Main problem with Google is their obsession with telemetry.
“Only 3% of our users use this feature, kill it”.
Assholes, you have billions of users, a small percentage is still millions. Not to mention that power users always disable/block telemetry…
As a software engineer with actual knowledge of the cost of code maintenance this comment hurts me. All code can have/cause bugs, interaction poorly with other sections of code, can break in the future and requires you to maintain tests. The leaner your code can be the better. You have to weigh the value from that 3% usage against the cost.
I’m sure I will get nothing but downvotes, but it needed to be said.
I bet Google is struggling for cash.
Literally has nothing to do with what I said. It’s about software stability.
Surely Google has in mind software stability when they add complex features like a Duolingo clone and at the same time they make sure that nobody actually use it by implementing it as a geofenced Easter egg hidden in the Google search app
Nobody forced them to add the feature in the first place.
Don’t want to maintain, don’t add it.
Yes. I wholeheartedly agree with the author here. I fucking hate Google so much now mainly for that reason alone.
I can’t trust Google to keep a product over any length of time. I don’t know why I should bother staying with their services at all in that case.
I’m seriously considering switching everything over to Proton. Mail, cloud storage, etc. I’ve already gotten rid of Chrome for Firefox. It’s a shame because I still love Android photos. But who knows how long even that will last.
I’ve gone duckduckgo, GrapheneOS, proton, nextcloud, encrypted rclone backblaze backup. I no longer feel like I’m constantly being watched. Its nice. Highly recommend.
I do not regret moving to proton. I only wish they had more services.
I’ve slowly been ditching google products these past years, and it feels good. Finally made the move to proton just before christmas.
Google represents a valuable lesson about not depending wholly on one entity to meet your needs.
I’m thankful the lesson is not born of malice but rather ineptitude. We might not always be so fortunate.
Gmail (usually with +domain@gmail.com) is where my newsletters and unimportant emails go. I think I switched when they discontinued Inbox.
The problem with Google is that we’re all attached to the memory of what it was, but it hasn’t been that thing for a long time.
It’s like when we see our partner and we get excited, but worms have burrowed into their brain and that’s not really them anymore (even though we’re attracted to what we see).
I’m over Google. It used to be like you describe but now when I see a new Google project, my first reaction is disgust at the potential new avenues of data harvesting. Then I go look for an open source project that does the same thing.
They have ruined their image for me forever. Still use some of their stuff, but I’m trying to be less reliant on it.
Interesting that the author is apparently young enough that the Auto UI for phones was the oldest driving UI they can remember.
What were the others??
