this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2023
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Google kind of sucks.
What was their last big success? Google maps? Pretty much everything they do lately is some combination of shitty or prematurely killed.
Google more than just kind of sucks. Like you said they haven’t done shit in a long time outside of making the internet more hostile with shit like this and their planned chrome-based anti adblock (a LOT of browsers run on chromium which would bring the same shit, Mozilla4lyfe)
Also, the google graveyard is just pathetic at this point. They truly can’t do shit outside of anti-user bullshit
UP FIREYFOX!
Android? Google Photo? Google Pixel? Google Pay? Google Apps? Chrome? Chromebook? Google Drive? Chromecast? Android Auto?
They launched a ton of successful stuff since Maps came out in 2005
Google photo sucks
What do you prefer using?
Immich is on a par with Google Photos, imo. It's self hosted though, so not for everyone.
Yeah I have an immich instance myself, and do plan on relying more on that as I max out my Google drive size.
The bigger issue I gave with that is remote backup still imposes a cost, and like you said you gotta know what you're doing to safely expose that to the Internet.
That is true. I only use mine locally, so it's not a problem. Although you can remote access via Tailscale for safety. It's quicker and easier than trying to set up remote proxies etc, about which I know nothing. Tailscale took 5 mins.
I personally love it. Being able to search "Tom at the beach drinking a cocktail" and get all the relevant pictures is magic.
Does it? It's a fantastic service that works really well, whether it's worth the price or privacy is a slightly different conversation
You don't have to pay Google a penny. I bought a quite cheap (50-60$) used but working Pixel 1 XL specifically for unlimited lifetime full-quality Google Photos upload.
You got me! Android came after maps in 2008. So that's not a great argument for recent development. Is pixel meaningfully different than Nexus? That would put it in 2010, or 2016 if you insist pixel is a big innovation.
Chromebooks are also a 2010 project.
Google pay I don't think is a success? Didn't they like relaunch it recently and shit it up by tying it to phone numbers instead of your Google account? https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/10/google-pays-disastrous-year-continues-promised-bank-account-feature-is-dead/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/01/google-pay-hopes-to-recover-from-brutal-2021-with-new-leadership/ . Also the original release is 2011. Quite some time ago. But technically newer than maps!
Drive is 2012. Dang, got me. But that's still more than 10 years old, so my actual point seems to stand.
Chromecast is 2013, so maybe within this decade.
Auto is 2015 but I know nothing about it.
I guess I should've said "in the past 7 years" instead of exaggerating and saying since maps!
But all "successes" are gonna be years old. You don't turn something like Chromebook into an overnight success. It takes years for an ecosystem to grow, users to find use cases, software revisions to polish the product, word of mouth, etc.
For comparison the Apple watch came out in 2015 and Airpods in 2016. What other successes has Apple had in the past 7 years? Maybe their AR thing will take off, but if it does it's probably 5-10 years from becoming a mass market product.
Android is developed by a consortium of developers called The Open Handset Alliance under an open source license. It is most certainly not a Google product, any more than Linux is a Canonical product. As in, they help develop it but it's not their product.
That is really playing with words... Android (the OS people run on their phone) was originally developed by a company bought by Google, which then funded it, made the overwhelming number of contributions to it for 19 years, does the marketing, certification plus all the non-open source elements that make the experience what 99.99% of users get everyday when they use their phone.
Most of their innovation has been for developers it seems.
Edit for clarification: since Google maps
Ignoring everything after Google maps is ignorant as hell. I mean Google Photos is literally used by a massive percentage of iPhone users as well, because it's so good.
You seem to be unfamiliar with hyperbole, or maybe just didn't recognize it here.
Also they kind of enshittified Google photos by walking back the unlimited storage promise. Probably not the best project to point to for "Google doesn't suck" arguments.
They didn't walk it back. Pixel 1 still has unlimited storage.
You're insufferable. Whatever fits your agenda.
irony
It's not insufferable to call it insufferable behavior. That's not irony.
Ya because saying Google walked back on a promise when they didn't. Whatever lies to fit your agenda. Pixel 1 still gets unlimited backups.
https://blog.google/products/photos/storage-changes/
choke on it
edit: after being confronted with the evidence, this user started deleting comments, making the proof inaccessible.
unless you know where to look
https://lemmy.world/comment/4552382
so they are robbing everyone else they previously offered it to. they are walking it back.
you are splitting hairs
it's a rug pull
And for some time, other devices did as well. And then they changed it. Would some other term than "walking back" describe "they offered a good deal to customers, and then changed it to a less good deal" better for you?
Do you like work for Google or something? Probably not. The handful of people I've met who work there aren't nearly this zealous about defending it.
Are you hanging your entire argument on the word "lifetime"?
From their announcement
From this you can infer photos prior to June 21 2021 did not count against the storage. And now they do. Making the product worse for users.