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Comment by notatoad | Hacker News Reader

I'm sure you aren't alone, but i'm getting very tired of this comment appearing on every single google product or feature announcement. It's not interesting or insightful, it adds nothing to the discussion other than cliched whining.

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I think it's worth having this discussion on posts about new Google products. This isn't AutoDraw, anyone considering spending this much money has to seriously weigh up the very significant risk of Google dropping support almost immediately. It has a real tangible effect on a business.

Personally if I ran a company I'd have a rule to not rely on anything by Google other than their largest core services (Drive, Android, Ads). Their history is just too bad at this point, and this product will almost certainly go the way of glass. I predict it's abandoned within the year.

Google has an amazing list of discontinued products: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products#Discon...

I'm not saying it's terrible to buy Google products, but maybe wait until it's a success first. There is very little reason to risk being an early adopter of a Google product.

The recent Google Home (not a cheap product) advertising snafu is another recent red flag for buying any Google product.

Edit: Parent originally commented about 'getting over Google Reader being discontinued'.

Yes, google discontinues products. Sometimes they're even products I like, and it makes me angry. But reading this thread on every single discussion about any google product is getting tiresome.

But this line of discussion remains relevant whenever a new Google product or service is announced.

If we want to avoid the conversation, Google needs to put out some clear language around project/product/service EOL and support for everything it introduces.

It's not relevant, any more than posting "the sky is blue" on every discussion about the outdoors would be. Everybody knows google has a tendency to try new things and kill them quickly when they aren't working. Reminding everybody is completely unnecessary; we all know it. It's not informative, insightful, or interesting.

Kill them when they aren't working yes - kill them _quickly_ not so much.

To be honest,the products Google discontinue are quite predictable. You can't compare the discontinuation of a free consumer social app (Google Spaces) that did not even really take off to a product that is targeting the enterprise and will served to G Suite customers.

Note that Google is primarily a services company, and many of their services are free. As a result, lots of people try the services, and complain if they're discontinued. Compare Apple[1] and Microsoft[2] both of which have discontinued many more (hardware and software) products than Google - yet the immediate reaction to new introductions from either is not 'fine, but when will they discontinue that?'

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_products_discontinued_....

2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Discontinued_Microsof...

That Microsoft list is missing a quite a few products and services.

  Wunderlist
  Sunset
  Games for Windows
  Silverlight
  Zune
  Kin
  XNA
  PlaysForSure
  Flight Sim
  Expression Suite
  SteadyState
  Windows RT
  Windows Phone 7
  Forefront
  Front Page
  Money

And I'm probably missing many more.

Discontinuing a piece of consumer electronics is completely different to discontinuing a service. Firstly, your electronics don't disappear when they stop making them. You just can't buy a new one.

Plus, many of those had direct replacements that were obvious iterations of their predecessor. Sure, Apple discontinued the iPod Mini, but they released the iPod Nano. Sure, Apple discontinued MobileMe, but they released iCloud.

Google just quietly abandons services and products and if they ever replace anything, they appear to have started from scratch.

Plus, the item in question is not a free service, it's an expensive physical device with a costly subscription service.

Microsoft also has an amazing list of discontinued products, services and hardware. Be sure to factor that into account when making your purchasing decision - especially when you're paying $9000 just for the entry level Surface Hub.

And you can now add Wunderlist to that long list.

Google is more hesitant to stop something once they retrieve income from something. Google Apps (now suite) even has customer service that you can call.

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