'Morale is at an all-time low': Ex-Googler writes scathing latter slamming layoffs and 'eroded' culture (www.businessinsider.com)
from L4s@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 00:00
https://lemmy.world/post/8665700

‘Morale is at an all-time low’: Ex-Googler writes scathing latter slamming layoffs and ‘eroded’ culture::An ex-Googler wrote a 1,500-word letter criticizing the firm and CEO Sundar Pichai’s lack of “visionary leadership.”

#technology

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autotldr@lemmings.world on 24 Nov 2023 00:00 next collapse

This is the best summary I could come up with:


An ex-Google employee has published a highly critical letter attacking the firm’s “eroded” culture and accusing CEO Sundar Pichai of lacking “visionary leadership.”

Posting on his blog, Hickson said he was “very lucky” to have experienced the early days of the company, where executives were candid with staff and ambitious experimentation was encouraged — but said the search giant’s culture had since “deteriorated.”

And he is far from the first employee who has criticized the company’s increasing bureaucracy since founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin stepped away.

Since then it has been making smaller, quieter cuts across the company, to the point employees are now tracking layoffs in an internal document, Business Insider reported.

BI has previously reported tension between the rank-and-file and managers at Google over, for example, practices around labelling employees as low performers.

Hickson suggests there should be efforts to move power “from the CFO’s office back to someone with a clear long-term vision for how to use Google’s extensive resources to deliver value to users.”


The original article contains 580 words, the summary contains 169 words. Saved 71%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

cyborganism@lemmy.ca on 24 Nov 2023 00:06 next collapse

LoL no shit. You don’t even need to be an employee to figure this out. Even as a customer I feel that way. I’m looking to leave Google altogether.

bloopernova@programming.dev on 24 Nov 2023 00:46 next collapse

I’ve switched to Kagi for search, and Fastmail for email. Though a bit more difficult to escape Google when you’ve got a pixel 8 pro ;)

badmemes@feddit.de on 24 Nov 2023 01:06 next collapse

Let me introduce you to graphene os :)

andrew@lemmy.stuart.fun on 24 Nov 2023 03:39 collapse

Whaaaat, it’s supported now? It wasn’t for a bit. (Or maybe I’m thinking of Lineage) Man, I may have to make the jump soon, or at least just test it out. It’s been a while since I’ve played with a custom ROM though, since the pixels are a great vanilla experience.

steal_your_face@lemmy.ml on 24 Nov 2023 04:25 collapse

It’s super easy to install graphene. They even have a web installer.

iturnedintoanewt@lemm.ee on 24 Nov 2023 01:24 next collapse

Rather easier I’d say, as it has an unlockable bootloader, unlike most other phones. I have a pixel 7 on Graphene, but there’s a bunch of other versions you can try.

kzhe@lemm.ee on 25 Nov 2023 19:48 collapse

Only the google edition, not carrier versions.

cyborganism@lemmy.ca on 24 Nov 2023 13:13 next collapse

If you have a pixel phone, there are completely de-Googled android operating systems available for them with full hardware support.

kzhe@lemm.ee on 25 Nov 2023 19:48 collapse

Actually, it’s easiest to escape google with a Pixel, even more than an iPhone with GrapheneOS (only if not a carrier phone though).

phoneymouse@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 02:36 next collapse

I left Google 5-6 years ago. I do occasionally use YouTube, but that’s about it.

It’s surprisingly easy to get used to once you do it.

nephs@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 05:12 collapse

What did you do about email?

SuckMyWang@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 05:19 next collapse

Protonmail

BombOmOm@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 05:19 next collapse

Protonmail is one of the more popular options.

cyborganism@lemmy.ca on 24 Nov 2023 13:09 next collapse

This is what I’m planning to do as well.

Patches@sh.itjust.works on 24 Nov 2023 14:55 collapse

Is the Spam Filtering equally as good?

That’s the reason I went Gmail back in the day.

I get hundreds of emails a day. All filtered out properly.

No1@aussie.zone on 24 Nov 2023 22:08 next collapse

I get hundreds of emails a day.

Dad? I told you, don’t type your email address in every popup and click every email link 🤣

Patches@sh.itjust.works on 25 Nov 2023 00:03 collapse

When you’ve been on the Internet for 20 years it is inevitable that your address ends up on an email list, or two. They all share information with each other

tinkeringidiot@lemmy.world on 25 Nov 2023 19:43 collapse

It’s been much better for me, haven’t had an unsolicited e-mail hit my inbox yet.

rikonium@discuss.tchncs.de on 24 Nov 2023 06:15 next collapse

I’m not the same person but I jumped ship from Gmail to Outlook (when that big rebrand launched a decade ago) and a few years ago to Fastmail.

It doesn’t hold a candle to ProtonMail’s privacy and security but I found it handy since it’s a complete mail, contacts, calendar solution with syncing via standards and a large number of available aliases. And since I pay, I’m the customer.

phoneymouse@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 20:37 collapse

Good options exist now, including proton and skiff. Recommend checking out skiff. Everyone knows proton.

