Killed by Google
killedbygoogle.com
killedbygoogle.com
They started by killing my OnHub, suddenly it wasn't good enough to operate as just another Nest puck. I moved off that. They killed Stadia, OK fair enough. Surprisingly, they killed my Nest Guard system too, now I have to move on to some third party they partnered with. Half of my cameras don't work as expected in the Home app, only the "new" ones do. Then they killed Domains for whatever reason.
I don't think I'll be paying for any new Google products any time soon.
When the cameras and smoke detectors stop working, I'll move on to something else. Unifi perhaps?
Google might be outright killing stuff, but Cloudflare moves from one interesting thing to the next like a goldfish with too much money and a huge supply of speed.
https://wordpress.com/blog/2023/08/01/transfer-unlimited-goo...
(Full disclosure, I work for Automattic )
Imagine if your cloud smoke detector went offline and it didn't trigger because it needed a specialized non-local AI to reliably determine there's a fire.
That would be a dumb product decision to make.
Nest Protect complains about the smallest things, from connectivity (which does not affect detection, by the way), to battery, to positioning, and so far I have been reliably notified in the app.
On the other hand, I did have plain smoke detectors before my Nest ones, and at least one was completely dead for a year without no one knowing.
These are the kind of devices that are probably regulated in your country, but not necessarily elsewhere.
Your thing sounds cool too, though.
Those things drive me nuts. It's always a single beep, which isn't enough to locate which one it is. And for some fucked up reason they always start doing that shit right when you're about to fall a sleep.
I happily spent hundreds of euros on Nest Protects just because of the sensible early warning of an empty battery. My sanity is easily worth that.
Those ones.
Bad UI kills.
https://www.homelight.com/blog/are-smoke-detectors-required-...
So yeah, I don't remember having many as a kid either, but fast forward 30 years and I had to buy a bunch to sell my house.
I had only one the first time I had to deal with it. But since these bullshit things beep once and then go silent, it takes forever to figure that out.
Me: sfalling asleep, enjoying the slow decline into unconsciousness
Smoke detector: beep
Me: What was that? Listens intently.
SM: silence
Me: Maybe be my imagination.
SM: silence
Me: Guess it's my imagination. Let's go to sleep again.
SM: beep
Me: No, that was real. What is that?
SM: silence
Me: Where did it come from?
SM: silence
Me: Oh, I guess it stopped. Weird.
SM: beep
Me: Or not. Still not sure where that came from.
This might repeat a few times, depending on how comfortable the bed is and how cold the house is.
SM: beep
Me: Fucking hell, this doesn't stop. Goddamnit. Guess I have to get up.
SM: silence
Me: Thoroughly annoyed and groggy from interrupted sleep.
SM: silence
Me: ...
SM: beep
Me: other side of the house
SM: silence
Me: boiling
SM: silence
Me: stopped?
SM: silence
Me: stopped.
SM: beep
Me: Goddamnit.
SM: silence
Me: Thoroughly ready to go to bed.
SM: silence
Me: ...
SM: beep
Me: starting to have a theory of where it comes from.
SM: silence
Me: beep, you motherfucker, I need to know it was you
SM: silence
Me: Is it taking longer to beep? It didn't stop now, did it?
SM: silence
Me: Come ON!
SM: beep
Me: Got it. Where's the ladder...?
Me: Gets the thing removed from the ceiling.
Me: Removes the battery, and throws the damn thing somewhere I may or may not see it in the morning.
Me: Sleep now.
SM: forgotten for weeks
Fuck those badly designed things. Bad UI kills.
I trust with my life simple design with a battery over not receiving a notification on my phone.
Well, it's how they ALSO work.
They trigger independently and full-force at the same smoke level as the other types. That's a standardized and regulated level. It also sends notifications to your phone, but the primary alert is a god awful amount of noise. As it should be.
But before that standardized amd regulated level, there's a lower early warning level. If it detects a small amount of smoke, it gives an early warning. That warning is just a voice (still pretty loud!) and a phone notification that tells you about it.
