each month.
It’s a ridiculous amount of money to spend to financially support Google’s exploitation of content creators and abusive “copyright” system, just so you can watch content they (a) already stream for free and (b) is already full of product placements, stealth marketing, sponsored segments, etc.
No way in hell I’m paying a huge premium for that.
It’s a ridiculous amount of money to spend to financially support Google’s exploitation of content creators and abusive “copyright” system, just so you can watch content they (a) already stream for free and (b) is already full of product placements, stealth marketing, sponsored segments, etc.
No way in hell I’m paying a huge premium for that.
I loved the idea of Youtube Premium at first, but I feel €15/month is exorbitant amount for what we're getting in return. Same for Facebook/Instagram which will have a similar cost starting from February.
> but I feel €15/month is exorbitant amount for what we're getting in return
I think it comes down to how often you use the platform. YouTube has been my primary media source for the last twelve years and ads are what paid for that. Now that I can pay $14 (USD) per month to give the people I watch a bit more, have no ads, downloads, and a few other nice little features, it was a no brainer for me. I have always gotten _way_ more mileage out of YouTube than HBO or Netflix.
But if you don't, then it's probably not worth it and having an advertisement will pay for it instead.
I think it comes down to how often you use the platform. YouTube has been my primary media source for the last twelve years and ads are what paid for that. Now that I can pay $14 (USD) per month to give the people I watch a bit more, have no ads, downloads, and a few other nice little features, it was a no brainer for me. I have always gotten _way_ more mileage out of YouTube than HBO or Netflix.
But if you don't, then it's probably not worth it and having an advertisement will pay for it instead.
YouTube Music is $15/mo
YouTube Premium is $19/mo
YouTube Premium is $19/mo
That seems high but I know pricing can vary significantly across countries. Is that somewhere in Europe for example? Or any government or Apple taxes included?
in the US, going through the official website, it shows $14 a month or $11.66 a month if paying for the upcoming year at once. Premium and Music are part of the same product here and I'm not sure if you can unbundle.
For comparison, Spotify Premium here looks to be $11/mo.
in the US, going through the official website, it shows $14 a month or $11.66 a month if paying for the upcoming year at once. Premium and Music are part of the same product here and I'm not sure if you can unbundle.
For comparison, Spotify Premium here looks to be $11/mo.
Oh wow, this is a subscription through Apple… I didn’t realize the Apple Tax was so high!
Depends on your location...
Or rather on what google thinks your location is (wink, wink ;)
It's much cheaper in developing countries
It's much cheaper in developing countries
I pay COP$17,900 (USD$4.57)
I've been paying $7.99 a month.
Might want to check your emails from dec 7...
Huh, must be region based then? This URL [0] says 14 for me and that's what my monthly charge is.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/premium
[0] https://www.youtube.com/premium
On one hand I wish they had an "occasional tech video" tier - maybe even the option for me to choose which creators get the credits.
At the same time I can't shake the feeling that Google just enshitified the experience so much, that now "it's logical" to take a sub to make it decent again.
At the same time I can't shake the feeling that Google just enshitified the experience so much, that now "it's logical" to take a sub to make it decent again.
If you sign up from Mexico it is half price.
The ads in podcasts is why I left Spotify. Doesn't really seem like premium when the main content I want from them still has ads
I also left Spotify because of podcasts. I did not want to listen to podcasts, and they couldn't get that through their heads, shoving it down my throat, advertising it to me, even though I paid for an ad-free experience. Drove me crazy, so I left.
What did you switch to? I tried Tidal, loved the noticeably higher-quality audio, but there were two dealbreakers for me - no crossfade playback (for running) and no downloads to the desktop app (for travelling). I could just about have dealt with no downloads on the desktop app, but they actually removed the crossfade playback a while ago because, according to an official reply on their support forums "it didn't add to the customer experience", which to me seems like such a blatant lie to cover for something else like they found it difficult to do for some technical reason.
