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Google: Stop Making Apps! (A Love Letter)

Posted by samzenpus on from the tough-love dept.

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.

69 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. Who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The Special Olympics are being held in L.A. this year there is still time for you to register.

    2. Re:Who? by Adriax · · Score: 2

      I'd bet $10 he's hopes the board of directors at google will see this, realize his genius, and give larry page the boot so he can take over as ceo and steer the company to true prosperity.

      Though his idea looks about tied with the hobo down on 5th who keeps yelling about how google should switch to hippo powered dream stealers, because the penguins are bad for the environment.

      --
      I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!
  2. But if they stop making apps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Then they won't have anything left to kill.

  3. App-A-Holics anonymous by turkeydance · · Score: 1

    a 12-step program App.

    1. Re:App-A-Holics anonymous by segin · · Score: 1

      As a human being, I'm the highest power known to fucking exist. As we all are. Not some random wizard from millennia-old fictional history books. Or my smartphone, or motorcycle, or beer glass.

    2. Re:App-A-Holics anonymous by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      But it would be iOS only, because 12-step programs are religious in nature.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    3. Re:App-A-Holics anonymous by ultranova · · Score: 1

      As a human being, I'm the highest power known to fucking exist. As we all are.

      Except for market forces. Those certainly seem to be beyond the control of mere mortals. For that matter, laws of nature not only determine your environment, but through evolution your entire being: you want things you've evolved to want. Your main advantage as a human is that the process is much quicker with cultural rather than biological evolution, and your culture-derived traits can be updated during your lifetime.

      And one of the things people have been evolved to want is to get high. That's not limited to humanity, but can be found in animals so low as bees. Such a widespread tendency strongly suggests this is not mere accident, but reflects some inherent aspect of the universe - a "higher power" - but even if it's not, it's definitely a pattern of human existence. Some people once called this particular power Dionysos. Whether it has an ego - whether it's what we'd call a "person" - is irrelevant to someone caught in its grip. Whether breaking such a grip throuh sheer willpower is possible depends mainly on how strong it is, but often requires help from another higher power, which can range from perception of divine power to fear of death to the team spirit of a support group. Heck, getting chewed out by your boss - an agent of the employer, itself in turn an agent of the Invisible Hand - for turning up hungover might be enough in some cases.

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    4. Re:App-A-Holics anonymous by meta-monkey · · Score: 1

      Mother Nature would like a word with you...

      --
      We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
    5. Re:App-A-Holics anonymous by goarilla · · Score: 1

      At least he has a sense of humor.

  4. But the best way to deliver that ... by Krishnoid · · Score: 2

    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.

    1. Re:But the best way to deliver that ... by exomondo · · Score: 1

      From what he has said it seems like this all fits right in to their Google Now strategy.

      The problem is with the idea that "Google should be connecting the dots between financial transactions, health records, search history, GPS data, app usage, Gmail threads, IM conversations, and more." Which is a pretty contentious issue at the moment, granted many people simply don't care, some do and some are undecided ... already they do some of this but suggesting they track every move you make and every thing you do in order to make suggestions about what you should do next is a little overboard and unless it is effectively just presenting advertisements (something users also despise) what is the point?

    2. Re:But the best way to deliver that ... by fermion · · Score: 1
      I think we all appreciate that this person went to b-school and therefore is well trained in using buzz words and maximizing quarterly profits, but Google works because unlike most other dot coms, it does deliver products to generate a profit, not just data that one day may be used for a profit.

      At the time when Google was on the rise, web browsers began to let user manage 'cookies'. This was a new concept to everyone back then, but web companies were learning to use cookies to track users, and end users were learning to turn them off to protect privacy. Companies like 2o7, which thought they could win by obfuscating their domain name, were driven into oblivion by companies like Google who were making a much fairer trade. Google provided a service for data collection, that first service being the search App, and in return they got user data which could be used to build an ad service business.

      To be honest Google search now sucks and any actual consumer products are too expensive to provide any value. Like MS, google end user products are only affordable because the manufacturers take a hit on profits. This is why Apple has only a small share of the mobile phone market, but most of the profits.

      So at the end of the day, all Google has is the apps. And the killer app, google docs, has not been updated in a long time. Maps has credible competitors. Bing under new owners could be a player, which it wasn't with MS because it was just a small cog in huge machine. Google can be forgiven because it provides descent products for no cost, even if those products are crappy. It is like broadcast TV. People will watch it, and maybe buy some of the stuff in the ads, because what else is there to do?

