Time to get out of Google Podcasts for anyone that is still using the service.

  • lemmyvore@feddit.nl
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    11 months ago

    I don’t think they have any qualms about shutting down YouTube but I think they’re afraid of the backlash. It’s such a unique treasure trove of cultural significance that is not out of the question for the US government to step in and tell them to put at least some of it in the Library of Congress or to work with other organizations to preserve it. And they’d rather let it run than be bothered.

    I’ve heard a theory that says that Google isn’t interested in any of their products for the product’s sake. They’re all data-gathering experiments. Once they’re done mining that particular kind of data they shutter the project. If they ever need to revisit that category later, they make another similar product.

    It would certainly explain why they shut down certain projects in the face of commercial success, or why they keep revisiting the messenger app over and over in different ways.

    It would also explain their inept attempts at monetizing YouTube. Keeping an experiment alive past it’s expiration date is unfamiliar to them so they have no idea what to do with it.

    • theherk@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      YouTube is the app around which both Google Play Music and now Podcasts are shutting down, so I doubt YouTube will go away. I won’t be surprised, however, if other apps are incorporated in like Play Movies and Play Books even.

      Shitting down YouTube would be like shuttering Gmail or even Search. Seems unlikely.

    • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Google shutting down youtube would be such a huge confidence loss that I don’t think they would ever recover. It’ll never happen unless things change drastically.

      • lemmyvore@feddit.nl
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        11 months ago

        Thru could decide to incorporate it separately (which would be ironic considering it started out separate and they forced it into Google), and then let it find its own way.