I switched to a combo: For myself, I'm back to a music library that I own. No DRM. For my wife, I signed up for Apple Music. She wants more variety than our library.
Thanks. I've been getting back into the Apple Music app a bit - I have a large library of CDs that I've digitised too, but I've discovered so much on Spotify over the years that I think I'd miss that side of it. I don't really have time to read music websites (and despite reading Melody Maker and NME quite a bit when I was younger) I find most of it overblown.
Like a sibling comment, I now also buy CDs and LPs of albums realeased in the pre-streaming era, depending on which format the album was made for. But I always immediately rip the CDs into FLAC because I'd forgotten how brittle they can be in terms of a slight scratch ruining one or more tracks.
And for more recent stuff that I really like, even if I hear it on Spotify, I try to buy it on Bandcamp or similar, so there's some cash going directly to the artist.
What all that doesn't solve for me is discovery, which I find is significantly better on Spotify than the Apple Music service. (Or the worse audio quality of Spotify compared to Tidal - my test album is always Selected Ambient Works 85-92 by Aphex Twin. There's no hiding when it comes to the synth hi-hats at the beginning of Xtal.)
Like a sibling comment, I now also buy CDs and LPs of albums realeased in the pre-streaming era, depending on which format the album was made for. But I always immediately rip the CDs into FLAC because I'd forgotten how brittle they can be in terms of a slight scratch ruining one or more tracks.
And for more recent stuff that I really like, even if I hear it on Spotify, I try to buy it on Bandcamp or similar, so there's some cash going directly to the artist.
What all that doesn't solve for me is discovery, which I find is significantly better on Spotify than the Apple Music service. (Or the worse audio quality of Spotify compared to Tidal - my test album is always Selected Ambient Works 85-92 by Aphex Twin. There's no hiding when it comes to the synth hi-hats at the beginning of Xtal.)
Apple music is less enshittifified for now. I'm enjoying not fighting a losing battle with Spotify PMs on every interaction.
Seriously considering just getting a record player so I can get rid of these middle men though. It's too much.
Seriously considering just getting a record player so I can get rid of these middle men though. It's too much.
> Seriously considering just getting a record player so I can get rid of these middle men though. It's too much.
Do it! I started buying CDs again, and it's great. I get the best quality sound — we can argue about that another time ;) — all the music is _mine_, and after I convert it to FLAC for my walkman or iPhone (play via VLC) it's as convenient.
Do it! I started buying CDs again, and it's great. I get the best quality sound — we can argue about that another time ;) — all the music is _mine_, and after I convert it to FLAC for my walkman or iPhone (play via VLC) it's as convenient.
Companies have redefined advertising to exclude advertising for their own platform (and people will defend this for them and claim that "promotions aren't ads" or something like that).
At this point, we need a bill in Congress to establish that "ads are ads" and that "ad-free must be ad-free".
At this point, we need a bill in Congress to establish that "ads are ads" and that "ad-free must be ad-free".
I came here to remind everyone that college radio streams are almost all ad-free and still a great means of music discovery.
Also many many many hobby/community radio stations streaming narrowcasts focused on your favorite obscure musical genre.
Radio.Garden is a fun place to behold the breadth and depth of what's available, right now, subscription free.
I wonder if that's a sign of things to come. Nowadays it's (in most cases) pay so you don't see ads, but in the future it will probably shift towards pay so you see fewer ads kind of model.
I mean Spotify already kind of does it with JRE. It doesn't feel right that he's got his own ads despite the very lucrative deal he got, and I'm still forced to listen to him drone on about yet another generic vpn service even though I'm paying for a subscription.
I mean Spotify already kind of does it with JRE. It doesn't feel right that he's got his own ads despite the very lucrative deal he got, and I'm still forced to listen to him drone on about yet another generic vpn service even though I'm paying for a subscription.
Or, "say skip to pay $0.10 and skip the current ad".
