Hacker News Reader

Comment by lloeki | Hacker News Reader

> All of their customers (myself included) invested in the product because it was good, because it worked extremely well, and because it solved problems. I didn't invest in their work at Google

Even worse, I invested in Sparrow because I vastly prefer desktop apps like Sparrow to web apps like GMail. That's sad.

View on HN

That's exactly why they had to kill it. If you don't use the web app you don't see GMail ads.

Do you really need to see gmail ads, or does it suffice if they can associate your client IP address with your email content and show you suitable ads the next time you visit a site with AdSense / doubleclick?

At their scale, even statistical advantages pay off.

Will you still prefer desktop app if you get all its benefits with web app?

Because you really don't get all the benefits of a native app with a web app. It's getting better, the gap is closing, but it will be a while before web apps are an enjoyable an experience as a native app. I think Sparrow was actually a good proof point of that.

More than that - apps like Sparrow move the goalposts actually. It was such a superior to experience to even the best native clients of the day that it widened the gap between web and native once again.

What was so much better about it? I tried it and was unimpressed. Search was slower and worse than web, for one. That surprised me.

sometimes I'm surprised by this sort of thing, but then I remember that Google is INSANELY GOOD AT SEARCH and I stop being surprised when that plays out.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com