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Google Keep End-of-Life Date Forecasted
An anonymous reader writes "A smart aleck journalist for UK's Guardian newspaper has turned the tables on Google by compiling data on 39 of the company's terminated projects, summarized in a table and bar graph. The mean lifespan of the doomed products turns out to be almost exactly 4 years, which led Mr. Arthur to conclude that your data would be safe with Google Keep — until March 2017, give or take a few months. Of course, this assumes that Keep is destined to be one of those products and services that wouldn't be Kept, or rather 'didn't gain traction with users' in the familiar lingo of Google marketing."
Yeah, I miss things like Code Search.
Well that's the only thing I used really.
But like, no one had to pay for these services. There was no contractual obligation in play. What responsibility does Google have to spend time and money on infrastructure on products that are used by the minority of people?
I'm god, but it's a bit of a drag really...
I don't trust cloud apps and the like. Google is a prime example of why we should not use these.
It's not really fair to condition on having been terminated before now.
It would make more sense to calculate the median length over all projects, including ones still running (or say projects started more than 6 years ago).
....a set of mainframe services. Re-brand it as 'cloud' all you want-- Over the long term, its not the best fit.
Its better to have locally-running apps that give you a choice of data storage points (especially local and private VPN).
The mean lifespan of the doomed products turns out to be almost exactly 4 years
And that's just it: The MEAN.
If you look at the graph, there is a slight flat spot there, but really, over all, it's a pretty constent slope all the way up.
Seriously, nothing to see here.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
This really is a big negative of Software as a Service. When you own something, you can run it forever, even if the developer decides to stop using it.
I have some simulation software for electrical design that was last updated in 1998. Still works fine and gets the job done. If it were on the cloud I'd be out of luck and forced to continually move my data between paid services. Too bad.
I don't get your sig. Almost all the public domain works on the kindle are for free (2005 out of 2073 to be precise). It's not that they will get rich charging for this one. Or is the way you phrased it some kind of American pop culture reference?
Why?
In all seriousness, despite the weakness of the statistics (33 points does not make a universe, particularly with such widely scattered data), this is simply a codification of the reluctance many feel about trusting vital data to Google. It's interesting to note how many projects Google has shuttered, and the lengths of time they were live. I do appreciate the fact that the author has provided his raw data so that we can draw our own conclusions.
Indeed.
I was reminded of a scene that I saw I don't remember how long ago now, I think it was a Dilbert comic, or something similar... where there was some guy's presentation that was totally boring everybody, until he mentions that he has a graph, and then when pulls out a large form cardstock sheet with a colored pie graph and bar chart from his folder and puts it on the easel where he is doing his presentation, he suddenly has the undivided attention of everyone in the room, as they say "oooooooooh" in unison, evidently being completely wowed by the novelty of it.
I wish I could remember where I saw that though... it might have even been a cartoon or comedy on TV.
Anyways... when I saw the words "summarized in a table and a bar graph", it made me think of that.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I mean, other than the obvious reference to the first sentence of the work, which doesn't strike me as particularly funny.
Keep uses Google Drive, so your data isn't going anywhere.
You can still keep using the old software and your data. In Google's case, once the service is gone so is your data. Think of it this way, Honda discontinues the RSX they don't go and blow up all the RSX they've sold. The time, data and energy you put into an online service is your investment and when it's discontinued you lose that investment.
It sucks to have a service you use canceled, but if any of those cancelled services were being done by independent people rather than Google, they would have gone bankrupt from making no profit before those 4 years were up. Google just got your hopes up and kept them up longer than others.
use it. The more people who do, the better its chances.
I hope they don't cancel Google Search. I use that hidden gem all the time! This is getting crazy!!
I must not use google services enough. I use their mail, calendars and iGoogle. I really like igoogle because in a glance, I see the headlines, here, drudge, and various news sources, also see how my stocks have moved.Sure most of that can be replaced with windows gadgets, but with igoogle, Its accessible from anywhere I log in. My computer, my phone, my tablet.