Once they dial in the optimal combo of ad rate and cost to skip, personalized to each user, oh boy the money will flow.
Once they dial in the optimal combo of ad rate and cost to skip, personalized to each user, oh boy the money will flow.
It’s better to avoid that podcast altogether.
I pay for YouTube Premium and every video I watch starts and ends with sponsored ads.
On mobile they’re not auto-skippable.
On mobile they’re not auto-skippable.
You are one very enlightened individual; Joe Rogan must really be rubbing off on you.
gentleman11(4)
The entire podcasts industry seems to be on a downward spiral. I feel like the days are numbered for Spotify's podcast dreams as well, looking at how little they are promoting them now in app or outside. What on earth happened? It was the hottest new thing in media, and then...everyone just collectively lost interest? Was it just the Covid bubble, or something else?
Making premium users listen to ads on podcasts was the primary reason I stopped using Spotify
The podcasts I listen to are available on all the major platforms
I think what we might be seeing is that the walled garden approach to content is not working out. People don't want to have to subscribe to a ton of services just to get access to a few pieces of unique content. There was a recent Disney+ thing to this effect recently too
The podcasts I listen to are available on all the major platforms
I think what we might be seeing is that the walled garden approach to content is not working out. People don't want to have to subscribe to a ton of services just to get access to a few pieces of unique content. There was a recent Disney+ thing to this effect recently too
> The entire podcasts industry seems to be on a downward spiral.
I think the podcast market got ridiculously inflated when COVID hit, with every remotely known person starting a own podcast. Many more podcasts were created, so more of them also fade away now.
For the media industry it was fantastic. It was so damn cheap because everything was taken care of by the podcaster himself. They just had to observe if it can gain momentum on its own and then randomly decide to accelerate it with some additional ad-money or exclusivity contract.
This was shortly interrupted by a "let's acquire every media in the world / let's pay Joe Rogan 200 MILLION dollars for his podcast" hype, now it's back to "let's see which ones of chicklets will make it"...
I think the podcast market got ridiculously inflated when COVID hit, with every remotely known person starting a own podcast. Many more podcasts were created, so more of them also fade away now.
For the media industry it was fantastic. It was so damn cheap because everything was taken care of by the podcaster himself. They just had to observe if it can gain momentum on its own and then randomly decide to accelerate it with some additional ad-money or exclusivity contract.
This was shortly interrupted by a "let's acquire every media in the world / let's pay Joe Rogan 200 MILLION dollars for his podcast" hype, now it's back to "let's see which ones of chicklets will make it"...
Advertisers lost interest, so there's no resources to promote some random podcast. If you listen to something like "Coder Radio" from Jupiter Networks you will hear the hosts talk about there being a lack of ads and Leo Laportes TWIT network is expressing the same concerns. Both of those two podcast producers will survive, because their audience is willing to pay for the content, and because they have a few niche podcasts where advertisers are able to target a narrow group of people with the right messages.
Large podcast aggregators like Spotify have no real business model, they produce way to many shows with to fewer advertisers and subscribers to cover the cost and their audience isn't nearly as loyal those of TWIT.
Partly I believe that there's simply to many podcasts available, with to low content quality.
Large podcast aggregators like Spotify have no real business model, they produce way to many shows with to fewer advertisers and subscribers to cover the cost and their audience isn't nearly as loyal those of TWIT.
Partly I believe that there's simply to many podcasts available, with to low content quality.
It might be. But it's also a great place to find extremely niche audio content.
Exactly. "Blogs" might be dead -- also, many blogs are still the best content on the internet. Democratizing both the newspaper column and the radio show is great -- so many interesting voices out there.
There was never a time when a popular blogger was offered $200M by a company to move to their platform and continue writing. The situations aren't even close to the same.
The content was never about the $200M and the listeners/readers probably never even cared about helicopters with bags of money.
