The Google Shopping App Is Shutting Down (9to5google.com) 29
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 9to5Google: A new Google Shopping experience that featured a personalized homepage launched in 2019. On Android, Google rebranded the existing Express app to Shopping, but it's now shutting down the mobile experience in favor of just the web. The [Android and iOS clients] will continue to work through June. It comes as Google has been expanding shopping functionality in Search, Image Search, and YouTube, while increasingly leveraging augmented reality: "Within the next few weeks, we'll no longer be supporting the Shopping app. All of the functionality the app offered users is available on the Shopping tab. We'll continue building features within the Shopping tab and other Google surfaces, including the Google app, that make it easy for people to discover and shop for the products they love."
Is this a sign (Score:3)
that web sites are back in style? Maybe it'll be a hipster thing and people will start using forums and usenet or even IRC again instead of FB groups.
Re:Is this a sign (Score:5, Insightful)
No, it's a sign that Google can't do anything right outside of search.
Re:Is this a sign (Score:5, Insightful)
It's worse now. Noboby trusts them and now they're getting a reputation for cancelling products. Why would anyone use a product from a company that kills them off regularily?
Re: Is this a sign (Score:2)
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It's odd they do the reverse of Microsoft, which tends to keep subsidizing products until they gain enough market share to make them profitable and/or ensure vendor lock-in. So far MS's approach seems the better one, as Google has too few success stories outside of search & maps.
(I wish MS would kill SharePoint; what a convoluted pile of crap.)
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Noboby trusts them and now they're getting a reputation for cancelling products
It's truly fascinating to me how this mindset has changed:
2010: Google is a great company which gives its developers lots of opportunities to try things without any idea if they will work long term.
2020: Google is a horrible company which regularly kills products, why can't they focus!
If you support a business which gives developers the freedom to throw shit at the wall and see what sticks, you can't complain about the mess that is dribbling down onto the floor.
Re: Is this a sign (Score:2)
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Gmail is pretty good. So is Chromecast.
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I am not a fan of Google's policy that they can cancel you at any time for any reason without warning, and completely and instantly cut you off, without so much as giving you a backup of the data. On top of that, they will refuse to allow you to speak to a human being to try and get it resolved.
People get really dependent on their email as a means of authentication for other purposes. Simply flipping an off switch can be terribly disruptive to people's lives, and Google can and has done exactly that.
So, e
Except for mail, browsers, docs, devices... (Score:2)
No, it's a sign that Google can't do anything right outside of search.
Hmm, I have gmail open, a Google Docs spreadsheet in another tab on a Google Chrome Browser. My son is using a Google Chromebook, I have a Google Pixel phone in my pocket with a Google Fi dataplan getting wireless on a 1st generation Google WiFi mesh router, which also connects to my Google Nest thermostat. My family photos are mostly in Google photos. My kids watch YouTube more than real TV and since I have to pay for YouTube Red, I also have YouTube music. I am even drinking beer I bought from a store
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Are they making any money off those? If not, they may start yanking them without notice. I agree Youtube is popular enough to bring in ad eyes, but the rest could be borderline.
About half of them charge a fee, so yes (Score:2)
Are they making any money off those? If not, they may start yanking them without notice. I agree Youtube is popular enough to bring in ad eyes, but the rest could be borderline.
Given that I paid money for all of them, there's a good chance they're making money or have a road to profitability. Generally Google's not going to charge money for an easy to roll out service, like Drive, which is crucial to many of their operations, unless they have a path to getting a return on their investment. It's also been in use for like a decade now.
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Hmm, I have gmail open, a Google Docs spreadsheet in another tab on a Google Chrome Browser. My son is using a Google Chromebook, I have a Google Pixel phone in my pocket with a Google Fi dataplan getting wireless on a 1st generation Google WiFi mesh router, which also connects to my Google Nest thermostat. My family photos are mostly in Google photos. My kids watch YouTube more than real TV and since I have to pay for YouTube Red, I also have YouTube music. I am even drinking beer I bought from a store I navigated to via Google Maps. My work and home files are cloud synced via Google Drive.
I hope you have extensive local backups for when Google pulls the plug.
Fun to say, but history suggests otherwise (Score:2)
I hope you have extensive local backups for when Google pulls the plug.
That's fun to say, but every time they cancel something, they give lots of notice and I have switched between Dropbox, iDrive, and Google Drive effortlessly. It takes about 5 min of work and 1 night of syncing data, so yes...I'm alright. They're also making a lot of money off Google Drive, especially in the corporate space. It's a key component of their cloud services. It's also key to their mobile aspirations, so of the services Google puts out, it will be one of the last they cancel.
Ads may be the
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It's a sign that the people who created this when they started working at Google have moved on so it's now left without developers. New Google devs are working on their own new, possibly chat, application.
Re: Is this a sign (Score:2)
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The problem is no one can make up their mind. They hate apps, and want it on the web. Great, so a streaming service wants to put it on the web, and then they need DRM. So they add DRM to the web specifications. Which is promptly reviled by those who want web access for everything, and tell everyone who wants DRM to make an app.
So in the end, you really cannot
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The DRM may just be needed for specific content or content types, not the entire app.
Re: Nobody trusts intermediaries... (Score:2)
We were just discussing this on Google+ (Score:4, Funny)
The Google App $x is Shutting Down (Score:1)
Mysterious reasons (Score:2)
My patience with Google app users is running out (Score:2)
I cannot understand why anybody commits themselves to these Google apps. Google seems to wait just long enough to get people seriously stuck in, then they shut it down with no apology and not much warning. I forget how many times they've done the same dance, but it's not just a couple.
For people upset about this app or another being summarily cancelled, I can't help thinking of the old frog and scorpion story: "You knew what I was when you let me get on your back. Why are you surprised that I stung you?
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I cannot understand why anybody commits themselves to these Google apps.
Because risks of Google shutdowns has been precisely zero. For everything they've killed they've provided a migration path or some way to get your data off and onto another service. Something which I cannot say for 99.9% of those tech bro run startups.
The scorpion is completely right. Google is a known quantity. What do you propose? Some service no one has heard of run by someone know one has heard from?
Google needs to schedule these things better (Score:2)
Microsoft has "patch Tuesday". Google should have a consistent day of the month that they cancel or shutdown something. May I suggest "Killer Friday"? The first Friday of every month, Google will announce which project or app they will immediately shutdown without warning. We can start making bets in a prediction market.
I didn't even know there was a separate shopping app.
/The Google .* I .s Shutting Down/ (Score:2)
I don't trust anything Google for that very reason.
Some day, even e-mail will be shut down. (And "migrated" to whatever Hangouts has become like. Probably a knock-off of something that makes TikTok look like TikTok looks to us now.)