Google AR/VR software lead quits, heavily criticizes company on way out
The Google XR lead for software development has abruptly quit the company. On the way out, he gave Google a thorough roasting.
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If it isn't search or video, Google always has one foot out the door.
I believe that one of the reasons the stadia failed is everybody knew about the Google graveyard and wasn't willing to buy into an ecosystem destined to die.
I wouldn't be surprised to find that this is also something that would affect their ability to attract good talent. People want to feel like they're working on something meaningful that's going to stick around for a while. Putting years of your life into developing something for Google just to have it hit the Google graveyard has got to be deeply dissatisfying.
it's pretty depressing to have watched Google grow from this supposedly amazing company that was willing to develop any amazing idea into something to only caring about how to inject ads into your brain and monetize every shred of data it can harvest from you by any conceivable means.
"Don't be evil"
If it was a fictional corpo with that tagline we'd think we're watching satire.
When was Google not a data harvesting company? Seriously, their mission statement has always been "collect the world's information". They didn't build Chrome all those years ago for the good of the web. It directly served their primary end-goal of getting you to see more ads.
Feels like we'd have to go back to before 2008 for the Google you're thinking of, if it ever even existed.
originally, google's primary purpose wasn't harvesting your data-- it was search and ads. then there was email. then some other stuff would come and go, and they started hoarding personal data because it made their ads better and their search better. eventually, it became the prevalent underlayer of all of their business, but that's been over the course of over 20 years.
but it didn't start that way.
Feels like we’d have to go back to before 2008 for the Google you’re thinking of, if it ever even existed.
well, yeah, lol. google and the world existed before 2008, you know...
Not if your 14
Yes, before 2008. Google was a breath of fresh air against all things corporaty. There was a time when people said "anything good for google is good for the internet" (https://broadbandpolitics.com/2008/07/18/whats-good-for-google-is-good-for-the-internet/). They were instrumental in pushing the boundaries of web 2.0. Google maps with its seamless tiling or auto complete for search results or desktop search were all nothing short of magical at that time. Gone are those days though..
I'm willing to argue it's the sole reason Stadia failed. I never heard anything bad about the service from people who actually used it. It just never got enough users because Google can't be trusted anymore. Sundar has destroyed the brand.
I think they could have established trust in it if they kept at it for a little longer, but they dismanteld their first party studio some 8 months after it was started and downsized the Stadia team pretty quickly.
All bad signs if you’re thinking about trying a new service. I bought one game on there for $5 to try it out. Worked fine. I was going to see if their paid version with higher quality was any good the same week they decided to kill it and removed the option to upgrade. Don’t forget they also killed YouTube gaming and their VR thing the same year they launched stadia and were so committed to gaming…
IMO, I think it got memed to death. I never understood how import marketing was until I as a Stadia user saw how much bad PR it had with people who'd never tried it (and were unwilling because of what they'd heard from other non-users).
There's a reason Tim Cook didn't wear Apple Vision during the presentation lol.
That’s fair, but years ago when the first iPad was announced, the hashtag “iTampon” was trending on Twitter for days mocking the device. Now, a decade later, your doctor walks in the room with one and can AirDrop you test results.
I don’t think Stadia’s sole problem was in the bad PR, but more in that it came at the end of the last gaming generation’s cycle and then you’ve got the Google Graveyard to counter. If Stadia had come out even a few years earlier than it did, or allowed you a way to play games already purchased elsewhere, gamers would not have gawked at the idea of repurchasing all their games all over again for a product that Google would likely abandon.
I used to watch the news about Stadia from the time it was announced hoping for the best and for some momentum, but it never materialized and then Google pulled the plug when it should have amped everything up to 11 during the pandemic.
Yeah you're right, there's a good case that multiple factors lead to Stadia's failure (not to mention interest rate hikes).
I wouldn't be surprised to find that this is also something that would affect their ability to attract good talent.
I got the the Foobar Challenge last year. I did the first few levels within a couple days (you get about a week or so to do each one), and then realized I don't want to work for Google.
10 years ago? Absolutely. 5 years ago? Sure. Now? No way.
Edit: forgot a word
You don’t wanna work for a company that’s trying to penny pinch so hard they don’t even have enough desks for everyone? Spend a couple years of your life building something only for your boss to say “yeah sorry I guess Ruth’s shutting us down”?
Even Microsoft sounds like a better option at this point!
google has a dumbass @ the helm
I doubt he's a dumbass, but he sure has absolutely zero long-term vision. Dude is all about the quarterly increases in profits, and sadly, that's all capitalism give a shit about :(
CEOs are just charismatic puppets through which The Board communicates and executes its desires.
Those desires? Higher stock price.
It was hilarious when the Stadia head tweeted that it wasn't going anywhere and then a month later it was announced that it's being shut down lol
It was... but it was also kind of sad as a former user... The platform actually had its serious upsides (portability, low device power draw, by virtue of streamed games not exposing the code to manipulation THE BEST anticheat you could ever imagine, etc).
I agree, I was a Stadia user as well. I had some nitpicks with it but it was a solid platform and I played several games on it.
Or these poor folks who got their games published literally 2 hours before the service died.
Yep, I don't think badly of Google mostly because I don't think of them at all. While I was deleting my Reddit account a decided I'd try moving off of big tech companies products as much as practical and even after almost 20 years with GMail as my primary mail host I just don't have anything else left in their ecosystem. Over the years I've used a lot of their products, but they kept killing them off (Picasa, Google+, Code, Reader, various chat clients), so I've found mostly self-hosted alternatives.
I guess they're still making money hand-over-fist so whatever they're doing it must work for them, but none of it is useful for me.
Google is still the number one search engine on the net, and it wouldn't surprise me if Google Ads is still one of the most widely used online ad services, so yeah, they'll continue to make bank.
You can also look at the data they have on you used to personalize ads. Their info on me is so hilariously bad that I stopped caring lol. But it does feel nicer to have degoogled my internet experience last year, so there's that.
I was already on the way to it but Stadia was the thing that finally pushed me all the way out of Google services. I wouldn’t invest any time into any of their products at this point. Especially on the business side, I just can’t fathom choosing Google for anything.
Oh my goodness, could you imagine staking your professional reputation on the next Google product, and they just shut it right down?
That’s a seriously risky individual at this point!
In my view, I think I would seriously question anyone that suggests using Google products for business.
