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Google: Stop Making Apps! (A Love Letter)
An anonymous reader writes: Seasoned Silicon Valley software executive and investor Domenic Merenda has written a love letter to Google, and it's filled with "tough" love. The main thesis is that Google, as a company, should stop making apps, and instead focus on using its enormous data assets to make meaningful connections between people and facilitate organic engagement within a rich ecosystem. Interestingly, the article cites Wikipedia's information that Google maintains over 70 apps on the Android platform alone.
Who is this guy? Hid most impressive job was a software engineer at Playboy, Inc. Christ, this site sucks. Stop putting these shit articles out.
Then they won't have anything left to kill.
There goes any reason for me to even read this rubbish.
He doesn't care about the apps, he just want to make money off google's back.
You need apps to make meaningful connection. period.
a 12-step program App.
and instead focus on using its enormous data assets to make meaningful connections between people and facilitate organic engagement within a rich ecosystem.
I think they're working on an app for that.
They keep boning the interface for maps, someone could seriously make a buck just skinning it and giving easy access to the offline caching feature and so on. And googles, why for you no have keywords? I just wind up going to the web interface for image searches. So there's an extra step.
Inbox is pretty nice, I guess. I didn't get the impression that there was much competition in that space. Am I wrong?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
"...meaningful connections between people and facilitate organic engagement within a rich ecosystem..."
That just won a game of bullshit bingo.
Lately I have become so frustrated with my Nexus 7 updating (and becoming essentially useless until update completes) that I am seriously contemplating getting an iPad mini just to escape Android! The only things I do with it are read Kindle books and play mahjongg. I do NOT need Google apps updated on a daily basis. Most of them I don't even know what they do!
nt
Lately, every time I've allowed a google app to update I've regretted it. I was just fine with gmail the way it was. The latest incarnation I just don't like. For one I really hate how they are starting to ignore the menu button on phones that have them. I like having a menu button down at the bottom of the phone, close to where my thumbs are naturally. If I wanted an iphone I would have bought an iphone.
In any case I've learned to never update a google app that I like. One of the biggest problems with the Google Play walled garden is the complete lack of version history. Once a new version is out, the old version is gone forever. Always backup your apps before upgrading I've learned (and forgotten too many times).
But the real problem is that google apps are getting bigger and bigger and slower and slower. I don't install very many apps, and I finally ran out of space on my older phone, due to mostly google apps getting so huge. And over time my phone is getting less and less responsive. It's not like I have a lot of apps installed, and I never automatically update them. I do it judiciously, after looking at the changes list.
As I mentioned I don't update google apps much anymore, but the Google Play app and infrastructure update automatically and silently, and I have a hunch this is part of the slowdown. Sometimes I get a ton of "google play services has stopped" error messages until I reboot.
Google is a very large company, so what's with the idea that Google needs to stop with the app-making to proceed on any other front, including "making meaningful connections between people"? I see these kinds of proclamations from time to time. Just because a large company does A, doesn't mean it can't also tackle B.
stock android app drawer: no folders allowed. wtf. (and make the app drawer pluggable, not require the entire launcher to be replaced)
stock photos app: no folders/albums allowed: wtf.
hangouts: can't click through to contact record *until they have responded* since the link was moved from the menu to the *flat* avatar (w/no indication it's clickable).
DOS 1.0 had folders, and yet android *5*, 35 years later doesn't?
Get rid of the totally flat UI. It violates so many usability principles. Indications of what is a clickable item and what is not is gone. *What* clicking on something will do is also lost, eg: if I click the phone call record will it pull up the contact entry or start to dial? In some places it's the former in others the latter, and how to remember which is which I have no idea.
Fix the messaging confusion. Google voice. google+. google chat. hangouts. SMS.
This is *basic* functionality that should have been nailed in android 1.0 and *never* regressed. The automated test suite for these features should be gi*f-ing*normous by now.
Bugs like these make windows infamous--google can and should do far better.
