Hacker News Reader

Comment by krasin | Hacker News Reader

> Yeah wouldn't want it to go the way of Google Toolbar, that thing would've definitely been relevant today.

Hm... I briefly was a part of the Google Toolbar team back in 2008. How would it be relevant today? All of the features that I remember, are now a part of the browser itself (whether it's Firefox, Safari, Edge or Chrome/Chromium).

That said, the eSignature for Google Docs feature would definitely benefit from some strong (preferably, legal & irrevocable) commitment to keep it alive for 40+ years or more. Otherwise, I fail to see how it's useful.

View on HN

Exactly. I was pointing out that not every app/service has to be preserved and supported forever.

> Anyway, just thought that whipping out "Google kills products" meme for a mere feature was a bit much.

I know I’m beating a dead horse^W^W^W dead Google products but, they really do kill a lot of popular products

https://killedbygoogle.com/

That being said, if they add eSig for Google Docs I agree; I don’t see why nor how they’d kill that individual feature unless they kill Docs all-together. Which, hopefully, they won’t do for many years yet.

Some popular products,sure.

Much of the listed "casualties" were throwaway wrapper apps that have perfectly fine webapp replacements, apps for platforms that no longer exist, duplicates, and stand alone apps that are now features of bigger apps etc.

A great many of their killed products ended up being merged/evolved into other ones (Duo into Meet). A great many more weren't even "killed"; over the past 20 years their in-gmail chat program has evolved from Talk to Hangouts, and then from Hangouts to Chat. It has kept the same chat history throughout the past 20 years, but "killed by google" lists Talk and Hangouts as two killed products.

> It has kept the same chat history throughout the past 20 years

So how come I can't access chats from before mid-2013? Not even by Google Takeout?

(It so happens that some of the most important conversations in my life happened in 2012, so I'm to date super annoyed that, for no good reason, 2013 is some kind of cut-off date.)

You seem to be right. I'm pretty confident in my memory that the history persisted from Talk to Hangouts, but the Talk history may not have persisted again from Hangouts to Chat. That would line up with your data, as the Talk to Hangouts switch/rename happened in 2013.

but the other part is even when they replace services the new one lacks the same features or ux that made the original special.

inbox vs gmail play music vs youtube music

They certainly kill services, my point is the "Google Graveyard" is very overblown.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com