There’s something to be said about brand recognition, and Google just doesn’t listen.
Google, stop fucking with your own shit.
I've heard it's because creating/reforming things rather than maintaining them is more valued at Google with their current company culture.
A friend who worked at Meta said pretty concisely, "You get rewarded for coming up with something new, not improving something old."
Proving once again that it's usually management that tanks a company.... Yet they get the golden parachutes
That would make sense why there's more features than there used to be, but it's just worse in every way. Same as Google, Reddit, Microsoft, etc...
Exactly. The Google culture nowadays is a lot of climbers cynically trying to sell new ideas and then abandoning them once they get promo. It didn't always used to be like that.
It's pretty common across most orgs really. Google just seems to have perfected it. Which might actually mean they'll kill it soon!
Their company culture sounds like shit. They should be more like Valve. Make a great thing and then forget it exists until it sucks just because it's too old.
This is America in general.
Google: "Thanks for your feedback, we hear you loud in clear. In response, we've launched 5 new messenger apps (only 3 available in your region), changed the names and branding of 3 other messengers, and completely discontinued 8 other messenger apps. We hope you enjoy playing our little game of Three Card Monty trying to figure out which messenger actually works now."
My favorite thing about this is I was using Hangouts for SMS messaging for like two years after they said they'd stop supporting it. I don't know if I just got lucky and someone forgot to turn off a server somewhere or what, but even their inconsistency is inconsistent.
Well, at least they aren't outright throwing the functionality in the trash.
Yet
Annnnnnd it's gone. Next please.
Gemini soon to be rebranded Allo Assistant All Access Chat
... Plus
At least they're not killing the protocol.
Yet.
They already killed MiraCast for their Embrance, Extend, Extinguish Chromecast....
I'm not defending Google but I think the change is just an admission that the old "Chromecast" branding is outdated. It wouldn't surprise me if less than 5% of users still regularly cast from a desktop browser.
🙋♂️
I would do it more often, if firefox would fucking finally add it into the browser.
And no, that weird plugin doesn't count. It's buggy as hell
It's literally the only reason I have chrome installed
Pretty sure they can't bundle it. AFAIK the libraries required for it ship with Chrome / Android and it's not an open standard. The hacky weird workarounds are people brute forcing it.
How? It's closed sourced tech. Not like Firefox can just add it, they would have to pay Google for it (and that's assuming google would license Firefox for this and remove a competitive advantage from Chrome Browser)
if less than 5% of users still regularly cast from a desktop browser.
Wait, I could do that?! It doesn't matter a ton at the moment, but I might want to do that in future. I'll have to look into it.
All I know is I appreciate their slow roll. Everytime they break something I replace it with the non-Google option. I've got a small nuc as my main HTPC tied into my plex. Been waiting for an excuse to swap my first Gen Google hockey Puck from like 2012 in my bedroom.
Imo the old UI was way less clunky than the new one with the remote. You didn't need to log into anything, just cast to the screen. EZPZ. The new one, you need to install the app on the Chromecast, log in on the Chromecast, then you can cast n it will work maybe 60% of the time with casting. Casting's broken, but hey, it's cool, we have apps and a remote now, just use those. The stupid remote gets lost all the time, which obviously wasn't an issue before because your phone/ laptop was the remote. Google thought ahead though, and added remote functionality to the home app that also works about 60% of the time.
Tl;dr new Chromecast sucks.
I don't even use their browser and if anything I'd want a full video cable replacement and not just stream specific things.
Crazy to think that even the newest Pixels can't cast to any device unless you specifically have Chromecast support, which most of the TVs don't. I can cast my Samsung or iPhone just fine tho
Give it time.
Shit rolls down the enshitification hill very slowly if it's hard or if it's winter. But give it time. I'm sure Google is enshitifying something here.
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