      But Google without apps, with only search, is going to be highly vulnerable. At some point someone is going to figure a way to compete with Google, and if all Google has to back up ads is search, they are going to be easy pickings.

      --
      "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
  5. Most of their apps are annoying anyway by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

    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.'"
    1. Re:Most of their apps are annoying anyway by mars-nl · · Score: 2, Interesting

      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.

      Try this: http://openstreetmap.org/

    2. Re:Most of their apps are annoying anyway by taxman_10m · · Score: 1

      And Google Groups... so Usenet archives are pretty much gone now? It's a shame that such a large archive of historical data on a wide variety of subjects appears to be just plain gone.

    3. Re:Most of their apps are annoying anyway by loufoque · · Score: 1

      GMail is a step back from regular email, and Inbox is worse still.
      As for Google Groups, it used to be good, so good it was my preferred Usenet client, before they entirely ruined it and made it irrelevant.

    4. Re:Most of their apps are annoying anyway by CronoCloud · · Score: 2

      And Google Groups... so Usenet archives are pretty much gone now?

      It's still there:

      https://groups.google.com/

      I've scrolled down to see topics as old as 2003, so as far as I can tell, it's all there.

    5. Re:Most of their apps are annoying anyway by JDG1980 · · Score: 1

      Is there any way to search the Usenet archives without logging in?

    6. Re:Most of their apps are annoying anyway by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      GMail is a step back from regular email, and Inbox is worse still.

      Yes, that's exactly what I want on my phone. I can use whatever I want on my desktop. On my phone, I want a reduced email client.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    7. Re:Most of their apps are annoying anyway by jisom · · Score: 1

      I tried Inbox, but wasn't impressed. It strips so much of gmail away that it is basically "Gmail for beginners". You want filters, labels, etc, then it is worthless.

      And I find most apps pointless. I generally end up using the actual mobile site more than most apps that said sites release.

    8. Re: Most of their apps are annoying anyway by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      2003? Usenet archives should go back about 15 years earlier than that.

    9. Re: Most of their apps are annoying anyway by CronoCloud · · Score: 2

      Well, that's only as far as I checked, I could have gone further but stopped. After 12 years of archives I figure they have them all.

      well I went back to 91 on comp.os.minix to find the famous Linux announcement easy enough:

      https://groups.google.com/foru...

      From Wikipedia:

      Google Groups hosts an archive of Usenet posts dating back to May 1981. The earliest posts, which date from May 1981 to June 1991, were donated to Google by the University of Western Ontario with the help of David Wiseman and others, and were originally archived by Henry Spencer at the University of Toronto's Zoology department. The archives for late 1991 through early 1995 were provided by Kent Landfield from the NetNews CD series and Jürgen Christoffel from GMD. The archive of posts from March 1995 onward was started by the company DejaNews (later Deja), which was purchased by Google in February 2001. Google began archiving Usenet posts for itself starting in the second week of August 2000.

    10. Re:Most of their apps are annoying anyway by Aussie · · Score: 1

      undo moderation

    11. Re:Most of their apps are annoying anyway by swillden · · Score: 1

      I tried Inbox, but wasn't impressed. It strips so much of gmail away that it is basically "Gmail for beginners". You want filters, labels, etc, then it is worthless.

      Actually, Inbox is Gmail for power users, for people who have massive volumes of e-mail to manage. It takes a little bit of work to figure it out and set it up, but once you have, it's awesome. There are some features it lacks, like complex filters (simple filters are very easy to set up; you just move a message to a label and Inbox asks if you want to always do that. Click "yes" and you have a new filter rule), vacation auto-responder and the like, but you can always use the Gmail UI when you need to set stuff like that up.

      The Inbox features that that make it great for heavy e-mail users are:

      Snooze.

      Many people use their e-mail inbox at least partially as a task list, especially their work e-mail. This results in having to keep e-mails that for you can't work on yet sitting in your inbox, cluttering it up and making it harder to process new e-mail. When you snooze an e-mail, it goes away until some point in the future. You can pick a date and time, or even a location (requires using the Inbox app on your mobile device). Heavy application of snooze with well-chosen times/locations lets you clear all of the stuff you can't do yet out of the way, knowing it will come back later when you can handle it.