Combined with information from your Gmail usage, your search history, your GPS locations, and even your medical history, Google can make meaningful and timely recommendations of articles, experiences, and products that you would be excited to engage with. This is the future of the virtual assistant. Google should be connecting the dots between financial transactions, health records, search history, GPS data, app usage, Gmail threads, IM conversations, and more. If you book a flight to New York, Google should be suggesting not only contacts you might want to re-engage with when you land, but also a list of restaurants or activities that match the preferences of both parties. And perhaps some curated topics to bring up when you get together.
Wow... so this guy wants Google to know absolutely every private detail of your life so it can "connect the dots"? Financial transactions? Medical records? Google knows what food you and your friends like best so can recommend restaurants? Is this sort of hand-holding really something people want? Do you really need a computer algorithm to tell you to look up a friend in New York if you're traveling there? Can you not just ask your friend to find you a great local place to eat (hinting at a few of the types of places or foods you like)?
There's a lot that Google can do that would be really hard to do on your own. If you're in a strange city, the ability to ask "Where is the nearest Italian Restaurant?" is awesome, and it can guide you there in your rental car step by step (this was exactly what happened to me a month ago). Google doesn't need to know my food preferences. I can decide for myself that I'm in the mood for some deep dish pizza, thank you. And financial transactions or medical records? No, Google, you're not getting them from me, at least if I have anything to say about it.
I don't consider myself privacy nut. I use G-mail, and don't mind the targeted ads I see. I don't really care all that much about Google tracking my search results - fairly boring stuff to anyone but myself. I can always switch to DuckDuckGo if I need privacy there. But the extent to which some people are willing to give *everything* to Google sometimes surprises me.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
Finally a thread where his gibberish is absolutely 100% relevant, and there *isn't* a post about how app appers app apps yet? Come on! It's practically *begging* you to write about apping apps so you can app apps while you app, or whatever the crap. That'd be like a thread that's actually about using hosts file with no hosts file gibberish guy.
Seriously, though, this is dumb. Why the heck would google want to stop writing apps for their own ecosystem, and why would we want them to? I mean, we want them to stop *sucking*, like maps totally does and always has, and it would also be nice if we could uninstall the ones we don't ever feel we'll use, but that doesn't mean Google shouldn't make them...
"using its enormous data assets to make meaningful connections between people and facilitate organic engagement within a rich ecosystem. "
Yo, dawg! I heard you liked apps, so I apped an app apper's app, so you could app your appers apps!
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
How is this reddit/facebook style crap even here? A link to somebody's twitter? Really?
TFA "facilitate organic engagement within a rich ecosystem"
Anybody that talks like that needs to be socked several times.
Some of those apps are probably really profitable. If you're somebody who likes to listen to lectures and you're not one of the 0.00001% of nerds who use xposed, to turn your screen off while YouTube plays costs $120/yr for a subscription (the feature is non-technically tied to Google Play Music).
There might some apps that have in-app purchase fees higher than $10/mo to keep going, but I haven't run across them. I realize you can't give everything away forever, but Google's got a lock on that market and boy do they monetize it.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Okay, well, I think Google can afford to write their apps and do pretty much anything else they want to do, too, so... whatever.
How the hell are they going to foster and leverage TAX shelters.. I mean Isn't a business loss considered that, "a Shelter"
Plus, lets take a moment to look at the wonderful achievements Google has sprung fourth..
While your reflecting. Lets take a moment to look at Ohhh Hmmm.. APPLE..
SIRI, MAPS, etc ALL failures, but I dont see Apple scrambling to get rid of this, even though they have been vetted as BULLSHIT!!!!
(punk arse Mo-fo's) ( I tell ya, U can derive more value from a fart in an elevator, or taking LSD and watching a LAVA Lamp all day, perhaps even think you can make a random number algorithm from it..)
dude pull ur head out and get the fax right..
Later
Google makes, possibly, the worst UIs I've ever been "privileged" to use. Just absolutely godawful and bizarrely difficult to use. They have absolutely no clue when it comes to designing a good UI. Their so-called web-apps are especially horrible. For this reason alone I wish they would stop making this crap and just go back to doing things they do well. OR, hire someone who freaking understands UI design to totally revamp every single UI they've ever designed.