Skiff gives you 10GB free. Proton only gives 500MB.

That said we should be paying for email. If you don’t, you wind up with Gmail, where they read and analyze the contents of your email to build a profile on you and serve you ads. Moment I noped out of Gmail was when I realized they were aggregating sales receipts in my inbox and tracking the products I was buying. Wow, when did I ever agree to that? Guess it was time move on.

silkroadtraveler@lemmy.today on 24 Nov 2023 03:31 next collapse

I went to modify my 2018 Google Wi-Fi router to add a simple port forwarding rule, and the functionality is completely GONE from their already shitty Google Home app. It used to be so easy and simple on the old Wi-Fi app. I’m never buying another Google device.

This company has reached enshittification nirvana.

madcaesar@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 12:04 next collapse

Google home has become an absolute shit show. It has awful UI and UX. Truly an amazing feat.

stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml on 25 Nov 2023 00:31 collapse

Worse is that they can’t even do things like set timers anymore.

silkroadtraveler@lemmy.today on 25 Nov 2023 02:50 collapse

Yeah how tf do you become feature poorer (even with the basics) as your product matures and you spend billions acquiring your competition? Oh yeah…let me click on the original news article on this post for the answer.

iawia@feddit.nl on 25 Nov 2023 16:30 collapse

It’s still there for me in “Advanced networking”->“Port Management”.

silkroadtraveler@lemmy.today on 25 Nov 2023 19:25 collapse

If you click into mine, all you see are two options both of which only serve to allow Google to Hoover more of your data.

Looking into this more a couple days ago, it seemed that without IP reservations, you can’t get the port forwarding option to appear. Which I haven’t messed with. On principal I refuse to deal with a router that has regressed in functionality and am instead dedicating my time to de-Google my life haha. I bought an openwrt compatible router this weekend. <img alt="https://lemmy.today/pictrs/image/900cfd9b-ad9c-4a1c-8a41-5ce580c9b353.png" src="https://lemmy.today/pictrs/image/900cfd9b-ad9c-4a1c-8a41-5ce580c9b353.png"><img alt="https://lemmy.today/pictrs/image/655586bb-2e04-42a6-97f5-75df79fb1915.png" src="https://lemmy.today/pictrs/image/655586bb-2e04-42a6-97f5-75df79fb1915.png">

iawia@feddit.nl on 26 Nov 2023 18:20 collapse

I do have a bunch of IP reservations. I don’t really know how you’d do port forwarding without subs static IP address to forward to. I have not seen any of the data sharing options, but it could be that I gave those permissions years ago and forgot…

[deleted] on 26 Nov 2023 22:02 collapse

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i_am_hungry@meganice.online on 24 Nov 2023 07:35 collapse

I’ve switched to duck duck go and I’m working on leaving Gmail, but damn it’s taking a while to update my email address everywhere, hoping after couple of months I won’t have any Google products left in my name.

cyborganism@lemmy.ca on 24 Nov 2023 13:12 collapse

Yeah I’ve been using Gmail and Google Drive since the early 2000’s. I have a lot of stuff on there. All my life photos, a whole lot of documents and almost my entire adult life in emails.

It’s going to be a very long and complicated process.

helenslunch@feddit.nl on 24 Nov 2023 00:33 next collapse

That will happen when the market is in the shitter

Millwiller@lemm.ee on 24 Nov 2023 00:45 next collapse

Employer can still make good decisions with the market in the shitter.

helenslunch@feddit.nl on 24 Nov 2023 00:49 next collapse

But that would cost them.

stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml on 25 Nov 2023 00:43 collapse

Oh no, those poor poor billionaires. Whatever shall they do?

helenslunch@feddit.nl on 25 Nov 2023 05:10 collapse

What?

ezchili@iusearchlinux.fyi on 24 Nov 2023 06:12 collapse

Monopolies don’t need to create value for the user to keep their leadership

If the market wasn’t fucked they wouldn’t need to have good leadership, they’d do it or die

SCB@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 17:48 collapse

The market is not fucked though. Google is massively profitable and had 11% growth this quarter, which tracks with their 11% increase in revenue YOY

Gabu@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 03:52 next collapse

Imagine thinking the issue is some imaginary concept like “the market”, rather than 20 years of poor leadership.

helenslunch@feddit.nl on 24 Nov 2023 04:38 collapse

Imagine thinking “the market” is an imaginary concept that doesn’t influence your business 🤦

Gabu@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 05:15 collapse

Considering my higher education on the subject, I’ll take my chances with that.

helenslunch@feddit.nl on 24 Nov 2023 07:01 collapse

OMG dude, you’re embarrassing yourself…just put down the shovel.

shartedchocolate@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 10:31 collapse

He’s embarassing himself? 😂

helenslunch@feddit.nl on 24 Nov 2023 14:36 collapse

Is there an echo in here?

