this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2024
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[–] [email protected] 210 points 7 months ago (4 children)

I've literally never heard of Keen until this article.

[–] [email protected] 192 points 7 months ago

The traditional way to learn about Google services is from the shutdown announcement.

[–] [email protected] 113 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

No surprise. Nobody talks about new Google projects any more, since the assumption is they'll be gone in a year.

Edit: Not even hyperbole. This very article states Keen was launched in 2020 and stopped receiving updates in 2021. They shelved it in literally a year.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 7 months ago (2 children)

At least they didnt intigrate it with Gmail or some other insane bloat they like to do.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I'd have appreciated them integrating Google reader with Gmail instead of killing it off

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

My ass is still a little chapped from Google Plus integration with Youtube.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

Cursed with multiple accounts to this day for a stupid service they could barely force me to use.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 7 months ago

My understanding is that Google "rates" its leaders by the number and types of projects they develop. Ergo there are a lot of people working on disparate items that often overlap, because it's "their" project. Once the project completes, they get their credit, stop caring, and move on to the next. It is said this is why google creates then kills so much. It's by design, essentially. The products they keep are the ones that make the most ad revenue.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Yup. Even if Google came out with a really cool service tomorrow that I found far better than alternatives, I still wouldn't use it, because unless I'm very lucky, it'll be axed at some point. And Google has only themselves to blame.

I'll happily shout from the rooftops about my dislike of Apple (their philosophy, faux environmentalism, price-gouging, anti-competitive, anti-repair BS, I could go on for a while), but when was the last time they did this? The fucking Newton? Sure the iPod was axed, but I think it's fairer to say the market axed MP3 players, rather than Apple axed the iPod.

If Apple announces something, you can be almost certain it'll still be around in a decade.

Look at Apple Maps. It was an absolute joke when it came out and people mocked and memed it relentlessly.

If Google were in that position, they'd have just scrapped it and moved on to their next project that'd probably be scrapped too.

Fuck Google's dumb businesses practices, and fuck them for making me say something to Apple's credit. Makes me feel dirty.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

The iPod was axed after what, 15 years?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

The only Keen I know of (and acknowledge) is the Commander:

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

I know they make shoes.

[–] [email protected] 117 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Throwing together a service, telling no one, then promptly cancelling it (often because no one used it) is truly the Googlest thing.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

why do they even do that when it's just gonna waste their resources?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

They invest in a project thinking they can make money off it but forgot to advertise that it exists

[–] [email protected] 57 points 7 months ago

So experimental I didn't even know Google had a Pinterest-like social media platform.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Literally never heard of it, which is probably the reason and kinda makes it a good call?

[–] [email protected] 22 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It's just self-fulfilling prophecy at this point. No one trust Google to keep anything around for more than a couple years so they don't use it. Then it gets scrapped as a failure and everyone is proven correct.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

yep. I don't go near Google products anymore because I know I'm gonna have to migrate a short while later. I don't understand how they're not seeing this

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 7 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 29 points 7 months ago (1 children)

An unrelated thing killed by Google that just makes me giggle.

So they upgraded phones once and then said, "fuck that."

Lol

[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Almost 2 years, so they didn't upgrade even once.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

Right. Some people believed that they would somehow get a free phone after two years, so were extra pissed over it.

But all it really was was that you could start the program again and get another phone that you would pay off over the next two years.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago (1 children)

293 products and counting.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago

Someone stop this bloodthirsty maniac!

[–] [email protected] 42 points 7 months ago

I guess they weren't so keen on it.....

[–] [email protected] 41 points 7 months ago

Yet another Google platform I never heard of that is shutting down

[–] [email protected] 36 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

Me neither but I'm sure the Google program manager who proposed it got promoted for that long ago.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 7 months ago

"The decision to shut down Keen is in line with Google's shift away from social media and follows a trend of ~~Area 120 projects closing due to company restructuring and layoffs in 2023~~them killing everything they build."

[–] [email protected] 30 points 7 months ago

Shut down what?

[–] [email protected] 23 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

I also never heard of this product, so the first thing I thought of was Keen Software House (makers of the game Space Engineers).

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Unable to delete so editing instead. Leaving Lemmy.world due to privacy concerns.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Grandson of Billy Blascowitz!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Oh man, please tell me that's cannon and I just missed it all these years.

Edit: It is!!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

Or Keen Games, the makers of Enshrouded (and as far as I know, unrelated to Keen Software House)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

I thought they made shoes

[–] [email protected] 22 points 7 months ago

... First time I've heard of it. Maybe that's why it's shutting down.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Read about it and more in this month’s riveting issue of Duh.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 19 points 7 months ago

Never heard of it, ever.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago

I know Google has a terrible reputation for killing their projects but this one is just an experiment from Area 120 so it's not surprising or terrible that they're killing it or weren't advertising it.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

Another one bites the dust

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

How is Google the top advertiser and yet nobody knows about their other products??

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Why stop there? Shut it all down. Pull the plug.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

I'm still waiting for Android to be deprecated

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

I have seen dead social media or social media approaching its dead, but I ve never seen this. Keen looks like it had zero activity for a long, long time.

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