The same goes for the batteries. It starts with a message to your phone and the led color. It will get louder after a while, but there's plenty of pre-warning to order new batteries and replace them before that. And all while you're awake anyway.
In the UK you just unscrew and replace the battery. Not a hard task.
CO alarms are more prone to this, I think.
I prefer the cheap ones that take a 9V battery. You can take them apart and actually dust them.
However, in order to maximize the benefits you need to have ethernet wiring throughout your home because so many of the products are PoE.
So be aware, there are dragons. On the other side: works flawless for me for many years now.
Obviously I'm not going to throw away all my Nest cameras, but surely enough, I won't be buying new ones once they die.
They did kill Halo and the Fire Phone. I own a couple of Blink cameras, and they killed the free tier as well.
Also, it's hard to trust Amazon with my security system, when they recently admitted to hand camera data to law enforcement without owner's consent [0]
[0] https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/13/amazon-gave-ring-vi...
They say that the "Google domains team" will be assisting people with the transition. What a crock of shit. One time, my google domains account got locked for no reason I'm aware of - tried to find out but could only reach bot support. They kept charging me though, of course - and I couldn't cancel because I was locked out the account. Tried unsuccessfully for a few months to resolve the situation and found it easier to cancel the credit card associated with the bill.
"Google domains team", lol, there is no team. People will be on their own here.
It is fast, light-weight, and intuitive, and totally functional so long as you don't ask it to handle newer image or video formats.
Have you tried Feedly? Works great, and has a real business model, which means you can give them money to keep providing you with a product.
For some of these other ideas, I’m actually surprised Google even launched them. It’s hard to imagine most of these ideas moving the needle for Google at all. This must be the result of 20% time. I’ve heard they no longer have that?
Here's a parable: would you buy a product from a YC-funded startup? This whole site is dedicated to the idea of chasing new ideas at great risk, so... yes, right? You'd buy a product from a startup? Needless to say, YC-funded startups fail at a rate rather higher than Google products (and startups in general at a rather higher rate still). Would you come to this site to exclaim how you "don't think you'll be buying any YC-funded products any time soon"?
Why is the purchase calculus different? I'm not asking for the ethical calculus, those arguments go nowhere. I'm just curious why you'd make a practical argument about a purchase decision in one case that you wouldn't in another. Bluntly: I think you're making an emotional argument, not a practical one.
Google would never in its wildest dreams kill Gmail, but sometimes I do worry about Google Fi. I know others have mentioned not having great experiences, but I've used it since shortly after it was announced with practically 0 issues. Luckily I've never actually had to contact support for anything though so that probably contributes (I hear its pretty terrible). I'd hope its something that will last the long haul.
The equation is pretty simple: cost higher than revenue = kill.
Why can't that happen according to you?
I'm not saying that it will happen tomorrow, but...
i have many of the same concerns about google, and at this point as long as there aren’t interruptions to their biggest contracts in a meaningful way, i would not put it past google to get more closed off.
Most of the examples, if not all, are standalone products.
Additionally, a personal opinion: They are relatively better than Microsoft/Apple/Amazon.
That being said, if the choice is between building on Google or JonathansAwesomeSoftwareCompany, then I'm picking Google every day of the week. Google may kill the project, but they are infinitely more likely to remain solvent and be able to throw resources at what I care about than Jonathan is.
I wish that site would denote & track, which of these services were paid or free.
Because to me, it's a lot more understandable to shutdown a free offering.
I think it is safe to say they keep people engaged somehow.
Also I wonder what's the difference between killed services with Gillotine icon vs Gravestone icon?
Why hasn’t a replacement popped up? Surely the operating costs are much lower these days and there’s clearly demand. Isn’t it the perfect startup product?
That said, partially what people miss is the relative cultural hegemony of Google Reader. It was RSS front-and-center, prominently featured on websites, supported by the biggest company in tech, with all the users there and able to take advantage of the (sparse) social features.