DeepGradientAscent@programming.dev on 24 Nov 2023 18:23 next collapse

Eat your lunch, Helen.

stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml on 25 Nov 2023 00:42 collapse

Time to take you pills and go to sleep.

helenslunch@feddit.nl on 25 Nov 2023 00:58 collapse

What is that even supposed to mean?

Fades@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 04:23 next collapse

So the employees can’t be negatively affected by the state of their workplace unless the goddamn market is fucked?

How dumb can you possibly be?

helenslunch@feddit.nl on 24 Nov 2023 04:38 collapse

Not dumb enough to get mad about things no one said.

stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml on 25 Nov 2023 00:41 collapse

You see the problem here is that lives are not disposable. Taking all the risks and making the people suffer the consequences is really shitty. I if they instead focused on steady growth rather than giant leaps, nobody would get laid off. Layoffs are a sign of incompetence from leadership

hightrix@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 01:16 next collapse

Is anyone surprised? Brilliant engineers going to work at Google expecting to work on world changing software and instead work on selling more ads.

How miserable.

1rre@discuss.tchncs.de on 24 Nov 2023 03:06 next collapse

Selling more ads can actually be engaging to work on even if it’s not world changing, if you’re given things you actually need to think through

Unfortunately I can’t really see Google being the type of place that lets people think for themselves, they’re far too busy trying to please the shareholders for that

hightrix@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 03:20 next collapse

Oh agreed, the scale and performances requirements to serve ads on the modern internet is a really challenging problem.

My point was simply that these brilliant minds are being wasted on this objective.

TheDarkKnight@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 16:56 collapse

Ugh I’d feel so fucking gross is I somehow contributed to the proliferation of MORE advertising in our world. Like talk about an absolute waste of your talent and contribution to the world.

Laying there on your deathbed someday and looking back on what you did in the time you were given…and it was making more ads, like how disgusted I feel about it all.

1rre@discuss.tchncs.de on 24 Nov 2023 19:15 collapse

Frankly at that pay grade in that industry you’re either going to work for a company that makes money selling ads/data, in high frequency trading or a hedge fund, and the latter two are objectively more parasitical - at least content creators and media publishers get a cut from ads, rather than all the money either staying in the company or going to their competitors, with the only instance of their business affecting normal people being when they crash the economy

stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml on 25 Nov 2023 00:30 collapse

The single worst decision they made was rolling back the 20% of work time being dedicated to side projects. That’s where all their good early ideas came from. It was replaced by politics instead.

[deleted] on 24 Nov 2023 02:48 next collapse

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[deleted] on 24 Nov 2023 03:40 next collapse

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Fades@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 04:24 next collapse

Downvoters don’t know just how much of tech is offloaded to IST (and what the result of that money based decision has on product quality and supportability). It would be funny if I didn’t understand just how bad it is, but >10 years in the industry opened my eyes

[deleted] on 24 Nov 2023 04:45 collapse

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MarvinKMooney@sh.itjust.works on 24 Nov 2023 04:58 next collapse

I have worked with a bunch of people from India who are great at technology and coding. The problem is that they tend to leave India and come to North America to work simply because companies don’t pay for shit in India. I’m confident that India has great coders in India, but to get that companies would have to pay for the good talent. Which completely negates the whole reason to off shore in the first place.

SchizoDenji@lemm.ee on 24 Nov 2023 11:51 collapse

That has been changing in the past decade.

victorz@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 05:14 next collapse

Yooo… What?

lolcatnip@reddthat.com on 24 Nov 2023 05:53 collapse

Racist much?

hiyidef646@sh.itjust.works on 24 Nov 2023 06:19 collapse

Not really

macattack@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 03:50 next collapse

“Decisions went from being made for the benefit of users, to the benefit of Google, to the benefit of whoever was making the decision,”

That’s a bar.

UFODivebomb@programming.dev on 24 Nov 2023 05:28 collapse

The googlers i know spend a lot more time than I’d expect on performance reviews. Not really on like… Doing shit. Just reviewing and selling what little is done to get that next pay bump.

corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca on 24 Nov 2023 16:23 collapse

These recent months it seems the reviewing and selling, the hype-mongering, is more about remaining employed than it is a pay bump.

It’s a sad state of affairs when the inexperienced code-olympiads you hire need to transition partially from devs-as-engineers to introverts-as-showmen. It’s like they hired apples, made them work like oranges, and now only keep the ones who can also be dolphins.

UFODivebomb@programming.dev on 25 Nov 2023 20:56 collapse

Haha good analogy. The “remaining employed” is a point i missed. Broad layoffs in my company would probably make me do the same i suppose.

archchan@lemmy.ml on 24 Nov 2023 04:20 next collapse

I would disagree and say that Pichai is a visionary, in turning Google into a monopolistic dystopian megacorporation.

antrosapien@lemmy.ml on 24 Nov 2023 04:57 next collapse

No shit that moral too is all time low

ezchili@iusearchlinux.fyi on 24 Nov 2023 06:08 next collapse

Sundar Pichai has got to be the worst CEO in the silicon valley period

Google has managed to produce next to nothing of value with a dreamteam of engineers the likes of which no one else had access to

From one uninspired leadership decision to the next they’ve just been sitting there bolstering what’s already there while every once in a while adding a new product to the Google graveyard

oce@jlai.lu on 24 Nov 2023 09:40 next collapse

Has he increased short term profitability?