It strikes me as a similar situation to Meta and the whole VR/metaverse thing. A company takes an ecosystem that's gaining popularity, makes a big bet on it in the hopes that it fuels the growth that Wall Street constantly demands and tries to turn it into a market of a size that the ecosystem was not ready for, and possibly never was going to be.
But but everyone else is selling shovels (Podcast Microphones, Cameras, Lights, streamdecks) so well.
Their moat didn’t pay off. Pulling podcasts behind their paywall didn’t convert to subscribers nearly enough for it to justify the price in acquiring the source material.
There are so many great podcasts that when gimlet shows went to Spotify, I missed them, but listened to other shows instead.
There are so many great podcasts that when gimlet shows went to Spotify, I missed them, but listened to other shows instead.
> What on earth happened? It was the hottest new thing in media, and then...everyone just collectively lost interest?
Spotify tried to acquire the biggest whales in the podcast market, thinking that it would be a revenue stream that wouldn't require paying massive royalties to record labels, which is why they've never made a profit on the music streaming side.
They overspent, buying up celebrity podcasts and creating some of their own, all financed with super-cheap capital that lasted until 2022 when interest rates rose globally. Interest in podcasts have also fallen since the stay-at-home peak, but Spotify added a layer of enshittification by splicing in ads into podcasts dynamically.
This is a massive UX fail because podcasts are supposed to be static audio files without additional monetization. But Spotify spent so much acquiring Rogan et al, they have no choice but to saturate podcasts with ads.
Spotify tried to acquire the biggest whales in the podcast market, thinking that it would be a revenue stream that wouldn't require paying massive royalties to record labels, which is why they've never made a profit on the music streaming side.
They overspent, buying up celebrity podcasts and creating some of their own, all financed with super-cheap capital that lasted until 2022 when interest rates rose globally. Interest in podcasts have also fallen since the stay-at-home peak, but Spotify added a layer of enshittification by splicing in ads into podcasts dynamically.
This is a massive UX fail because podcasts are supposed to be static audio files without additional monetization. But Spotify spent so much acquiring Rogan et al, they have no choice but to saturate podcasts with ads.
I feel like the issue is exactly that capitalists ruined it by making an industry out of it.
Also if there is no rss feed I can subscribe to to get the releases, I don't consider it a podcast. So Spotify doesn't offer podcasts in my view...
Capitalists want a return on their capital. Spotify committed the original sin of taking VC money, which has no endgame besides IPO'ing. And once you IPO, you're at the mercy of Wall St.
They never made a sustainable business by licensing music, and thus see podcasts as free real estate they can monetize without having to bay Universal, Warner, Atlantic etc.
They never made a sustainable business by licensing music, and thus see podcasts as free real estate they can monetize without having to bay Universal, Warner, Atlantic etc.
Open source alternative on Android:
Antennapod:
https://antennapod.org/
https://antennapod.org/download/
Available on Google Play and F-Droid. I switched to it many years ago anticipating this exact Google product shutdown, and I've been very happy with it :)
Antennapod:
https://antennapod.org/
https://antennapod.org/download/
Available on Google Play and F-Droid. I switched to it many years ago anticipating this exact Google product shutdown, and I've been very happy with it :)
I've been using podcast addict for years. It's a glorious mess of an app that sort of reminds me of kitchen sink apps like calibre.
Unrelated, but does anyone have any good options for listening to a podcast with someone simultaneously? I know in spotify you can do shared listening sessions, but that requires a spotify premium subscription.
Any good self hosted podcast streaming options, or other options that allow shared listening?
Any good self hosted podcast streaming options, or other options that allow shared listening?
AntennaPod is what I use as well, but it does really kill my battery for whatever reason.
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While I am sure this is likely to push people towards YouTube premium subscriptions, I feel like Podcasts are unique in the way they are consumed that they need a dedicated app.
Otherwise we end up with either a bloated YouTube app or an even more confusing "Youtube Podcasts" app (then YouTube music, YouTube videos, and YouTube whatever google decides to abandon next).
