On: Google to Acquire Nest

[cloudwalking]

Here are just a few examples:

- Keyhole (now Google Maps)

- Android Inc.

- Motorola Mobility

- GrandCentral (now Google Voice)

- NeXT

- Siri

In general, an acquired company initially became successful by bringing value to consumers. When that company is acquired, it gets more resources to bring more value to customers.

[gwern → cloudwalking]

Don't forget Translate. It actually early on was an out-of-house service, but they kept buying companies and hiring people to work on it, and it got massively better. (So a lot like Keyhole/Maps: they took something it would cost you thousands of dollars a month for (literally, for Keyhole access), made it free, and made it better.)

[kevinjones → gwern]

Also Wordly (became Google Docs)

[lilyball → cloudwalking]

Google Voice is effectively a dead product, isn't it? Doesn't seem that favorable to me.

[possibilistic → lilyball]

I use it every single day. I wouldn't call it dead.

We'll see if Google tries to wholly replace it with hangouts. I wouldn't be mad unless it were missing features.

[lilyball → possibilistic]

Dead meaning Google has put it out to pasture and will eventually kill it for good.

[91bananas → lilyball]

Dead in the sense that there has not been feature addition one for several years, yes.

[njharman → 91bananas]

That is probably best acquisition outcome. Most companies buy something good then change it until it sucks.

[Encosia → njharman]

The best acquisition outcome is something like Android or Kinect, definitely not watching GrandCentral stagnate for years after acquisition.

[robotresearcher → Encosia]

Kinect was not an acquisition. MS licensed the device from PrimeSense. Apple bought the company recently.

[FireBeyond → njharman]

Except for one feature that users have been screaming for, since near day one: MMS support.

And not in a hacked "if you're with TMo/Sprint, you -might- be able to get an email with the MMS in a format that's not reply-able" (and even that, only recently).

[ariwilson → lilyball]

It's kept working for the last 3 years being awesome... Doesn't seem that dead to me.

[CoryG89 → ariwilson]

Not completely. When they came out with hangout integration in gmail, I completely lost all ability to make outgoing calls for a long time.

[jarek → ariwilson]

Reader kept working until they turned it off.

[ariwilson → jarek]

Yes but it wasn't dead until they killed it.

[RALaBarge → lilyball]

I keep my 10 year old cell phone number alive and well on voice.google.com, it works great.

[dragonwriter → lilyball]

> Google Voice is effectively a dead product, isn't it?

Voice might be dead as a brand; Google's unification of communications trend might mean that the technology and functionality will eventually be merged into Hangouts.

[nickm12 → lilyball]

Yes, Google Voice as a separate product is definitely going away. Its functionality will be subsumed by Hangouts, but nothing about that transition is clear to users.

[bwoodward → cloudwalking]

Grand Central's acquisition was great for Americans and the few of us Canadians who were grandfathered in, but outside of the US (and Alberta for some reason), we lost a great service.

[krzyk → cloudwalking]

Keyhole became Google Earth, not Maps (they were created in-house)