EnderMB@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 10:56 next collapse

As a counter-point, what new services or products have any of the FAANG companies released that the average person uses, over the last few years?

Big tech was built on a handful of runaway successes, and building on moonshot ideas, allowing engineers to work on “the next big thing” without fear of liability.

Now, if it doesn’t work, you get laid off. At least if you worked for a startup, you’d get enough equity to make a ton of money if it works out…

Pichal is shit, but so are Zuck, Tim Cook, Andy Jassy, and the two at the helm at Netflix.

Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works on 24 Nov 2023 11:29 next collapse

You mean MAANA? I genuinely don’t know why Netflix is included, it should just be MAAA…

ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.com on 24 Nov 2023 17:03 next collapse

MAAA, the sound of a primal scream of agony. Fitting.

[deleted] on 24 Nov 2023 21:42 next collapse

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[deleted] on 24 Nov 2023 21:45 next collapse

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lolcatnip@reddthat.com on 27 Nov 2023 01:00 collapse

Also Microsoft should really be in there somewhere.

Pxtl@lemmy.ca on 24 Nov 2023 11:38 collapse

Facebook: messenger for kids, which is messenger but with good parental controls. Believe me as a parent I want more products to look at this.

Also Threads. Jury’s still out if it wins but it’s a good product.

Netflix buying the long tail of excellent old Android Indie Games to offer as a platform benefit is a fun idea, jury’s still out on that one too.

But imho the one that’s winning at product development isn’t faang, it’s Microsoft.

AWittyUsername@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 23:21 collapse

Also Meta Horizon, which was a massive flop. And rebranding Oculus, tbf they are pushing innovation in the VR hardware space. But I don’t want a whole load of Facebook controlled cameras in my house thank you.

rambaroo@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 11:01 next collapse

Google is one of the most engineer driven companies out there. Their engineers are simply massively overrated. A ton of leetcoder kiddies got into FAANG companies over the years and a lot of them are just plain shit as professional developers.

Edit: also the way they evaluate engineers drives them to create half-baked products that get abandoned. It’s incredible how they still haven’t figured out that people want stable, maintained products, not “innovation” that doesn’t actually help anyone and never turns into a finished product.

SchizoDenji@lemm.ee on 24 Nov 2023 11:49 next collapse

Their hiring process is the reason why leetcoder kiddies get in there in the first place. 3 seperate coding rounds with questions not even related to the domain that you need to solve in a timer of 45 mins.

rambaroo@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 12:54 collapse

Yep. And they also used to do the stupid brain teaser stuff back in the day. That’s what happens when you hire out of touch PhDs to design your hiring process instead of people with real world experience.

stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml on 25 Nov 2023 00:37 collapse

Nah this one is on the business bros who networked their way through an mba without learning anything.

rambaroo@lemmy.world on 25 Nov 2023 11:40 collapse

Nope, Google hired a bunch of PhDs to design their hiring process years ago.

stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml on 25 Nov 2023 00:34 collapse

This has long been my impression. It’s a plaything for the “elite” engineers aka former children of wealthy people who grew up with tutors but never developed as people.

IRTc innovation, I’ve also long felt this way. There are so many good products out there but most seem like the software equivalent of As Seen on TV plastic crap that solves some problem that nobody has.

namingthingsiseasy@programming.dev on 24 Nov 2023 14:25 next collapse

Yup, he’s the absolute worst. I can’t think of a single product that Google has even improved during his tenure as CEO… let alone a product that he successfully launched on his own. All he can do is make existing products more expensive.

Look at how he completely lost his shit when chatgpt was released - probably a huge part of the reason he lost it is cause he realized he’d have to actually do something useful instead of just squeezing more blood from the collective stone of all Google’s existing products. His claim to fame is creating Chrome. What fucking good is that? Web browsers have existed since the time he was born. There’s nothing to innovate there, and there never has been. It’s clear: he’s not an innovator.

Whoever takes over after he’s gone is going to be in for a hell of a time. The only thing he’s created for Google is a shit-ton of anti-trust lawsuits. The company is an empty husk at this point. There’s nothing left for them to become.

dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 24 Nov 2023 18:16 next collapse

From a shareholder’s perspective, which is the only perspective C suite executives care about, he’s been the best CEO of all time for Google.

fsmacolyte@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 18:43 collapse

Sure, in the short term. I’ve switched to DDG and I’m not getting another Pixel when I need a new phone, and hoards of tech savvy people are feeling the same way. Dissatisfaction is causing them to lose customers and talent.

