[martius]

> What happens to the people who bet on them? Do they even have a point of contact if e.g. an integration breaks? That’s the point. They’re half-baked products being put out and pulled with no care in the world. That’s the brand.

So on one hand Google doesn't innovate anymore and is too shy to release anything new, and on the other hand Google can't just get things out and experiment because it would let down people who bet on these experiments.

There is probably an in-between.

> a list which apparently now includes its cloud.

Two years ago Google Cloud was 37k employees[1], which is about 20% of the company. Even if the 12k layoffs were on Cloud that would still be 10-12% of the company.

Calling it a side project and comparing it to a "smart tag embedded in clothing" or even Stadia is just FUD.

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-07-26/google-fa...

[walls]

> So on one hand Google doesn't innovate anymore and is too shy to release anything new

From everything I've read here, the problem is that only innovation is rewarded with promotions. Once a product is released, the people in charge get promoted, and move on to another new project, leaving everything to die.

[martius]

It's something I've heard and read many times, inside and outside of the company, but it's something I haven't really witnessed in my 4 years here.

There are many ways to be promoted and launching something new is definitely not the easiest way.

I understand that it's common to see people leave a team or product once they shipped a promo project, but products don't just die because one or two senior people leave a team.

[bryanrasmussen]

wasn't there an HN thread a couple years ago where Google announced Cloud had a couple years to make money (but without specifying what would happen if it didn't) and now here we are? I'm worried I'm forgetting exactly the dates here since I never keep track of Google Cloud, but I remember a bunch of people announcing they weren't going to use Google cloud because obviously it would be shut down in a few years?

on edit: someone else down thread has a link to it https://www.theinformation.com/articles/google-brass-set-202...

[martius]

From what I can remember, this is a rumor, not something Google "announced".

From the beginning of the article:

> The Google unit, (...) is under pressure from top management to pass Amazon or Microsoft—currently first and second, respectively, in cloud market share—or risk losing funding.

I'm sure that there are discussions about the strategy, the expected growth and revenue and what to do if these targets aren't met. It totally makes sense to reduce the rate of investments to mitigate risks if the results aren't what was expected, but this doesn't mean "shutting down" Cloud.

From the article:

> The group even talked about—and eventually dismissed—the idea of leaving the market entirely,

Seriously, Google could even decide to leave the Cloud business eventually, branching it off the rest of the company. But "shutting it down" wouldn't suddenly happen because a spreadsheet shows that Azure has more market shares than Google.

[jsnell]

No. That link is not Google announcing what you claim they did. It's some anonymous person - not Google - claiming they saw some confidential slides to that effect, which Google then denied.