Google Ends Google Video Uploads, Shutters Notebook, Catalog Search, Dodgeball & Jaiku | Hacker News Reader

Google Ends Google Video Uploads, Shutters Notebook, Catalog Search, Dodgeball & Jaiku

searchengineland.com

43 pointspeter12316 comments

...as Google goes into the grim economic times predicted for 2009

Note: predicted. Zappos did the same thing - they laid off people in advance because they expected things to get worse - and they even said that laying off the people cost them more money in severance that it saved in the first year.

Is this becoming a self fulfilling prophecy?

Are we predicting a downturn to the point that we are causing one?

Possibly, but all of the services Google cut were due to mistakes made in the past couple years.

I think the more likely explanation is that companies are using this "downturn" as an excuse to cut the crud without the bad publicity. The effect of this, more than likely, is that the downturn looks worse than it actually is.

The effect of this, more than likely, is that the downturn looks worse than it actually is.

And, with oil below $40, can it really be called much of a downturn?

I'll miss google video:

1: there was no maximum length

2: the size of the player window was larger (was the encoded res larger too?)

3: and you could download the uploaded video in it's original form.

Youtube can't/doesn't do any of these things.

And google engineers here? Can you add those three things to youtube? Oh, and can I use my google login on youtube?

I can use my Google Account on YouTube already. Try https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=youtube...;

Google video still exists and can be used there can just be nothing new added. Although I'll miss new content coming up.

While it's sad to see these products close, this strikes me as a long-overdue sign that Google does in fact follow the same laws of physics as everyone else.

It will be interesting to see what changes AppEngine needs to run Jaiku.

I've got a few projects on AppEngine and having a code base that has Jaiku's feature set will be a huge resource for building all kinds of apps.

Am I the only one who liked Google Notebook? With the Firefox addon it was a quick and easy way to make notes without having to have an external source of note taking.

Can anyone suggest a good alternative?

I will miss it too - lifehacker suggested evernote as an alternative...

Thanks, for some reason I can never remember that Lifehacker exists. Would save me a lot of time looking at stuff like this.

Edit: Unfortunately it looks like Evernote is less focused on text only notes, which make up a majority of my notes. The thumbnails are less useful than the first couple lines that Google Notebook shows. Plus, you have to explicitly click on the Edit button to change a note, which just seems like an extra step for no reason.

Just in time, there's a new application (SimplyBox) to replace Google Notebook.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=435133

Well, there goes my business plan.

Other than Youtube, what Google acquisitions have worked out?

Anecdotally, companies seem to rot away after getting acquired by them.

Gogo talent acquisitions.

Picasa and Blogger haven't been total failures. Urchin has spawned the very widely used Google Analytics. Writely became Google Docs. Postini still operates and has significantly lower fees now.

Google does have a pretty bad history with some acquisitions, but some have worked.

And Keyhole to the list.

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