Eventually, they’ll start feeling it in their bottom line. And by then it might be too late to change course.

mark@programming.dev on 24 Nov 2023 21:39 collapse

When you’re ready for a new phone, check out the Fairphone! I got that with CalyxOS. Works and feels just like Pixel, but super private 👍

Xendarq@lemmy.world on 25 Nov 2023 15:26 collapse

Fairphone is amazing but will they ever launch outside of the EU?

mark@programming.dev on 25 Nov 2023 16:54 collapse

Not sure where you’re located but I live in the USA and have it. I just ordered the phone int and then signed up with a US carrier.

Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg on 24 Nov 2023 18:48 next collapse

They did produce something of value, Stadia, but instead of investing in it further with some exclusive games to show off its capabilities and lure more people and developers in … or just outright signing a deal to paying for the development cost to port some hits or Call of Duty to Stadia, they wrote it off, refunded everything, and shut it down.

It’s a major fail, they tried next to nothing to fix their messaging issues, failed to invest in areas that would’ve made a difference, and didn’t stick with it to challenge people’s beliefs that Stadia was going to be shut down.

They should’ve:

  • Made a guarantee that if they shut down within the next 10 years, every game you play will be refunded in full.
  • Did a hardware upgrade to bring Stadia past consoles.
  • Never shut down their in house studios and invested even more into bringing other studios in.
  • Really upsold the cheat free experience (with no client side anticheat spyware necessary) and the ability for the platform to make even the games with the worst netcode stable multiplayer experiences.
  • Made something like steam workshop for Stadia and worked with at least one developer to prove that it works (they said they were open to mods, but they needed developers to take interest)
  • Potentially resolved the “you have to buy all your games again” concern by offering to buy everything on the platform in your steam, xbox, or PlayStation library 1 time (so you couldn’t “import” multiple times or buy new games on another platform and then import them for free).

Imagine if people literally just pressed a few buttons on their old gaming computer and suddenly could play a bunch of their steam library in the cloud with better graphics for free on any device they wanted. I can’t imagine folks wouldn’t have stuck around with that kind of a deal.

bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 24 Nov 2023 22:51 next collapse

Made a guarantee that if they shut down within the next 10 years, every game you play will be refunded in full.

This would have given people confidence, but really doesn’t reflect on Google as a whole, and just reinforces that they as a company will kill things at a moment’s notice.

I think in addition to all your points, they could have distanced Stadia from Google, and announced a new gaming company under the Alphabet umbrella. The hardware bundles they were selling with Chromecasts probably wouldn’t have been a thing, but I’m not sure if that would have been a bad thing. Having stadia as a completely separate entity from Google may have given it the breathing room it needed to get a good user base, without the stigma of google killing products.

Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg on 25 Nov 2023 05:44 collapse

This would have given people confidence, but really doesn’t reflect on Google as a whole, and just reinforces that they as a company will kill things at a moment’s notice.

I’ve typed up several replies to this but really, I think this is completely meaningless statement. It’s a hypothetical example, and regardless of how it “reflects on Google”, it would’ve addressed the concern and proved they were in it for the long-haul. Perception is reality and the perception of many was that Google is flaky.

You don’t fix perception by pretending perception issues don’t exist, you take actions that prove those perception issues either never were or no longer are valid concerns. Google making a promise like this would’ve worked towards that goal.

I think in addition to all your points, they could have distanced Stadia from Google, and announced a new gaming company under the Alphabet umbrella. The hardware bundles they were selling with Chromecasts probably wouldn’t have been a thing, but I’m not sure if that would have been a bad thing. Having stadia as a completely separate entity from Google may have given it the breathing room it needed to get a good user base, without the stigma of google killing products.

Maybe; ultimately I don’t think this would’ve mattered much. Google is Alphabet’s software tech company and YouTube integration and general Google Ecosystem integration were selling points. If they ever properly leveraged having the Google Assistant integrate into games (like they posed) that would’ve been a really cool feature.

I mean it tooks Stadia like 3 years to get a search bar. It screamed of a promising product that had a rocky launch, and rather than investing in it (ala No Man’s Sky) they reduced it to a skeleton crew and went all shocked pikachu when that didn’t result in something gamers embraced.

interceder270@lemmy.world on 25 Nov 2023 00:28 collapse

with some exclusive games

Sweetie, you don’t just get heavy-hitting exclusives right out the gate.

In what world does Google shell out enough cash for a game that’s so good it pulls people to Stadia when the developers can just sell their good game on already-proven platforms?

They’d have to make their own studio or contract it out. I never saw Google shelling out $50m for a AAA game, and small-time shit is stuff people can just get on their phones.

kungfuratte@feddit.de on 25 Nov 2023 14:56 collapse

That’s the point. They started their own game studio when Stadia was launched and shut it down about a year later.

They also paid a lot of money for some of the licenses they got in the early days of Stadia. And then someone a pay grade or two above decided to stop this and suffocate the little bit of momentum the platform had gained.

