How Google Decides To Cancel a Project 75
The New York Times is running a story about the criteria involved when Google scraps one of their projects. While a project's popularity among users is important, Google also examines whether they can get enough employees interested in it, and whether it has a large enough scope — they prefer not to waste time solving minor problems. The article takes a look at the specific reasons behind the recent cancellation of several products.
"Dennis Crowley, one of two co-founders who sold Dodgeball to Google in 2005 and stayed on, said that he had trouble competing for the attention of other Google engineers to expand the service. 'If you're a product manager, you have to recruit people and their "20 percent time."' ... [Jeff Huber, the company's senior vice president of engineering] said that Google eventually concluded that Dodgeball's vision was too narrow. ... Still, Google found the concepts behind Dodgeball intriguing, and early this month, it released Google Latitude, an add-on to Google Maps that allows people to share their location with friends and family members. It's more sophisticated than Dodgeball, with automatic location tracking and more options for privacy and communication."
Obviously (Score:5, Funny)
Anything not in beta goes onto the Mad Maxian wheel. It's then spun by Tina Turner and whichever project it lands on gets thrown out.
Follow Up Story (Score:5, Funny)
Re:They killed Google Calculator!!! (Score:3, Funny)
Now when I need confirmation that 2+2=4, Google isn't there to help. What a letdown.
Wrong! Google is always there to help! [google.com]
Re:Follow Up Story (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Follow Up Story (Score:5, Funny)
Re:But will this work in your company? (Score:5, Funny)
When people use the phrase "I reach for my shotgun", I give Anne a good night kiss, grab my pants, and shimmy out the window.