Is there some reason Google has zero support for developers?
Any of the other big corps I've had to deal with as a dev usually have some option to email support to resolve issues. Some of them have amazing support, with live chat.
But Google is an impenetrable blank wall.
The obvious answer is to save money.
Maybe they reckon the Play Store is saturated so it doesnt really matter if 5% of devs say meet an impassable roadblock ,it wont affect their revenue.
Even Adwords, their supposed jewel in the crown, has the worst customer support I've ever experienced.
Have you ever tried contacting them? It's all offshored to India/Phillipines. They refused to honour their GSuite free credit offer, then hung up on me when I insisted they escalate the problem. The difference between their outbound sales lines and their inbound support lines are laughable.
I assume it's better when you're pumping hundreds of thousands through them every month. Even so, it inspires zero confidence in Google as a customer-facing organization.
As far as I'm concerned, Google gives zero fucks about individual paying customers. It's obvious why this is so - their search ecosystem is leagues ahead of competitors, and it's so dominant that it's a licence to print money. They don't need to offer you good support, because you need them.
It's also why I don't hold out much hope for Stadia - an ecosystem that relies on developer goodwill needs excellent front-facing support, and Google just doesn't do that.
As a side note, I truly believe Amazon is well positioned to invade search and dethrone Google (though it would be a case of "The King is dead. Long live the King!").
"their search ecosystem is leagues ahead of competitors"
Not sure what u mean, but if u just mean Google.com I dont believe thats true anymore.
I switched to DuckDuckGo a while back and it seems basically the same except u will get less 'sponsored' results garbage, and also I feel a little bit less en-bubbled when using it.
Yes, I meant Google Search itself (plus the broader AdWords partner network, YouTube, etc).
I'm on DDG for my primary search engine too, but
(a) I fall back to !G for at least 50% of my queries.
(b) You and I are a tiny, tiny minority. DDG users are not even a fraction of a rounding error in the global search userbase.
DDG is nowhere near being a serious threat to Google - it may well in future, but right now, Google still rules the roost (Facebook being the only other equal). You only need to look at their respective financials to confirm it.
The obvious answer is to save money. Maybe they reckon the Play Store is saturated so it doesnt really matter if 5% of devs say meet an impassable roadblock ,it wont affect their revenue.