Snapz@lemmy.world on 25 Nov 2023 17:05 next collapse

Google became Apple

PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee on 25 Nov 2023 21:22 collapse

Was GO made during Pichai’s tenure? I don’t use GO but apparently they got the guy who wrote C on it so…?

lolcatnip@reddthat.com on 27 Nov 2023 00:56 collapse

No, Go dates back to when Eric Schmidt was running things.

spiderkle@lemmy.ca on 24 Nov 2023 07:26 next collapse

Google’s decisions in the time Pichai has been CEO, have been anti-consumer all the way. Not the fun conpany it used to be, now users are being forced out of adblockers and a products promise is abandoned way too often.

Pohl@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 10:51 collapse

I am probably the perfect google customer. I used google search when it still had an exclamation point. I got my gmail account by invite in ‘04. Downloaded chrome on day one. I used nexus/pixel phones almost exclusively

Today, ddg search on Firefox. I am using an iPhone. I still have the gmail account but I am slowly migrating away from it. I am done with google. They don’t produce anything that has any value for me anymore.

June@lemm.ee on 24 Nov 2023 10:58 next collapse

What are you switching to for email?

Pohl@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 11:04 next collapse

Slowly working on hosting my own. Stuff like this is not fast for me since I am a hobbyist and not in tech professionally. But, I’m getting there.

teichflamme@lemm.ee on 24 Nov 2023 11:14 collapse

I just switched to getting my own domain and hosting it as a bundle with the domain provider. The Web client sucks, but I use thunderbird anyways.

Pohl@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 11:18 collapse

That is a better idea than me foolishly trying to get all of it running out of my basement. So many little things that lead to other little things. Right now, my “ditch gmail” project is a build my own router with openwrt project.

Fuggen rabbit holes man.

Patch@feddit.uk on 24 Nov 2023 13:24 next collapse

You can start one on a cloud hosting service tomorrow, and then if at some point you want to move to “on premises” hosting (as in, a Raspberry Pi in your basement) then you can migrate over easily enough. That’s the whole point of self-hosting; all of the data is yours to manipulate and move around as much as you like.

teichflamme@lemm.ee on 24 Nov 2023 21:27 collapse

I would not recommend self hosting at all. The bigger providers usually don’t even accept mail from unknown servers/domains.

milkjug@lemmy.wildfyre.dev on 24 Nov 2023 11:15 next collapse

I’m exactly in the same boat, been considering migrating to protonmail. Have moved everything else to alternatives except gmail.

Evotech@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 11:44 collapse

I moved to proton mail personally after having Gmail since forever.

Took a year and I pay 40usd per year but worth it

madcaesar@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 11:59 collapse

How safe / stable is proton mail? Say they go under in 5 years are you just fucked? Or is your setup such that you could move easily? Also is your email just xxxx@proton.com? Or something longer?

ours@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 12:03 next collapse

I don’t have a crystal ball but Proton is the go-to, privacy-focused email provider. They are based in Switzerland.

They likely have a way for you to export your emails if they go under or use a desktop email client to archive them.

madcaesar@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 20:07 collapse

It’s less the backup more all the stuff linked to your account. All the sign-ups if they go down fast… You’re fucked 😕

Flashoflight@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 20:21 collapse

I pay for LastPass and would never go back. I know there are other options that people will point out but I’m too invested now haha.

I highly recommend getting LastPass or something similar. It was much easier to make the transition away from google products

CosmicCleric@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 20:54 next collapse

As a former LastPass customer, I’m telling you to move over the BitWarden. LastPass has had bad security break-ins.

Skwerls@discuss.tchncs.de on 24 Nov 2023 23:49 collapse

There is zero reason anyone should use LastPass when bitwarden exists.

CosmicCleric@lemmy.world on 25 Nov 2023 03:20 collapse

There is zero reason anyone should use LastPass when bitwarden exists.

No, that’s not true at all. Wow, what a horribly bad take that you have.

There is one very incredibly valid reason why they would use LastPass.

And that would be, because they own stock in the company.

Xendarq@lemmy.world on 25 Nov 2023 15:19 collapse

The last thing a stockholder wants is more compromised accounts. No, they have to drive their usage rates way down.

CosmicCleric@lemmy.world on 25 Nov 2023 19:51 collapse

I’m assuming that the humor did not stand out enough for you to realize.

Wisely@lemm.ee on 25 Nov 2023 10:53 collapse

You can export your LastPass to Bitwarden. It didn’t take me long.

SuperSaiyanSwag@lemmy.zip on 24 Nov 2023 13:33 next collapse

Close, it’s proton.me

OminousOrange@lemmy.ca on 24 Nov 2023 13:48 collapse

Or @pm.me, even shorter

SuperSaiyanSwag@lemmy.zip on 24 Nov 2023 16:18 collapse

Woah, didn’t know that one. Thank you.

Evotech@lemmy.world on 25 Nov 2023 16:23 collapse

I have my own domain. So I’d lose my emails but I could just move the address. I’d recommend that for sure. In case you want to move to another mail provider down the line it’s super simple.