Would be a good time for Apple to maybe advertise Apple Podcasts some more.
Edit: Also why isnt this migration just done for you? So your data is there if/when you decide to try youtube podcasts.
Otherwise we end up with either a bloated YouTube app or an even more confusing "Youtube Podcasts" app (then YouTube music, YouTube videos, and YouTube whatever google decides to abandon next).
Would be a good time for Apple to maybe advertise Apple Podcasts some more.
Edit: Also why isnt this migration just done for you? So your data is there if/when you decide to try youtube podcasts.
> While I am sure this is likely to push people towards YouTube premium subscriptions
I seriously wonder if anyone would really _PAY_ for the user experience of YT Music.
It is one of the weirdest media apps I've used in a long time. Never fully fit for purpose, always "okay, somehow works".
I seriously wonder if anyone would really _PAY_ for the user experience of YT Music.
It is one of the weirdest media apps I've used in a long time. Never fully fit for purpose, always "okay, somehow works".
I'm betting there's weird licensing issues around music on youtube that means google has to have a separate app for it.
It's fitting Podcast Index is eating big tech's lunch.
https://podcastindex.org/
https://podcastindex.org/
Damn, I just discovered it 4 days ago. It is excellent, with zero cruft. Looks like I'll need to use Apple Podcasts.
There are better apps. You want one that supports library exports if/when they also "discontinue" their services. I use pocketcasts.
Don't use a big-tech solution. Podcasts were an open platform and you can keep it that way by using a open source application like AntennaPod.
AntennaPod on F-Droid is a simple no-nonsense podcast manager.
When I first heard this news I started using https://pocketcasts.com/ which I have been very happy with. In case anyone else was looking for a Google Podcasts alternative.
"Google Podcasts is going away [...]"
> https://www.theverge.com/23891397/google-podcasts-youtube-sp...
> https://www.theverge.com/23891397/google-podcasts-youtube-sp...
The link is 404ing. Suggest https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/podcast-destination-on-... instead.
This is a product consolidation more than a discontinuation
Depends on whether YT Music is considered a place for products to continue living or a place for products to put to rest.
So far it seems to be where Google Media apps migrate their users to when they decide to retire a media service. ANY kind of media service...
So far it seems to be where Google Media apps migrate their users to when they decide to retire a media service. ANY kind of media service...
Yea, that's what consolidation means
Then that's where the confusion is coming from.
Because that's not what consolidation means.
Because that's not what consolidation means.
Google is consolidating their portfolio and allows you to migrate away if that is your choice
See, despite being common corporate speech, this is not what 'consolidation' means. 'Consolidation' means combining multiple things into a stronger whole.
As said, it depends on whether one considers YT Music as a place for the podcasts product to continue living, or a place where customers of the product are suggested to go to "also find podcasts somehow". Considering that Google stops the product and "allows you to migrate away", they don't consolidate, they discontinue.
If I have two horse carriages carrying people to different places and I decide to kill one horse and tell all its passengers to maybe check out the other horse, then I'm not 'consolidating' my horses, I discontinued the life of one of my products.
As said, it depends on whether one considers YT Music as a place for the podcasts product to continue living, or a place where customers of the product are suggested to go to "also find podcasts somehow". Considering that Google stops the product and "allows you to migrate away", they don't consolidate, they discontinue.
If I have two horse carriages carrying people to different places and I decide to kill one horse and tell all its passengers to maybe check out the other horse, then I'm not 'consolidating' my horses, I discontinued the life of one of my products.
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Migrate your podcast shows from Google Podcasts (US Only ):
https://support.google.com/youtubemusic/thread/249139848?sji...
I haven't decided where to migrate to, but it's definitely NOT Youtube Music.
I haven't decided where to migrate to, but it's definitely NOT Youtube Music.
There's no good common category beyond just "sound media" for music and podcasts I think. They play together on radio obviously, but there's something weird to me about them sharing the same app. The sorting, filtering, playback controls, and presentation all feels like its too different.
