Google is unfortunately a really solidly built ship sitting on a ton of cash and a really valuable resource whose proceeds are currently going to the parasites clinging to it's shell. The thing that made them great - Search - is still solid, and is large enough and ahead enough that it can sit still, even go backwards, and people will continue to use them for many years to come. Their money faucet, ads, went from being unobtrusive and helpful to obnoxious and exploitative to cover for the lack of forward movement of the giant it stands upon.
All that said - Google still has some great people, a great mission, and amazing tech that's still years ahead of the rest of the world. It's stock will continue to go up with Wall Street. It just isn't the place it used to be - Though, like all nostalgia, I wonder if it ever was.
Why is this unfortunate? Isn't this a byproduct of their success they've had over the years? Sure, they haven't had many blowout successes in recent time, but still.
Well then who the hell cares, besides you?
They're showing off a lot of Assistant features. Duplex is launching soon.
They're pushing a lot of ChromeOS features by adding Android App support.
Did streaming TV on Youtube come out this year?
They have a beta of their game streaming service that came out a month or two ago.
That's off the top of my head. There's a ton of smaller apps they throw at the wall all the time too.
I'm not too hip on Google products, so there's probably more that I'm missing.
New gmail (even with hover actions turned off) is an absolute performance mess. Even just scrolling down the list of emails is choppy.
Never had a problem until now. I have no idea what Google is doing, but whatever it is there's a good chance they'll keep screwing it up
* Duo is linked via phones, not Google accounts * Duo is strictly peer-to-peer, not for groups * Duo is video/audio only, no chat/text
So, it could be a Duo-like replacement for Hangouts, maybe. But not a complete replacement. A merger of Allo + Duo (does anyone here know what Allo is?) could check some of these boxes. But one of the primary appeals of Duo is E2E encryption, and that is not in Google's interests in the long run.
But yeah, I guesss Google's culture leads to a lot of dick waving competitions...
https://technex.us/2018/11/google_chat_is_the_worst_desktop_...
In name only. Even non-technical people know what huge pile of crap "Skype" is nowadays.
Why does it keep archiving all the conversations? Sometimes I want to continue a conversation, but it really doesn't want you to.
Except when it is Lync
Lync is an abomination that only exists to dilute the brand
Wait. You're right, I guess Zoom IS the new Skype...
The call quality of video and screen sharing is significantly better than Skype and hangouts.
And though I don't use it with friends (FaceTime mostly fills that role) I work remotely and do use Zoom several times a week for video meetings and screen sharing.
Most of their product releases are one step forward and one step back. For example, the new Gmail is a little nicer looking, but it's a huge resource hog compared to the previous one without any striking features (though there autocomplete thing is nice). Google Meet just seems to have a few fewer features than Hangouts, and I'm not really sure what it adds.
I honestly haven't seen a new product from them that is noticeably better than whatever it replaced for quite a while. Most things seem to be change for the sake of change.
The new gmail is ok I guess. It’s not substantially different from Mac inbox for me to care. Either way I’ll spent some time scanning subject lines and senders. I might be an outlier though.