I thought MS-DOS didn't get folders until 2.0, and Mac OS didn't get folders until HFS in System 2.1.
You lost me when you mentioned financial records and health record. the health stuff is locked down by law, under HIPAA regulations. Google has no business in that space, especially not in a manner for pushing advertising recommendations to us. the last thing i want is to get *targeted* ads to me over my...not saying what my problem is. Get the drift?
Financial records are the same, though with less legal protection. The main inference they can get from that for advertisers is "are they rich"? Targeted ads based on the likelihood of whether or not i spend 50 or 500 for dinners on the road (or can afford to pay off my credit card or have extensive college debt)? (or more specifically, what is my company, or the government, willing to pay when i expense it). Is that really the future of Google you want to encourage?
It certainly isn't the future I want. while I agree that the idea of personal digital agents is inevitable, Google, which still makes most of its money on advertising and can improve its revenue by targeting, is the LAST company I want to have the ability to target me that closely. I won't hide that I have a kid, a dslr camera, a large music collection, and a hobby of visiting disney and national parks, but i still draw the line on my privacy somewhere.
"But remember, most lynch mobs aren't this nice." (H.Simpson)
-- Joe
>Google can provide the data-rich API platform, the interconnectedness, the big brain calculations in the cloud. Instead of investing more resources in apps smaller teams could build better, let's free developers do what they do best: leverage Google services to build new and engaging experiences across a variety of platforms. Eh? Well, there's Google Cloud Computing and tons of other bunch of API that Google provides to developers, the question is why is the author not using them to " make meaningful connections between people and facilitate organic engagement within a rich ecosystem"?
I haven't found any use of their other functions. Doogle Now, Doogle Orifice, Dootube is okay, the rest is bunk. I tried using Doogle office but my pad kept having to wait for docs and that literally killed it for me.
@anon: "Yeah, you've got to love the pseudo-intellectual jargon he's spewing."
...
'focus on using its enormous data assets to make meaningful connections between people and facilitate organic engagement within a rich ecosystem'
agile, business-available, components, elastic, elastic-capacity, environments, extensible, front facing, leverage, methodologies, MVC, public cloud, resources, solutions, teams, test-driven, touchpoint, versioned API services
"using its enormous data assets to make meaningful connections between people and facilitate organic engagement within a rich ecosystem"
Huh? And they would do this by what, a mind meld? Maybe they should do this by creating...apps!
Third party apps tend to be loaded with adware. Google may not make the best apps, but at least they don't constantly spam you with blinking, dancing ads!
Did you get those from his web site at atomiq.io?
This is the description for what atomiq.io supposedly does:
deployment, monitoring, and intelligence for container-based microservices
And this is the mission statement:
Atomiq helps organizations deploy secure, elastic-capacity front facing and backend services across the public cloud. Our software provides real-time intelligence and monitoring for Docker-based micro service deployments. We help reduce costs, monitor uptime, and provide for the rapid deployment of versioned API services.
Here's my stab at it:
Domenic Merenda is a man who is virtually encased in an aura of marketing shtick.
Nothing so emphasizes that I am living in the 21st century as when I'm driving somewhere out in the city and speak "Take me home" into my phone and my phone vocally guides me there step by step. To me, in this day and age, Google Maps + Google Navigate are incredible apps that honestly fill me with awe every time I use them.
focus on using its enormous data assets to make meaningful connections between people and facilitate organic engagement within a rich ecosystem. Interestingly
As far as I can tell this translates into English as "all ure privacies are belong to us".
Domenic Merenda is a man who is virtually encased in an aura of marketing shtick.
I think you accidentally added "virtually" to this statement ...
The OP loves to spew buzzwords and bullshit as bad as Bennett Hasselton does. :(
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Where does this guy think their data comes from?
Just needed synergize to get a full card blackout bingo there.
I'm too lazy to compose a creative sig.