Before we get started, let me take a moment to state the obvious: Youtube Music is clearly descended from the deceased Google Play Music, and the evolution isn’t remotely ambiguous. For the most part this article series is about the unexpected origins of successful services, but there’s nothing unexpected about Youtube Music’s origin. Or is […]
Continue ReadingSuccessful Failures: Hangouts was fun, but Duo is Better
I have always been one of Google’s early-adopters, ever since the initial roll out of Gmail. Back in those days, it felt like Google was always experimenting with things and trying to find problems to solve, even though they began life as a search company. I attribute this digital wanderlust to the old twenty percent […]
Continue ReadingSuccessful Failures: Google Now should be resurrected
Since the works of Jules Verne (and arguably well before him), science fiction has been at its most interesting when it was making predictions about our future. Indeed much of Verne’s writing is often thought of as prophetic rather than simple imaginings. Consider the flip-style communicators in Star Trek that closely resembled the mobile phones […]
Continue ReadingSuccessful Failures: Google TV is dead. Long live Google TV.
Content is king. At least, that’s how the saying goes in the entertainment industry. If the wildly-productive state of TV in 2022 is any gauge, the phrase is accurate. The term ‘Peak TV’ has been used to describe the content of the last decade, as studios fill their customers’ plates with a steady diet of […]
Continue ReadingSuccessful Failures: Google’s social dilemma becomes a success in Photos
Every weekday at 6am, my Sonos wakes me up with NPR’s Morning Edition. After listening to how the world is probably, maybe hopefully not going to end today, my first hour of consciousness is devoted to that age-old ritual of hustling my 11-year-old kiddo through all of the morning things and out the door to […]
Continue ReadingSuccessful Failures: From Q(ueue) to Cast
When I told my daughter that Google began as a search engine – and only a search engine – her jaw dropped. After all, the Google she knows in 2022 lives on a small white screen or donut-shaped puck in almost every room, on her phone and tablet, and on my car dash. It powers […]
Continue ReadingAs a man of color, I’m really looking forward to RealTone on the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro
I’ll never forget: it was my senior year in high school, I was getting ready to take my girlfriend to senior prom, and graduation was just around the corner! I recall that time in my life with genuine fondness because there was a real and palpable level of excitement that followed me around everywhere that […]
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