I'm going to forecast the headlines:
"Google doesn't keep Google Keep"
"What's keeping Google from keeping Google Keep?"
"Keep on keeping: Google keeps Google Keep (for now)"
The started having a banner that iGoogle was going to be turned on in November of 2013 in mid 2011. There is no reason to think they would shut down something like Google Keep without at least that much warning.
Is buying a Harley Davidson as your first motorcycle since you were 16 at age 49 a midlife crisis issue?
Four years? I may keep sticky notes for about four hours. Sometimes four minutes.
The data I put here will have a very short relevance. I may love the app in 2017 (TBD), but I won't miss my 2013 sticky notes. If there are people out there hoarding their sticky colored squares, I'd hate to see their desks, or refrigerators.
Although this app uses Google's cloudy back-end, its more for device sync and uniform presentation across services (aka screens) than a personal (eternal) archive. There are better options for data you care about, and I don't mean Evernote.
P.S. I won't be an anonymous coward for long :)
I wonder why google trends isn't predicting the end of these various Google services?
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
you could still use frontpage to create sites.. if you wanted. you can still use your works package from 2001. there's no mandatory activation, no shit like that. you could even use them on your windows 8 installation.
(not so with older apple sw though, you'd need to have an old apple too).
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Exactly, look how many companies still run some DOS program in a CMD box on Windows. They're doing so because it's more worth it to them than to develop some new solution. The solution they already had still works. If it were cloud-based then they'd be stuck paying bills that they really don't need to. The cloud is always going to fuck over the people who depend on it.
Twinstiq, game news
Google seems to have reached the tipping point when they cancelled Reader. Now, their main base of loyal geeks are starting to question them, in print no less. This is not a good sign for Google. They are taking a much larger PR hit than just losing some respect from a few Reader users. Granted many of those services likely did need to be cut, or not even started, but it seems they've now pushed enough to where geeks are starting to push back and relaying that mistrust to their non-geek friends.
Google+ launched on June 28, 2011.
They will stop trying to shove it down our throats on estimated June 28, 2015.
We are half way there.
witold.org
The graph clearly shows that there is no correlation to 4 years. it shows a wide, fairly even, range. Where a few months is as likely as 10 years.
4 years is the average, nothing more.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
Google is doing us a service by reminding us that online services, data storage, etc come and go. Don't rely on any one company if a service or your data is important to you.
Reality bites and it's good to have an occasional nip like this latest one from Google to remind us of that.
He's not being a "smart aleck" ... ... he's doing analytics.
Corporations tend to be very conservative about making changes to critical infrastructure, on the theory of "don't fix it if it ain't broke." They don't like unscheduled forced expenditures and down time. I can personally think of at least a dozen DOS and Windows 98 machines that are in service today. This may come as a shock, but there are actually computers out there which aren't on the internet, so security vulnerabilities and upgrades aren't an issue. And the last thing a company that has something wants is a replacement that *requires* an internet connection.
Brackets contain world's first nanosig, highly magnified:[.]
A proper car analogy would be GM's EV1. They didn't sell them, only leased them out, and when GM decided to discontinue the project they took the cars back (despite protests from many of the "owners") and crushed them.
No, once the service is gone, your data is fine. In the case of Reader, you can export your data. In the case of Google Notebook, all your data was still there in Docs. Same thing with Keep.
So, I don't see why the above comment was rated 'Insightful'. It seems completely ignorant of the fact that Google makes great efforts to ensure that you can always get your data out of the cloud.
Great analogy as an example of "market failure" due in part to "unquantified risk" (and to a lesser extent de-facto monpoly by market position).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_failure
"Market failures are often associated with information asymmetries, non-competitive markets, principal-agent problems, externalities, or public goods. The existence of a market failure is often used as a justification for government intervention in a particular market."
From another domain, but a related example of greed and short-sightedness:
"Regulating Real But Unquantified Risk [with antibiotics given in animal feed]"
http://www.riskworld.com/abstract/2002/SRAam02/ab02aa311.htm
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.