      Bundles.

      Bundles are just Gmail labels, but with an additional setting that tells Inbox to group them in the inbox. This is fantastic for high-volume mailing lists. With Gmail you can get almost the same effect by setting a filter to apply a label and skip the inbox, but then you have to remember to actually go look at the label from time to time. With bundles, you get the same grouping effect but the bundles show up in your inbox so you don't forget to go look. The reason that grouping (by whichever mechanism) is useful is because when you have large volumes of email, most of which you don't actually need to read, it's much faster to scan through a list of subject lines and evaluate what's important and what isn't when you already know the context.

      My process for plowing through a busy mailing list is to scan the subject lines and click/tap the "pin" icon on the few that are interesting, then "sweep" the rest. A single click or gesture archives all unpinned items in a bundle. Then I handle (or snooze until I can handle) the pinned items.

      I also have a bundle (label) called "Me" that is applied by a filter that looks for my name or username in the To line or the body of the message. This helps me to be sure that I notice e-mails where people are mentioning me or asking me questions. It's the first bundle I look for every time I check my e-mail. Similarly, I have a bundle that extracts e-mails that reference my project's name. That's the second bundle I look at. Other high priority bundles are e-mails from the code review system and e-mails from the bug tracker.

      Obviously there are many e-mails that mention both my project and me. That's fine; bundles are labels not folders, and it's perfectly reasonable for an e-mail to be in more than one of them. When I archive a message in one bundle, it disappears from the others. So, often I'll look at Inbox and see the "Me", project, code review and bug tracker bundles displayed, but by the time I've processed everything in the "Me" bundle, the other three have disappeared.

      Delayed Bundles.

      I think this vies with snooze as the killer feature of Inbox. By default, a bundle appears in the inbox whenever you receive new mail with that label. But there's lots of stuff, at least in my inbox, that I don't need to see immediately. Having low-priority stuff displayed instantly distracts me from my work, or obscures truly urgent e-mail. Also, it's more efficient to handle low-priority e-mail in bulk. So, you can specify that a bundle should only appear once per day, or once per week.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    12. Re:Most of their apps are annoying anyway by taxman_10m · · Score: 1

      What others are there that are searchable?

    13. Re:Most of their apps are annoying anyway by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Uh, that is because they bought out inbox.

      No, I meant there isn't much competition for email clients on Android to begin with. Inbox was something statistically nobody had heard of before Google, and both of the dominant Android email clients are from Google, one of them bundled with the OS and the other with typical gapps.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  6. Yes PLEASE! by flatulus · · Score: 1

    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!

    1. Re:Yes PLEASE! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Then change the update settings to not update automatically. Was that so difficult?

    2. Re:Yes PLEASE! by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 1

      Then change the update settings to not update automatically. Was that so difficult?

      It's much more cathartic to gripe about the problem than to listen to a practical solution that fixes the issue at hand. What are you, some sort of... man?

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    3. Re:Yes PLEASE! by amRadioHed · · Score: 1

      Or disable all the apps that you have no use for. He'll probably be happier without them cluttering up his app drawer anyway.

      --
      We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
    4. Re:Yes PLEASE! by Stuarticus · · Score: 1

      Have you considered getting a kindle and a mahjong set?

      --
      If you think someone isn't free to have a different definition of "freedom" you may be a tyrant.
    5. Re:Yes PLEASE! by perryizgr8 · · Score: 1

      Nexus 7 only allows you to delay the update. But after a hard cut-off date, the update *will* happen. I learned that the hard way when I didn't allow it to update and it turned on cellular data and downloaded a gigabyte of updates that didn't amount to any improvements, and charging me money too.

      --
      Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
  7. Google apps getting slower and more bloated by caseih · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Google apps getting slower and more bloated by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The 2010s will be known as the decades when applications were lobotomized. Features removed, crappy interfaces, and decisions that make trouble for people abound. No OS is safe. From the MS Office Ribbon, to Mozilla crippling Firefox, to Google phone apps. It's all a symptom of the same "we know better than the user" disease.

    2. Re:Google apps getting slower and more bloated by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Lately, every time I've allowed a google app to update I've regretted it.

      Do it, UXtards. You really want to A/B your fucking shit? Let users roll back your "upgrades" to the previously-installed .apk.

