How a Google side project evolved into a $4B company (opens in new tab)

(techcrunch.com)

19 pointsshreyanshd6y ago17 comments

17 comments

Last years book "Never Lost Again" is a good account of the Keyhole/Google Earth/Google Maps story. (https://www.amazon.com/-/dp/0062673041/)

nikolay6y ago

TechCrunch has never been a good source of tech news - even from its Michael Arrington's days. But now it's even worse.

davidweatherall6y ago

First time coming across techcrunch's "extra crunch" paywall - It's a shame they give you half the article before mentioning it.

mcintyre19946y ago

I guess my AdBlocker blocked whatever they were trying to use to show the paywall, so the story just abruptly ended in the middle.

toby-6y ago

Same. I use uBlock Origin, and the article just fades out in the centre...

Seeing as the other comments mention this website hijacking the back button and other nasties, I don't think I'm going to whitelist this site in uBlock to test, even temporarily.

drcongo6y ago

Interesting side-note for anyone seeing a paywall, if you set Safari to only ever use reader mode on techcrunch URLs it appears to bypass that completely.

amanzi6y ago

Got a few paragraphs in before finding out it's behind a paywall that's only accessible from a few countries.

sidcool6y ago

Paywall alert. The article does not mention till very late that it's paywalled.

fs26y ago

What a horrible site, it tries to hijack the back button, full screen cookie warning and uBlock has over a dozen items blocked.

tchalla6y ago

It's so bad that I have stopped reading TechCrunch articles. The options for GDPR consent are excruciatingly painful to choose and takes a large time to even get to the appropriate point.

the_duke6y ago

https://outline.com/KhBGXC

1 more reply

the_duke6y ago

Not only that, the GDPR settings take what is seemingly an infinite amount of clicks to actually see the options, and then you can't even properly opt out.

That was enough for me to skip this one.

kolla6y ago

Techcrunch links should be banned imo..

drcongo6y ago

You are not alone.

Kiro6y ago

Why?

JustSomeNobody6y ago

Well for one they hijack browser behavior. Their site is a train wreck of “me too” JavaScript development.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

17 comments

mtmail6y ago

Last years book "Never Lost Again" is a good account of the Keyhole/Google Earth/Google Maps story. (https://www.amazon.com/-/dp/0062673041/)

nikolay6y ago

TechCrunch has never been a good source of tech news - even from its Michael Arrington's days. But now it's even worse.

davidweatherall6y ago

First time coming across techcrunch's "extra crunch" paywall - It's a shame they give you half the article before mentioning it.

mcintyre19946y ago

I guess my AdBlocker blocked whatever they were trying to use to show the paywall, so the story just abruptly ended in the middle.

toby-6y ago

Same. I use uBlock Origin, and the article just fades out in the centre...

Seeing as the other comments mention this website hijacking the back button and other nasties, I don't think I'm going to whitelist this site in uBlock to test, even temporarily.

drcongo6y ago

Interesting side-note for anyone seeing a paywall, if you set Safari to only ever use reader mode on techcrunch URLs it appears to bypass that completely.

amanzi6y ago

Got a few paragraphs in before finding out it's behind a paywall that's only accessible from a few countries.

sidcool6y ago

Paywall alert. The article does not mention till very late that it's paywalled.

fs26y ago

What a horrible site, it tries to hijack the back button, full screen cookie warning and uBlock has over a dozen items blocked.

tchalla6y ago

It's so bad that I have stopped reading TechCrunch articles. The options for GDPR consent are excruciatingly painful to choose and takes a large time to even get to the appropriate point.

the_duke6y ago

https://outline.com/KhBGXC

1 more reply

the_duke6y ago

Not only that, the GDPR settings take what is seemingly an infinite amount of clicks to actually see the options, and then you can't even properly opt out.

That was enough for me to skip this one.

kolla6y ago

Techcrunch links should be banned imo..

drcongo6y ago

You are not alone.

Kiro6y ago

Why?

JustSomeNobody6y ago

Well for one they hijack browser behavior. Their site is a train wreck of “me too” JavaScript development.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse