Comments on: Google-love

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 10:09:42 +0000

I’m glad this article has sparked debate, debate is good.

In response to Jason I think Conrad has responded for me. In response to Manfred:

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big Google fan, I use their product/s on a daily basis, and I will continue to d so. I totally agree with you about Web 2.0/AJAX being the next big thing.

I must reiterate my view though. I feel Google is biting off more than they can chew, trying to compete with everyone and everything, diluting their brand. A commenter on Techcrunch wrote “there’s an inconsistency in expectations in what Google stands for vs. what they’re doing”.

That is the point I’m trying to get across.

By: Manfred

Manfred — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 09:49:03 +0000

I’m not certain I agree with all the Google-bashing going on here and elsewhere ;-) Google is potentially unique in the way it approaches the market: they are in it for the cash, obviously. But they don’t sell their products – that is a main difference to the M$ofts of the world. Sure, Google Spreadsheets (as one example) may be nowhere near mature and offer all features Excel does. But it’s available anywhere you have an Internet connection and allows you to share your worksheet with anyone else. Web 2.0/AJAX applications are, in my opinion, the next wave: Microsoft is also following that trend with their Live range – except, they’ll probably make you pay to use. So you have a choice: if you don’t like Google’s innovation, privacy isseus or it’s limited set of features you are always free to use something you need to pay for. The trend is to be freed from the desktop, and I think that’s what Google is indicating they are quite good at…

By: Conrad Strydom

Conrad Strydom — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 07:44:04 +0000

Hey JBagley,

I totally agree that the motive at the end of the day has to be money, but c’mon if you are trying to make money please take the effort to release something worth mentioning.

Remember when everyone was frothing at the mouth to get that first GMail Beta account? Well I couldn’t care less about checking out half of the doohicky they have been releasing recently, hey, maybe there are enough sheep to follow them and to convert to every single app they release, but personally I need more.

What happens when the stock starts dipping and they need to downsize, what is going to fly out the window first? You can bet on it that it won’t be Search, that is still there core business.

All I am saying is, have they run out of ideas or do they have a big bingo machine in the corner that churns out ideas in the form of one letter at a time?

“Oh look! That kinda spells `spretshot` , ah it looks like `spreadsheet` or close enough, lets develop/aquire it!”

If only they brought out gems like Apple iTunes, which is actually a good product featuring hugely tight integration with the iPod, making a real world case for why you would actually want to use it, other than “because everything is moving to a web platform” etc etc.

Please Google, use all that money and brains and wow me, develop “free” software by all means, but please just make it decent..

By: JBagley

JBagley — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 06:43:31 +0000

I think alot of people aren’t getting the big picture of what Google is actually trying to do. Google’s not trying to take over Microsoft’s turf with these offerings like Google Spreadsheets, Writely, Calendar and Gmail. They are getting people to become more dependant or use these products for a bigger reason. Money. Getting you to use Google search more, create more websites with adsense etc, and make Google money.

Think about what Apple does with iTunes music store. Apple hardly makes money from iTunes, but what it does do is sell iPods. Thats makes Apple money. They are doing one thing to bring them to the brand, and then you are handing over money to Apple.

All I’m saying is don’t always take things at face-value.