      If your new trendy UX design is really as "elegant" and "intuitive" as you proclaim it, give the user a choice after "upgrading" to decide which version he/she prefers and show your boss the fucking metrics. Put your fucking career on the line, or don't you have the fucking balls/ovaries to do it?

      Bosses: If you're not demanding this of your UX team, you're running the same risk as Firefox after 4.x (removal of status bar against user community's wishes), GNOME 3 (ask your developer) or Windows 8 (which even you and your fellow suits hated.) If your UX team isn't willing to let your customers downgrade, ask yourself: if their new design doesn't suck, what are they afraid of?

    3. Re:Google apps getting slower and more bloated by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      For one I really hate how they are starting to ignore the menu button on phones that have them.

      That's not a Google Apps problem, that's a manufacturer problem. Google depreciated the menu button for Android devices back in Gingerbread. Their design guidelines basically said to stop using the menu button as an input back in early 2011 and to use it only for legacy purposes favouring instead a context sensitive action button symbolised by 3 vertical dots.

    4. Re:Google apps getting slower and more bloated by N!k0N · · Score: 1

      Still a pain in the ass changing the UI around in that manner... I still muscle-memory to the task-manager (formerly, menu) button.

    5. Re:Google apps getting slower and more bloated by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Well it was supposed to be a transition to limit the muscle memory issues, but the problem is that:

      a) most app developers don't follow the guidelines unless they are forced to.
      b) most phone developers don't follow the guidelines unless they are forced to.

      The idea was a transitional introduction with Honeycomb. The "overflow menu" buttons were specifically hidden by the OS if the phone had a menu key in Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, and Jellybean. The menus were always shown even if the phone had a menu button in KitKat and Lollipop.

      This is a transition that has covered 3 years and 6 major versions of the OS, including some fundamental UI design changes along the way. Google is simply forcing the issue now as Samsung and LG haven't followed protocol when designing their devices.

  8. Google the All-Knowing by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 3

    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.
    1. Re:Google the All-Knowing by loufoque · · Score: 1

      Google already does this. Didn't you notice they send you a notice on your phone of the type "you should leave now for the airport to be on time, we recommend this itinerary" even though you never told Google explicitly that you were taking a flight? It automatically detects where you're going based on your emails and can also automatically deduce where you live and where you work based on your GPS.
      It can also automatically make recommendations of restaurants when it notices that you're not in an area you're usually in.

    2. Re:Google the All-Knowing by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 2

      Actually, I didn't notice this on any of my last trips. It wouldn't have been rocket science to figure out on my last trip either, as I use Google Calendar to leave notes for myself about times and dates of my trips, and the trip arrangements were made via my gmail account.

      I actually had to explicitly search for that sort of stuff myself when I was away from home, and it wasn't hard to do. I literally just asked my phone: "Where is the nearest Italian restaurant?", and it responded with a list of them within five miles. Then I clicked on one that looked good, and then asked for directions. I'd never actually tried that before, and it worked beautifully. That's Google services done right. If I ask a question and need information, figure out how to provide me with a good answer. But I don't need an assistant who's constantly making "helpful" suggestions about that sort of thing.

      Here's another example. I recently went to Verizon's website to look at replacing a lost charging cable and outlet adapter (from my recent trip as well), but didn't buy anything. Several hours later, Verizon e-mailed me with a helpful "we can help you find the phone accessory you need! Just ask us!". Not impressive technically, but honestly, sort of creepy, and makes me feel like not going back to their site. Essentially, it was just a reminder that said "when you're signed in and looking around on our site, remember that we're tracking every move you make!". Ok, not a big deal, but it didn't make a good impression on me.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    3. Re:Google the All-Knowing by jammz · · Score: 1

      Google already knows everything its customers share with it in all of its services. The trick is mining it and analyzing it for the most benefit. They're the largest advertising-funded company on Earth and their plan has been to maximize the value of the data assets they own, that's the primary driver behind Android for them: the massive amount of data they get on users and the corresponding screen time and space they have for targeted advertising.

    4. Re:Google the All-Knowing by neumayr · · Score: 1

      +1

      That said, "[...]fairly boring stuff to anyone but myself." is at least the old defeatist "I've got nothing to hide" attitude when it comes to privacy intrusion, and chances are that Google can get interesting information from what you consider to be boring.

