Despite its dubious privacy policies and anti-competitive business practices, the quality of Google’s products has rarely been in doubt. With their clean and friendly designs, tools such as Chrome, Gmail, Maps, Drive and Photos are easy – and free – to use on any device, so it’s no wonder they’ve become so embedded in our lives.
But Google’s constant innovation has a variable effect on the sites, software and apps we use every day. Features are added and removed on a whim, some problems are fixed while others are ignored (or created), and familiar options are redesigned, renamed and relocated - for better or worse.
Some experts believe Google’s standards are slipping, at least in its search results. A year-long study by German researchers noticed “a trend toward simplified, repetitive…
