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by mdorazio 720 days ago
Ones I personally use because they are/were good: Maps. Android (+ Auto). Chrome. Docs/Sheets. Translate.

The issue is that most of these originated a long time ago and recent Google creations, like Bard/Gemini, tend to be mediocre copies of other things.

1 comments

Google Maps: acquired in 2004

Android: acquired in 2005

Google Sheets: acquired in 2006

Translate: launched in 2006

Chrome: launched in 2008

So only 2/5 of the ones you mentioned were started in-house, and all were pre-2010 (pre-Sundar) creations.

edit: Sundar joined Google in 2004 and apparently led Maps, Chrome, and eventually Android before becoming CEO. So "pre-Sundar" is technically incorrect.

This characterization is pretty misleading. For example, the Google Maps that was acquired was a C++ desktop application. What most people think of as Google Maps (the AJAX web app) was built and launched by Google.