      --
      Truth arises more readily from error than from confusion. -Francis Bacon
  9. Here ya go... by sconeu · · Score: 1

    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.
  10. Profitable by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

    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)
    1. Re:Profitable by loufoque · · Score: 1

      Thank you. This is priceless.

  11. Re: News for Dorks, Stuff That's Fake by ZeroWaiteState · · Score: 1

    If you have to focus on facilitating it, it isn't organic. Organic interaction means you provide the tools and get out of the way, instead of being that one waiter guy that keeps asking if your food is okay every 3 minutes.

  12. Re:They had me until... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Funny

    I think that 'organic engagement within a rich ecosystem' is something that you usually have to visit a tropical medicine specialist to get cleared up; horrid parasitic infections, that sort of thing.

  13. DOS and Mac got folders in version 2 by tepples · · Score: 1

    I thought MS-DOS didn't get folders until 2.0, and Mac OS didn't get folders until HFS in System 2.1.

    1. Re:DOS and Mac got folders in version 2 by KiloByte · · Score: 1

      I thought MS-DOS didn't get folders until 2.0

      MS-DOS never had folders. It had directories, the brain-dead relabelling by Microsoft didn't come until Windows 95.

      --
      The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
  14. Medical and Financial? keep google out by acroyear · · Score: 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
    1. Re:Medical and Financial? keep google out by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 1

      the last thing i want is to get *targeted* ads to me over my...not saying what my problem is. Get the drift?

      Cheep V1agra!

  15. Re:Why does creating apps have to do with it? by DocHoncho · · Score: 1

    SHUT UP! THEY CAN ONLY DO ONE THING! AND THAT THING IS BEING AS INTRUSIVE AS POSSIBLE! LA LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!

    iamnotshouting iamnotshouting iamnotshouting iamnotshouting iamnotshouting iamnotshouting iamnotshouting iamnotshouting iamnotshouting iamnotshouting iamnotshouting iamnotshouting iamnotshouting iamnotshouting iamnotshouting

    --
    Celebrity worship is a poor substitute for Deity worship and costs more to boot.
  16. Data-rich API Platform? by GoonDuIO · · Score: 1

    >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"?

  17. Re:Where's the app appers guy? by DocHoncho · · Score: 1

    Where have you been? It's all about "You're a cow. Cows say MOOOO!"

    Sheesh, get with it.

    P.S. I have no idea why the cow troll exists, it just is. If anyone can explain it, please do.

    --
    Celebrity worship is a poor substitute for Deity worship and costs more to boot.
  18. Doogle by stolidobserver · · Score: 1

    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.

  19. Elastic agile extensible touchpoint methodologies? by nickweller · · Score: 2

    @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 ...

  20. He wants Google to do WHAT??? by Tony+Isaac · · Score: 1

    "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!

    1. Re:He wants Google to do WHAT??? by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      "using its enormous data assets to make meaningful connections between people and facilitate organic engagement within a rich ecosystem"

      Sounds like a drunken data orgy with the NSA.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
  21. Google's apps are less annoying by Tony+Isaac · · Score: 1

    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!

  22. Are you kidding me? by Krokus · · Score: 2

    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.

  23. In English... by GoddersUK · · Score: 1

    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".

  24. Re:They had me until... by tehcyder · · Score: 2

    I think that 'organic engagement within a rich ecosystem' is something that you usually have to visit a tropical medicine specialist to get cleared up; horrid parasitic infections, that sort of thing.

    I assumed it meant having sex with the local wildlife.

    --
    To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  25. Re:Elastic agile extensible touchpoint methodologi by N!k0N · · Score: 1

    Domenic Merenda is a man who is virtually encased in an aura of marketing shtick.

    I think you accidentally added "virtually" to this statement ...

  26. Re:meaningful connection? by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 1

    But who is certifying that my engagements are organic?

  27. Bennett Hasselton, is that you? by msobkow · · Score: 1

    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.
  28. Re:Elastic agile extensible touchpoint methodologi by dwillden · · Score: 1

    Just needed synergize to get a full card blackout bingo there.

    --
    I'm too lazy to compose a creative sig.
  29. Re:Why does creating apps have to do with it? by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    In general, you're correct. Of course it's theoretically possible to do more than one thing well.

    But in the specific case of Google, they were good enough quickly enough at A, but they've been largely poo at B onwards. They must be halfway through the Cyrillic alphabet of fuckups by now.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."