Seems to be the way the big tech music apps are going though.
Seems to be the way the big tech music apps are going though.
Is youtube finally going to raise playback speed up to 3x from 2x? Feels like every popular podcast and audiobook player supports at least 3x now, it's not some niche feature. That alone makes youtube useless as a podcast platform for me. On the other hand, sponsorblocking podcasts... chefs kiss.
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There are browser extensions that let you do it, but yes, I agree, 2x isn't enough.
[deleted]
sigh
I started using google podcasts because beyondPod started acting weird. Guess I'm going back because there's absolutely* no way I'm moving to youtube music given their ads.
I started using google podcasts because beyondPod started acting weird. Guess I'm going back because there's absolutely* no way I'm moving to youtube music given their ads.
I think we will remember back podcasts as one of those nice things that we collectively didn't pay for. Hell, even Googles and Spotifies are giving up.
I get a robot, sans one arm, and "Sorry, this page can't be found."
and he's low on fuel
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Does that mean that they will merge podcasts into YouTube Music? I don't mind, one app instead of two, but ytmusic needs some UI work
The article states exactly this and also tells you how you can migrate your subscription to any other podcast platform
Broken link?
Google team, we need to talk.
Your reputation has fallen among many developers for a lack of long-term commitment to anything.
Could you please get your executives in a room and figure out everything else that needs to sunset in the next two years? It’s fine for a product to run its course but the endless paper cuts of sunsetting announcements is getting old.
Once you figure out what needs to get cut, just make a big reset announcement and commit to supporting everything else for a decade.
It will take a couple years for us to believe you but better late than never.
Until then, we have to assume that everything is on the chopping block or at risk of 300% price increases.
You can do better.
Your reputation has fallen among many developers for a lack of long-term commitment to anything.
Could you please get your executives in a room and figure out everything else that needs to sunset in the next two years? It’s fine for a product to run its course but the endless paper cuts of sunsetting announcements is getting old.
Once you figure out what needs to get cut, just make a big reset announcement and commit to supporting everything else for a decade.
It will take a couple years for us to believe you but better late than never.
Until then, we have to assume that everything is on the chopping block or at risk of 300% price increases.
You can do better.
Executives have been busy chopping the company up for parts for years, coasting on Google's reputation to distract employees and users. The plan is to loot the place for as much and as long as possible as it crashes and burns.
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Google as a brand is something I don’t trust anymore.
- cloud? You’re far better at aws than gcp
- email? Got my life-long gmail account blocked for no reason. I’m using icloud+ and custom domain now. I have a dummy gmail account just in case
- drive? I don’t trust my gmail account so, I cannot trust drive either
- search? Guilty. I’m still using it, but less and less
- youtube? Annoying af with ads. I don’t bother with blockers
- phones? Nexus 5 was great. It lasted me 4 good years. Nowadays if I want good quality I go to apple
- cloud? You’re far better at aws than gcp
- email? Got my life-long gmail account blocked for no reason. I’m using icloud+ and custom domain now. I have a dummy gmail account just in case
- drive? I don’t trust my gmail account so, I cannot trust drive either
- search? Guilty. I’m still using it, but less and less
- youtube? Annoying af with ads. I don’t bother with blockers
- phones? Nexus 5 was great. It lasted me 4 good years. Nowadays if I want good quality I go to apple
Just wanna throw my hat in for an unsolicited Kagi recommendation. I switched almost a year ago, and it's been great.
I'll second this, I can hardly recommend any subscription more than Kagi.
Despite the numbers, I'm always surprised when someone still uses G search... it's drowned in ads and exploitative results. Kagi lets you modify the weights of individual sites or even block them, so you can filter out blogspam and clickbait sites instantly. Best of all, it even has a leaderboard for most-blocked and most-promoted domains so you can literally just go down the list of some of the worst sites and block them before you ever see them in a search result.
