Google Opal (opal.google)

Cute . I think we're all fine with anything that remotely threatens Vercel.

I didn't get far with this because it wants access to my entire Google Drive, which I declined. Credit to Google for even offering the chance to say "no", I suppose.

Why does it need that?

Problem I see with this being "codeless" is now Google owns everything. They can just hold your app hostage at any price point.

First thing I thought was “oh, neat, another google product they will kill”.

One more Google product destined to die!

What is this AI mini app?

Do this make an actual production Flutter app or something?

"The horror, the horror..."

Discussion when launched 5 months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44681786

> Join our Discord for support and sharing feedback

I’m surprised to see Google directing people to Discord, do they do that for other products?

Does it seem, I'm not sure, ironic maybe? That the main example here is "An app that writes blog posts" - "Researches a topic and writes a blog post about it" - that the company who helped champion the network effects of the internet and surface truly useful search results is now helping to destroy that very same thing they built their entire business on?

The unresponsive search bar centred on the viewport is all I need to know about this product.

Google may deliver us the AI future Altman promised. The PM who thinks animated PNGs pass for anything real is not on that path.

I think Google is going to do with consumer AI as they have done with search engine. Full monopolization. They own the lumberyard and the forest.

They'll just see whats popular and then clone, launch and instantly own verticals.

It's over for the little SaaS guys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxFQYw_MmAA

Anyone have comments actually about Opal? Curious if anyone tried it.

Do any of the example apps work for anyone? I tap “try now” on one, and it just opens a page with its logo/name/description. There’s a sidebar menu that just has its name, and a restart app button that does nothing. I can’t see how to make the app do anything.

“Join our Discord…”

That is a bit unexpected to see. Start Up vibes, haha.

Looks like another insane leap forward this.

not available in your country...

I suppose for any in europe waking up like me that I can save you one click and some time.

What is the usual life expectancy of a Google product?

Google usually kills projects. What's the point in using this?

"not available in your country" (I'm in Belgium)

2 cents from me

1. "it's not available in your country yet" -- although I am currently in (and connected to) Czech republic train, my account is based on Luxembourg. Not sure which one takes precedence, but sad to see...

2. Join Discord -- Unexpected to see this from a Google product. More interestingly, do they really have people/staff there? Or is it just bunch of AI Agents running the discord server, not sure. (Haven't joined either)

Opal is Optimizely AI name, but I guess Google's being Google, they are the ones that need to now change the product name.

https://www.optimizely.com/ai/

That will make 300

https://killedbygoogle.com/

Here's the OSS repo for Google Opal: https://github.com/breadboard-ai/breadboard

Not available in Germany and I assume the rest of Europe

I wonder how android developers feel about this. You put years of your life into supporting a companies product, and then they actively try and remove the need for your job to exist.

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