Google is killing google reader

[Mr. Analog]

It's like they saw [what some popular offering is doing and is successful right now] and said "me too" and have been shifting all their offerings into this...

You'd think Microsoft's recent "we gotta focus on being a device-and-services company" facepalmery would be a cautionary tale for Google... How did ^ that ^ business model work out for them?

Strategically they seem to just want to dominate out of the gate, which I think is a mistake. It worked for the XBox but I think that was more luck than planning and from what I understand the ROI still hasn't been very good (they floated a lot of the hardware development costs for years, maybe they still are IDK).

The worst thing is that their mobile device offerings aren't bad, they aren't great though either and then they tried to shoehorn a unified interface into all their products including their latest flagship OS? Crazy.

Then its revealed that they added an NSA backdoor to Skype, pulled the plug on MSN Messenger... then other privacy concerns all bubble up at the same time they're trying to launch more devices that track you better and can't be turned off?

All this together shakes a lot of consumer trust, trust they now have to work really hard to get back.

[Mr. Analog]

I think all Tech companies hit some kind of peak where they consistently deliver great products, ideas, etc. I feel like Google is on the down slope now.

OT: Google Talk is gone in favour of "Hangouts". It's like they saw the horrors of Facebook and said "me too" and have been shifting all their offerings into this one horrible little box I want no part of.

How many users were tricked into getting a G+ account just for using YouTube?

You might find this interesting but other than Gmail, Google is working hard to try and attract Enterprise customers to Google APPS, over Office 360, Google Drive over Dropbox and SkyDrive, Google Talk over Skype / Lync.

I wonder how that is going to shape their products going forward. Their enterprise sales team bugs me from time to time.

That is interesting, oddly Google seems to have wanted "in" the enterprise for some time (Google Docs was supposed to be the foot in the door)

To me it all seems counter-intuitive, they're trying to get into markets that aren't easy to penetrate and they are gravitating away from things that made them successful.

cray-zee

[Mr. Analog]

Google Wallet will soon be dead (2015)

What? You've never heard of the alternative PayPal before? Apparently neither had anyone else. Bwah bwuh

https://support.google.com/wallet/business/answer/6107573

[Darren Dirt]

Google Wallet will soon be dead (2015)

What? You've never heard of the alternative PayPal before? Apparently neither had anyone else. Bwah bwuh

https://support.google.com/wallet/business/answer/6107573

TG;DU

Spoiler

Too Google; Didn't Use

Spoiler

TG means "too different-working from another product that already does the job perfectly fine thank you very much, plus those OTHER GUYS won't just arbitrarily remove the product from the marketplace when they're bored with it..."

#YeahImCycnical

[close]

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PS: for the lulz...

What are alternative payment solutions I can use?

Because we feel that Google Wallet merchants know their buyers best, we encourage you to research payment processing solutions to best fit the needs of your buyers.

I guess PayPal didn't pay the Google folks enough to get name-dropped here?

[Mr. Analog]

The complete lack of advertising / media coverage killed it, heck the only reason I knew about it was I looked into the API when it first launched.

BUT it was barely visible as an option on the Play store and that could have been THE place where people would see it, start using it.

Just like G+ but with less users

:-)