I think it’s a bit extra to have a custom domain but it’s super worth it.

rckclmbr@lemm.ee on 24 Nov 2023 14:50 next collapse

I’m doing all the same as you

What I’m not moving away from though is Google Maps and Photos. No good alternatives exist

physicswizard@lemmy.ml on 24 Nov 2023 16:26 next collapse

For photos, I have been using Immich, and have been very impressed. It has pretty much all the features I want (automatic backup, chronological timeline, mobile/web app, face tagging, semantic search, albums, sharing, etc). It’s a server you self-host though, so setting it up might be a pain if you’ve never done something like that before.

chriscz@iusearchlinux.fyi on 24 Nov 2023 19:13 next collapse

This is super neat

rckclmbr@lemm.ee on 24 Nov 2023 20:44 collapse

This looks good as a self hosted option, but I want something hosted.

tgxn@lemmy.tgxn.net on 25 Nov 2023 00:59 collapse

Pay for a cloud server and install it? There’s a hosted option 😀

rckclmbr@lemm.ee on 25 Nov 2023 06:30 collapse

Lol I’ve been a software developer for 20 years, I’m well aware of what it takes to maintain a server. Which is exactly why I would rather pay someone else to do it

Welp_im_damned@lemdro.id on 25 Nov 2023 13:15 collapse

Amazon photos?

marksson@sopuli.xyz on 24 Nov 2023 22:40 next collapse

About Maps, same here. Even looked into paid alternatives, and… There’s not really much of value. I’m disappointed.

kzhe@lemm.ee on 25 Nov 2023 19:43 collapse

Ente? Just started subscribing though… seems good. 99c for base plan is pretty attractive.

rckclmbr@lemm.ee on 25 Nov 2023 22:57 collapse

Looks promising, I’ll keep my eye on it, might give it a go with some photos to test it out. I wish it weren’t e2e encrypted though, I actually like a lot of the features Google provides (tagging/grouping by feature, looking back, etc)

MySwellMojo@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 16:46 next collapse

Same, but opera/firefox, Zenfone, and proton Mail. Not really a fan of apple either

dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 24 Nov 2023 18:14 next collapse

Big oof on the iphone, mate. You can have an android phone with CFW that doesn’t have all of the google telemetry and bloatware.

Pacmanlives@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 19:08 collapse

Seems like a lot of work to have a phone that just works and is easy

Linkerbaan@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 20:56 collapse

What works on iPhone though? You can’t even change your ringtone to your own sound without having to draw your wallet.

Just stick with bloatware android then

WarshipJesus@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 22:30 next collapse

That’s not true at all. GarageBand will let you make tones directly on the device if you want to.

That said, yeah, get a grapheneos device and cut google out completely, it works just fine.

zeppo@lemmy.world on 25 Nov 2023 19:54 next collapse

I haven’t remotely cared about a custom ringtone in about 14 years.

vermyndax@lemmy.world on 26 Nov 2023 17:28 collapse

This is entirely and completely false.

PsychedSy@sh.itjust.works on 24 Nov 2023 21:41 next collapse

Same. I have my name as my gmail and get an absurd amount of missent emails.

stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml on 25 Nov 2023 00:39 collapse

Hey twin!!

Mandy@sh.itjust.works on 24 Nov 2023 10:17 next collapse

The fuck is a Googler?

StenSaksTapir@feddit.dk on 24 Nov 2023 10:47 next collapse

It’s a grown up Noogler.

OminousOrange@lemmy.ca on 24 Nov 2023 13:46 next collapse

The fuck is a scathing latter?

sebinspace@lemmy.world on 24 Nov 2023 16:41 next collapse

Google employee

1984@lemmy.today on 24 Nov 2023 17:19 collapse

It’s a cult where members think they are special because they know algorithms.

They pay good salaries to grab people who could otherwise create something worthwhile. Now they do shit for Google, like ads.

ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml on 24 Nov 2023 23:19 next collapse

Yep, layoffs tend to hurt culture and trust.

Oneobi@lemmy.world on 25 Nov 2023 07:14 next collapse

Some companies seem to thrive on regular culls in the name of operational efficiencies. All that happens is talent leaves the organisation and then those left behind struggle because expertise has gone.

It erodes good will and good will is something you can’t win back.

By the time things look like they are normalising, in comes another cull!

[deleted] on 25 Nov 2023 19:52 collapse

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Oneobi@lemmy.world on 26 Nov 2023 08:03 collapse

They become quiet quitters. Barely putting any effort in and doing the bare minimum.

Folks are not going to bail out company decisions to cull by working extra harder.

They tidy CV and look for next opportunity.

zeppo@lemmy.world on 25 Nov 2023 19:53 collapse

Layoffs while at the same time handing the CEO $200 million for a single year.

ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml on 25 Nov 2023 20:53 collapse

Yep, that will definitely help employee morale.

KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml on 25 Nov 2023 05:27 next collapse

It’s been a long time brewing with how Google manages projects and people, and Sundar is just the dipshit who’s been helming it. Google needs a rethink, because once the ad market collapses (and it will collapse, they’re helping it along with their crusade against YouTube) they will be rudderless and moneyless.

