The State of Google | Hacker News Reader

The State of Google

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"Google Earth Pro on desktop will no longer be available for download beginning June 25, 2027."

This is the message I received today while opening Google Earth. It was in the bottom left corner of the desktop application.

What is happening at Google?

Why is it that each of the tools I have been using for the last 20 years are being destroyed one by one? Tools that have become constant in people's lives.

What are they trying to accomplish by destroying the trust gained by a generation of employees delivering the top product? Products that just worked.

Did they fire all the good employees?

Where are the men and women with long-term visions?

What is happening???

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Google wants money.

The past decade they've been replacing any leadership who thinks about serving their users or creating amazing things with people who can only think in terms of immediate money.

Don't expect them to make anything new or interesting from here on out. They got lucky that the old guard was so interested in AI, and the new leadership was unable to snuff it out before it turned out to be valuable. But Google will be unable to make anything new after AI since they have harvested their seedcorn.

Could it be possible that Google is doing some major restructuring? Together with recent AI leadership changes [1], could this be another apparent manifestation?

[1] https://blog.google/company-news/inside-google/message-ceo/n...

Yahoo did the same thing to its web browser and Yahoo Groups, not to mention Geocities. If something costs more to support than it brings in, a company will end support for it.

Does google plan to keep the web version? also, you can still use the desktop app. this seems like a non-issue

Google is fine. One of the world’s most profitable companies.

Nothing to see here.

Exactly right. OP determines value differently than a mega corporation.

A company can have money but can lose taste. look at IBM and microsoft

Google Earth is likely not profitable to keep it alive. This probably happened with many other services killed previously.

Your question: "Why is it that each of the tools I have been using for the last 20 years are being destroyed one by one?"

--> the answer: anyone can built it themselves today

See, Google has just entered its IBM era.

it's what Google does....Google reader anyone remember

Exactly right.

optimize costs

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