Despite the numbers, I'm always surprised when someone still uses G search... it's drowned in ads and exploitative results. Kagi lets you modify the weights of individual sites or even block them, so you can filter out blogspam and clickbait sites instantly. Best of all, it even has a leaderboard for most-blocked and most-promoted domains so you can literally just go down the list of some of the worst sites and block them before you ever see them in a search result.
I can second this. Although my queries per month are limited due to using free tier, they almost always get relevant results for technical questions. If Google keeps getting worse, I'll switch to Kagi's paid tier. The LLM demo they briefly made available a few months ago was also impressive.
kagi is great. It's overpriced, but if you are willing to pay the premium for unlmimited searches (you run out really quickly or aviod doing searches otherwise with the normal plan), it's really good
I don't know if it's overpriced, or if it is the sticker shock of _having to pay for search where almost everywhere else provides it for free_. I'd rather not pay, but I'd also rather pay and support something to get them to stick around long-term.
$10/month for about 400-600 queries? That adds up like crazy. $10/month invested elsewhere is a fortune after a number of years
I definitely don't disagree, although I typically do about double that count (albeit on the lower range).
I'm not a fan of subscriptions, but a search engine is definitely something I can understand requiring a subscription fee. Something like my calendar app? Nope (had to drop... some app because they moved from a perpetual license to a subscription).
I'm not a fan of subscriptions, but a search engine is definitely something I can understand requiring a subscription fee. Something like my calendar app? Nope (had to drop... some app because they moved from a perpetual license to a subscription).
I mostly use Google web search, too, but I've found that Bing is the first search engine actually at the same level.
Switch to Brave Search. You don't need Google.
iCloud + custom domain is definitely better than Gmail in every way except maybe the webmail client. So glad I discovered it.
Does it handle the case where your custom domain has multiple Apple IDs in it eg. [email protected] and [email protected]? Last time I tried to migrate this was the blocker for me.
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I remember thinking this shutdown was inevitable when they launched it... And never used it.
Google has created a self fulfilling prophecy.
Google has created a self fulfilling prophecy.
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Google is in such a downwards spiral these days. Either commit to your new endeavors or focus on your existing products. Instead, they keep randomly throwing things at the wall. No wonder it fails. It just hurts their brand.
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OK, I'm done.
I need to migrate my email from gmail. It's going to be long and arduous. Suggestions on providers?
Before you ask: No, I do not want to host my own mail.
I need to migrate my email from gmail. It's going to be long and arduous. Suggestions on providers?
Before you ask: No, I do not want to host my own mail.
I recommend fastmail with a custom domain. By using your own domain (not self-hosting) you can migrate to a new provider should you decide you don't like fastmail.
Very much agree on this. It's what made a switch from Google Workspace to Fastmail much easier than it might have been, and gives me confidence that if there's a better alternative to Fastmail I discover later I can jump ship pretty easily.
Before you look at Fastmail or ProtonMail or Tutanota, take a look at (in no particular order), runbox.com, Mailbox.org, mailfence.com and posteo.de (posteo is the only one in this list that doesn’t support custom domains). They’re all cheaper, support IMAP and are hosted in Europe.
Thanks for this. I looked at mailbox.org before picking Fastmail, but their pricing is a bit much for the relatively small amount of storage, and I just want email, not their office platform, which seems to be a core part of their offer. However, I'd rather be somewhere in Europe than Australia (as I am with Fastmail) for privacy reasons, and runbox.com looks interesting. Do you have any experience with reliability for any of those services?
I switched to Fastmail a few years ago and have been quite happy with it. Spam has not been a problem.
Fastmail and protonmail are both solid email providers. And you can use your own domain name with either of them, reducing future friction if you should need to switch providers later.
Fastmail is great, specially for power users. I personally like Hey email because of the unique features it has.
I use iCloud for anything personal (been using it since MobileMe) and Amazon Workmail for anything professional.
iCloud also supports custom domains if you’re paying for iCloud storage. I use this since I was paying for storage anyway.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212514
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212514
How did I not know this….
