Stuff made by Google feels half baked? Anyone else feel like that?

[Kdar]

Anyone else feel like most of the things that are made or started by Google never really done 100%.

[pwnst*r]

Mostly no.

Only when it has the glaring words "BETA" in it. Got examples or are you just venting for no reason?

[SuperSonic4]

Google Search is excellent.

Not tried their other stuff

[Warpnow]

Chrome...Gmail...Google Books...Blogger...Google Docs...Google Groups...Orkut...Picasa...Google Sites...Sketchup...Google Talk...Google Video...Google Earth...Google finance...

No, I don't see what you're talking about.

[YeOK]

Before Gmail, the amount of Spam I used to get was insane. After Gmail I never see spam unless I goto my Spam folder.

They provide some awesome products.

[macabrem]

I mostly enjoy Google products, but I have had a few problems.

I've had spreadsheets in Google docs that reverted back to older versions (i.e. - lost my saved changes) for no reason. There are some functional issues with Docs that I would like to see improved.

Gmail has been pretty good to me, although many of their labs seem half baked. The whole deal with adding Buzz into it without my consent ticked me off. And the fact that it was enabled by default seemed to be a lack of intelligent design. I've thought about leaving Gmail over this issue.

Picassa - I've been less than impressed with it.

Many other things that I rarely use - maps and Google Earth seem alright.

Still can't get much better than Google search, in my opinion.

[Ric_NYC]

Yes. YES!

[jpeddicord]

Haven't really noticed it here. Everything Google-made always seems to be fairly complete.

When there is a problem, however, I do find that their lack of transparency makes it difficult to report it, though that has improved in recent years.

[murphykieran]

Some of their stuff seems half baked, like Wave and Buzz, but when the reason I switched over to Gmail and Google Search and then Google Chrome was because I felt they were simply superior than the alternatives.

Remember the dark days of of using the likes of AltaVista, Excite and Lycos before Google showed the right way to do internet searching?

[DeadSuperHero]

I just get a feeling that their new products (Wave and Buzz) ARE half-finished. However, I also get the feeling that sometime relatively soon, they're going to somehow integrate Wave and Buzz and the rest of their services together. Perhaps I'm crazy, but I could definitely see Wave integrated into Gmail, Buzz, Google Calendar, Google Docs, YouTube and Google Talk. (And most likely Android, Google Voice, Google Finance, and of course search)

It just seems like this year so many large tech companies are prepping for a complete surge of integrated web technologies. I think in a year or two, we're definitely going to be in for a surprise.

[chriswyatt]

But at least it's not burnt to a crisp.

[dragos240]

Yes. YES!

Is that a reference to this? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0j0lO7uQBo)

[HappinessNow]

most Google products are pretty awesome and done better then most products that you have to pay for.

Gmail, Google Voice, Google Calender, Google Documents, Picasa, Blogger, YouTube, Google Maps, Google Patent Search, Google Images, Google Search for mobile, Google Talk, Translate, Google Chrome, GOOG-411, Google Scholar are all Google products that I use that are outstanding.

[bruno9779]

Gmail has been pretty good to me, although many of their labs seem half baked.

That's the whole idea of labs, you can use apps that are still being developed.

This approach surely simplifies bug-hunting and beta testing, spreading the tasks all over the development process.
Surely google can also test user reaction to the product before investing substantial founds in its development.

This sounds pretty efficient to me

EDIT: Wave and Buzz are half finished, but with facebook charging from this year on, google cannot afford losing this release window

[HappinessNow]

...but with facebook charging from this year on, google cannot afford losing this release window

facebook will start charging? do you have a link that can verify this?


Since there's been a lot of wrong information about Facebook spreading around, we'd like to clarify a few things for the record:
We are not shutting down accounts that are not "active" enough.
We are not going to start charging you to use Facebook.
We will never ask you to send us your password or login information.
We will never put the responsibility on YOU to send information to your friends. If we have information we need to share, it's our job to get the word out.
When we do communicate to you about the site (with the exception of posts made on this blog) it will always be from a collective Facebook. You won't hear from me, personally, or from Mark, or from Dustin, or from any of the Facebook bloggers you've seen here.http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=7830237130

[nema.arpit]

I don't know if this counts,but google's talk is somehow lacking in the sense that there is NO linux version ( I may be wrong here ).Pidgin and empathy are good alternatives,but not complete (file transfers,audio,video).What do they plan to do for their OS then??

[NoaHall]

but with facebook charging from this year on,

You know, spam is spam. It's not serious.

[bruno9779]

LOL, I have been trolled!!

I do not use facebook almost at all (only to show my family pictures of my son) so I didn't did much about it when a few coleagues were freaking out at the news.

sorry for posting inaccurate gossip

[scouser73]

1 - Google Mail - Excellent
2 - Google Search - Excellent
3 - Google Earth - Excellent
4 - Google Chrome - Excellent
5 - Google Public DNS - Excellent
6 - Google Street View - Excellent
7 - Google Analytics - Excellent
8 - Google Webmaster Central - Excellent

I'm not a "fanboi" of anything really so you'll just have to take my word for that lol. I think that Google provide many excellent 'Net applications like the ones that I have listed and use on a daily basis.

The only thing that I was not happy with is Google Buzz, mainly because it's an opt-out application and even when you think you have opted out, you haven't until you scroll to the bottom of your Gmail account and realised that it's still switched on.

There's been a backlash over the privacy aspect, so they don't get it right 100% of the time but they generally do a great job for internet services.

[ElSlunko]

No. They have a very KISS approach to things and I think it has been incredibly effective.

[Gallahhad]

Stuff made by Google feels half baked? Anyone else feel like that?

No, most of the time I feel fully baked. :guitar:

[PhoenixMaster00]

No i like a lot of Google products. I find they like to start off with giving you a solid basic of good features then adding the juicy extras over long periods of time

[Shpongle]

some of their stuff seems half baked, like wave and buzz, but when the reason i switched over to gmail and google search and then google chrome was because i felt they were simply superior than the alternatives.

Remember the dark days of of using the likes of altavista, excite and lycos before google showed the right way to do internet searching?

+1