I really wish I was motivated to finish my transition off Google because right now, storage and email are the two things left to address. And without funding, I can’t keep investing in NAS storage, or be bothered to move off Gmail for a new email vendor (which has its own problems with any non-Google email sinking into someone’s XBL).

Corgana@startrek.website on 25 Nov 2023 14:08 next collapse

What are you paying for Google storage that it’s cheaper than NAS storage?

pirat@lemmy.world on 25 Nov 2023 17:37 collapse

Maybe they’re still on a G Suite Business / Workspace with the storage quota exceeded. Until earlier this year, Google didn’t do anything about exceeded quotas, and many had more than the included 5TB stored in their drive. I’ve seen people who had 100s of TB! I myself “only” have ~25TB, which I’m finally downloading to my local storage these days. When Google began caring about the storage quotas, they froze all accounts with exceeded quotas, blocking any new uploads – but if you keep paying the subscription (~20€), they’ll retain the frozen files for an extended time period of a year or two (don’t remember) after they gave the first notice.

[deleted] on 25 Nov 2023 19:51 next collapse

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unreasonabro@lemmy.world on 25 Nov 2023 21:10 collapse

google owns youtube bro. you mean crusade against adblockers on youtube i suppose

flop_leash_973@lemmy.world on 25 Nov 2023 14:27 next collapse

I’m sure the MBA’s will starting taking the opinions of the worker bees seriously any day now. /s

CosmicCleric@lemmy.world on 25 Nov 2023 20:12 next collapse

On a completely unrelated matter, can Lemmy topic post titles be edited?

Arthur_Leywin@lemmy.world on 25 Nov 2023 21:53 next collapse

The randomness of this comment actually fucked me up for a good minute 🤣

blind3rdeye@lemm.ee on 26 Nov 2023 00:47 collapse

Should be scolding latte slamming layoffs.

jjjalljs@ttrpg.network on 25 Nov 2023 20:27 next collapse

Yeah Google kind of sucks now and everyone paying attention knows. They kill a lot of products and don’t really make anything new and good.

Their search returns too many ads and SEO garbage sites.

They can’t unify on messaging. Talk, hangouts, allo, duo, meet… Just pick one. But I guess that doesn’t look as good on someone’s resume.

PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee on 25 Nov 2023 21:15 collapse

Frustrating part is how G+ coulda gone somewhere if they’d not been dumbasses rolling it out

Literally even the circles feature would have been so great

kandoh@reddthat.com on 25 Nov 2023 20:55 next collapse

When there is this much money involved nothing can survive. Greed is the most pervasive evil there is.

[deleted] on 26 Nov 2023 00:46 collapse

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unreasonabro@lemmy.world on 25 Nov 2023 21:05 next collapse

Who would have thought that overtly replacing your motto in such a way that everyone knows the new default is now “Be Evil” would have a negative effect on morale? Shocking

But hey, they can take the credit for the beginning of modern enshittification, so they’ve got that going for them anyways. Because their IPO was the death of the good version of the internet and everything they’ve done since has just made everything shittier and shittier. Almost like basing the entire society around greed is a mistake or something. whooda thunkit except literally everyone

lolcatnip@reddthat.com on 27 Nov 2023 00:53 collapse

It was never the official motto.

onlinepersona@programming.dev on 25 Nov 2023 21:20 next collapse

the clock is ticking

Down to what? In order for Google to fail in the short term, it would take some really big event. It would have to be something at the level of “Google banned from EU after…” to make Google unprofitable. I’m sure Google can afford losing 500M customers in a short timespan, but not if they reside in an economic region that has great influence over others.

For Google to fail in the long term, its ad business would have to fail. I imagine a few more antitrust cases to make google lose its search dominance would be a big domino.

markon@lemmy.world on 25 Nov 2023 21:21 next collapse

Google has completely lost its way. On my Pixel 6 recently the voice typing doesn’t even work correctly. Although it works sometimes it tends to cut me off where is it worked perfect a few weeks ago. Google is constantly introducing new bugs into Android and into their native apps. I can tell morale must be very low because shit doesn’t work.

varsock@programming.dev on 25 Nov 2023 21:24 collapse

The letter is a post on his own blog . Hard to distill into a summary so I recommend reading it get more context. But it seems to have boiled down to:

  • How It Was:

    • Strong adherence to the “don’t be evil” ethos, focusing on societal good over profits.
    • Open, transparent communication and decision-making processes.
    • High morale, with a culture of learning from successes and failures.
    • Work focused on benefitting the web and users, rather than Google’s immediate interests.
    • Collaboration and lack of internal silos, encouraging innovation and autonomy.
  • How It Is Now:

    • Shift from user-centric to Google-centric, and then to individual-centric decision making.
    • Eroded transparency and increase in organizational silos.
    • Decline in morale and a culture of distrust between employees and management.
    • Focus on short-term financial gains leading to layoffs and defensive employee behavior.
    • Lack of clear vision and leadership, resulting in confused and ineffective management.
    • Overall deterioration of Google’s unique, innovative culture and values.