{"id":35627,"date":"2022-06-03T22:04:28","date_gmt":"2022-06-03T22:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/todays-google-is-still-paying-for-the-mistakes-of-yesterdays-google\/"},"modified":"2022-06-03T22:04:28","modified_gmt":"2022-06-03T22:04:28","slug":"todays-google-is-still-paying-for-the-mistakes-of-yesterdays-google","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/todays-google-is-still-paying-for-the-mistakes-of-yesterdays-google\/","title":{"rendered":"Today’s Google is still paying for the mistakes of yesterday’s Google"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This week, Google announced that it will combine Meet and Duo but promised to keep the best features of both video calling apps in the joint venture. News like this isn’t surprising anymore. The company is known for frequently launching and then ruthlessly abandoning apps and services. So much so that we have a Google Graveyard documenting every short-lived project it has undertaken.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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My gut reaction, and that of many people who have found themselves stuck on the Google rollercoaster \u2060\u2014 particularly the messaging one \u2060\u2014 was to sigh in resignation. Will we really get the best of both apps? Can Google’s teams even pull off a merger like this without at least some falling by the wayside? Of course they’ll mess it up, I thought, because that’s their modus operandi.<\/p>\n

Buyer’s guide: <\/strong>Everything you need to know about Google’s products<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But as I read more about the news, particularly The Verge<\/em>‘s report that includes a few choice quotes from two Googlers, I had to rectify my knee-jerk reaction. I see a bigger logic at play despite the numerous messaging and calling apps and strategies we’ve had over the last decade or so (Google Talk> Hangouts> Duo> Meet and Chat> the new Google Meet). There’s finally a sense that Google \u201cgets it,\u201d despite the convoluted way in which the transition will happen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Google that overflowed with ideas and lacked clear vision and direction is no more.<\/q><\/p>\n

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Crucially, though, this consolidation is one more sign in a long, long series of decisions that seem to be aimed at cleaning up the residual mess of a Google that, from where I’m sitting, doesn’t really exist anymore.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I’m talking about the end of a Google that played fast and loose with projects, launching new ones every couple of weeks, killing just as many in the same timespan. A Google that kept realizing that projects it had already spent years on no longer fit within its broader strategy. Or worse yet, another internal team had already implemented something similar with no user-facing connection between the two. A Google that introduced Nexus tablets, then Pixel tablets, then Chrome tablets, then abandoned tablets altogether, only to announce another Pixel tablet for 2023.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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That Google seems like it’s on its way out. I think the signs have been there for a while, but I finally started putting them all together after I \/ O 2022. During the main conference, I could feel an obvious change. Google was talking about an ecosystem, about products and services working together, and about all the things that I, as a staunch Android user for the past 11 years, have wanted to hear. For once, there was a clear line between the different announcements and a purposeful aim to make each product work with the rest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

There’s a clear line between the different announcements and a purposeful aim to make this product work with that product.<\/q><\/p>\n

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As I said, the signals have been there for a while:<\/p>\n