this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2023
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[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Certainly we have different needs and consequently a different perception of what a stable product entails.

Nevertheless, from a product perspective, the variety of what Google offers is simply so broad that of course it will always mean that things are discontinued. Google builds and maintains a wide variety of products, from word processing, file storage, communication and creativity apps and services, to fully fledged operating systems and browsers, hardware including phones, tablets, watches and laptops, and of course web mastering tools for discovery and monetization.

Inevitably there will be gaps in individual needs when a product portfolio is so broad. (As an aide, I'd even argue it does so unrivaled since other tech giants don't dabble in nearly as many areas.) My take on this is that the frustration scales with that breadth.

Equally so, there are ample examples of stable products at Google. There's a strange sentiment on the web to make a tally of those that were discontinued, no matter how unused or irrelevant they had become. (I would challenge you to review that list and identify a handful that you would genuinely use today.)

None of this is to say that I mindlessly support this tech giant. I just find it so odd how this community continues to be an echo chamber where everybody just repeats something to the effect that everything used to be better. The mantra of this community appears to be the prophecy that every single household name in technology is currently in the process of certain death. In the case of Google, I personally find today's Gmail, Calendar, Drive, YouTube Music, Pixel, Android, Android Auto and effectively every other Google service that I use to be the best version of that service and sufficiently safe, stable and reliable for my needs. In any case, I don't aspire to go back to whichever early-2000s variant existed before.