That may be a project at some point to merge the 2. But it’s not a big deal to keep them separate I guess.
That may be a project at some point to merge the 2. But it’s not a big deal to keep them separate I guess.
Fastmail has been 100% solid and reliable for me for several years.
Another happy, years-long FastMail customer here.
ProtonMail works fine for me.
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And the joke keeps on running
Yep, my first thought was, "Here we go again".
Pity. I liked Podcasts.
Pity. I liked Podcasts.
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tjpnz(3)
Can anyone explain why? I see almost no downside in keeping it running? Infra costs must be minor, there is no licensing costs, it’s a simple app so I would assume very little developer cost.
The upside is that Android can come with a ‘native’ podcast player. Just like iOS comes with a native player.
A big downside with shutting it down is that it reinforces the idea that Google products are eventually killed so don’t rely on them.
The upside is that Android can come with a ‘native’ podcast player. Just like iOS comes with a native player.
A big downside with shutting it down is that it reinforces the idea that Google products are eventually killed so don’t rely on them.
Google being a giant monorepo is almost certainly at play here. Maintenance costs are always high on products. But upgrades and constant progress on underlying technology is, itself, often a large part of the need for maintenance.
Please don't take this as an argument against monorepo. It is a discussion point there, but even if you view this as largely negative, I assert a lot of these negatives come with the size of Google.
Please don't take this as an argument against monorepo. It is a discussion point there, but even if you view this as largely negative, I assert a lot of these negatives come with the size of Google.
Interesting, i've always considered monorepo to be a maintainability win. Your code doesn't rot (as much) because it's constantly rebuilt and tested. When someone improves some downstream code (for example makes some code faster or safer) you get the benefits immediately. And most importantly - you can do huge interface-breaking refactorings on the whole codebase at once, without versioning dance. For example you can remove a parameter from some function in the library and make sure all clients still work, atomically. I think this is a huge maintainability win - as long as you actually want to maintain something and not let it rot.
But really, do you have a choice? Sooner or later someone finds a security bug in the code and you actually have to dig out the code and deploy an update.
But really, do you have a choice? Sooner or later someone finds a security bug in the code and you actually have to dig out the code and deploy an update.
The catch, of course, is a lot of the "migrate to newer versions" of some libraries brings in new features. These new features can be the source of new security concerns. Especially when added with a lot of the changes requiring some reworking on how things are used for the migration.
This would be akin to trying to move a car to a system that shuts off during stops. Totally doable, but requires a massive change in how reliant passive systems are on the serpentine belt/alternator for power.
This would be akin to trying to move a car to a system that shuts off during stops. Totally doable, but requires a massive change in how reliant passive systems are on the serpentine belt/alternator for power.
I'm not against monorepos but this seems like such an obvious case of one being inappropriate. I'm very curious why it's important to G to maintain their products in a colossal monorepo. Obviously they have very smart people working on these issues, but they're also not infallible.
> I see almost no downside in keeping it running?
The way the Google monorepo works, there's actually more cost in keeping things running than you would think.
You have to keep up-to-date with all of the library and platform upgrades and occasional migrations that are happening internally that your product is built on.
The way the Google monorepo works, there's actually more cost in keeping things running than you would think.
You have to keep up-to-date with all of the library and platform upgrades and occasional migrations that are happening internally that your product is built on.
Replaced by YouTube podcasts, feels like they’re consolidating all entertainment under YT brand.
Keeping it going requires engineering resources which I imagine they want to redeploy
I imagine Google sees a benefit in funneling people into YouTube Music's ecosystem, ostensibly to sell YouTube Premium subscriptions.
It’s big tech war on rss / anything open. They want everything in their walled gardens // YouTube
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Big tech war on RSS / open protocols. Podcastindex.org is the future and response to this. Get off big tech support podcastapps.com
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38573378
and a couple of months ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37659482
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37664710