[HN Gopher] Google's Latest Experiments in Labs
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       Google's Latest Experiments in Labs
        
       Author : tpmx
       Score  : 64 points
       Date   : 2023-05-10 18:02 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (labs.withgoogle.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (labs.withgoogle.com)
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | tpmx wrote:
       | Just launched in the Google I/O keynote.
       | 
       | Seems like most of the waitlist signups are US only. Mullvad VPN
       | worked for me.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | SXX wrote:
       | No idea if it's new or old one, but I got access to MusicLM
       | almost immediately. What the point of having waitlist then?
        
         | echelon wrote:
         | Is MusicLM any good?
        
         | internetter wrote:
         | Interesting. I've been waiting for hours.
         | 
         | Waiting lists are terrible. I loose interest by the time I get
         | let in.
        
       | elashri wrote:
       | They only allow you to signup for the search AI waiting list if
       | you are using chrome.
        
         | franze wrote:
         | on desktop maybe, on mobile even chrome does not work for me
        
         | crazygringo wrote:
         | It's pretty common for alpha-version or experimental software
         | to be for a single browser only.
         | 
         | Then once you've locked down all the features for release, you
         | go back and handle shims and multi-browser support,
         | accessibility, and so forth.
         | 
         | I don't think Labs _experiments_ being Chrome-only is something
         | to complain about, even more so waitlist-only ones.
        
           | elashri wrote:
           | That makes sense. I just edited the comment so that it is
           | (hopefully) less complaining and more factual.
        
           | nightski wrote:
           | I thought Google was as proponent of standards so things like
           | shims and multi-browser support weren't really a concern /s
        
             | crazygringo wrote:
             | I can't even tell what you're being sarcastic about. What's
             | sarcastic about Safari or Firefox not having implemented a
             | standard yet?
        
       | stranded22 wrote:
       | Yes - mullvad worked me to get on the waitlist
        
       | joebiden2 wrote:
       | Have a close look which google engineers get fired when this gets
       | closed. They may found a new company, which is a strong buy
       | signal (for the new company, not for google obviously)
       | 
       | (When will google finally get a new CEO?)
        
       | RobotToaster wrote:
       | >"Workspace Labs is not accepting signups in your country at this
       | time."
        
       | oceanplexian wrote:
       | > Tailwind is your AI-first notebook
       | 
       | Can't wait to put my data into a new Google Product that will
       | totally not get cancelled in 3 months.
        
         | jsnell wrote:
         | I know that nothing will stop HN readers from rewarding yet
         | another repetition of this shallow and repetitive joke. But it
         | seems particulary mis-applied in this instance. This is labs,
         | these are not billed as products in the first place! The
         | headline is "help test early-stage experiments".
        
           | andrewstuart wrote:
           | >> shallow and repetitive joke
           | 
           | Not a joke.
        
         | albertzeyer wrote:
         | I get a 404 when I click "join waitlist".
        
         | TechBro8615 wrote:
         | Tailwind is a CSS framework, and some soon-to-be cancelled
         | product from Google that shares (stole) its name isn't going to
         | change that in my mind. Honestly, that name collision seems in
         | poor taste. They couldn't come up with a name that's not
         | already used by a popular open source project?
        
           | wildrhythms wrote:
           | You think the VPs and marketing people who name this shit
           | ever ask an engineer for their opinion? Lol
        
             | TechBro8615 wrote:
             | I have no idea what VPs and marketing people at Google do,
             | but whatever it is, they don't appear to be very good at
             | it.
        
           | meibo wrote:
           | Tailwind is a word in the English language, first mentioned
           | in 1897: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tailwind
           | 
           | People always complain when companies trademark actual words
           | as product names, can't have it both ways.
        
           | pphysch wrote:
           | It's pretty obvious that when you prefix a product name with
           | "Project" that's its not necessarily final. If the experiment
           | is a success, it will indubitably be shipped under a less
           | verbose name that doesn't collide.
        
       | almog wrote:
       | > To help with quality and improve our products, human reviewers
       | may read, annotate, and process your AI Test Kitchen
       | conversations, interactions and demo outputs. Please do not
       | include information that can be used to identify you or others in
       | your AI Test Kitchen conversations or interactions. You will be
       | able to delete your data while using a particular demo, *but once
       | you close out of the demo, your data will be stored in a way
       | where Google cannot tell who provided it and can no longer
       | fulfill any deletion requests*. Your interactions are retained
       | for up to four years.
       | 
       | Some fun facts from MusicLM privacy policy.
       | 
       | Also, Tailwind's "Join waitlist" link
       | (https://thoughtful.sandbox.google.com/signup) leads me to a 404
       | page (maybe be region specific as I'm not based in N. America).
        
       | martinesko36 wrote:
       | Google IO has been a disappointing affair for the last 10 years,
       | from only releasing on waitlists to never actually shipping to
       | production. I sign up for their waitlists, but rarely actually
       | hear back. I'm more than convinced today that Google's good days
       | are long over.
        
       | MattHeard wrote:
       | I used to be an active user of all the old Google Labs tools but
       | now my personal Workspace account locks me out of everything, so
       | meh.
        
         | crazygringo wrote:
         | Just use a free personal account?
         | 
         | Labs stuff isn't fully supported, by definition, so IT admins
         | generally don't want to deal with it. Experimental stuff isn't
         | intended for paid business use which is meant to have higher
         | standards of reliability.
        
           | SquareWheel wrote:
           | They said they were using a personal Workspace account, not a
           | paid business account. They're likely on a legacy Google Apps
           | account, as am I, for having signed up using a custom domain
           | name 15 years ago.
           | 
           | Just making a new account isn't a realistic option when you
           | can't move over purchases, YouTube uploads, and the millions
           | of other pieces of data tied to that account.
        
             | crazygringo wrote:
             | I'm not saying to migrate entire accounts, just to use a
             | free personal account if you want to try these new Labs
             | products or features. Nobody's stopping you from doing
             | that, and it's really easy to handle multiple Google
             | accounts in Chrome or Firefox.
             | 
             | And if experimental things take off they can get integrated
             | into the paid Workspace versions.
        
       | dig1 wrote:
       | Clicking on "Supercharge learning & ideation with AI" waitlist
       | gives me: "404. That's an error. The requested URL was not found
       | on this server. That's all we know."
       | 
       | Well done Google, well done :P
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | Bonus20230510 wrote:
       | [flagged]
        
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       (page generated 2023-05-10 23:02 UTC)