Comments on: Is Google Wasting Its Genius Cycles?

By: web developer

web developer — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 01:50:08 +0000

I agree with what Ben said in June of this year. Look at G Chrome, I cannot speak from experience as I have not tried it… everyone that I spoke to said it was not all that… especially when the people I talked to are all using the technological advanced and secure FireFox. (throw me out but I am still using IE) and think that you only need one good tool. What would you do with two or three browsers other than have to cross test them when doing design!!

By: playtoy

playtoy — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 03:39:55 +0000

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By: ben

ben — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:09:19 +0000

Google keeps priding themselves as being innovative. Yet, I see no innovation coming from them. Yes, they expand on ALREADY EXISTING technology, but innovation? Nah. Just imagine all the innovative candidates they passed on during employment interviews because they didn’t a high enough GPA from a blueblood school.

Einstein would have never been hired at Google and neither would have Edison and tons of other true geniuses who find the college paradigm boring and a waste of their lives.

By: links for 2006-06-07 at //nedward.org

links for 2006-06-07 at //nedward.org — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 15:12:26 +0000

[...] Announced A limited trial for now, though I was granted access in less than 24 hours - sign up . Om wonders if it’s a waste of time [...]

By: Craig

Craig — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 06:54:06 +0000

Yeah, I know…old thread who cares. But, I’m proposing a system for one of the groups I work for that will use Docs& Spreadsheets because:
a. It’s free
b. 50 people can work on the same files at the same time, and;
c. It’s easy and requires no additional software for remote users.
It’s not really an area I know anything about, but I cannot imagine what kind of resources and talent it would take to create a system that does what D&S is doing for me for free.
(but, no, it’s not going to replace MS Office on my machine anytime soon.)

By: TheShadow

TheShadow — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 02:56:40 +0000

Google has lost focus - they are firing in all directions - and every new product launch incurs one of two things:

a) A long-term resource load to maintain the code - and keep pace with competitor offerings.

or -

b) A future-debt of bad PR that will be incurred when they shut whatever frivolous service they deem is no longer economically viable.

By: Vladimir Orlt

Vladimir Orlt — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 21:14:25 +0000

The problem with "Web2.0" freebies is indeed that they can be cut off at any time, or they can lose their freebie status. Do I want to risk a serious spreadsheet project on that? No, I prefer to have an installed version…

By: Paindeer

Paindeer — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 19:08:22 +0000

Google ? Genius cycles ?

Where.

Google is online petfood delivery via a ".com" in disguise.

They've got jack, just a bunch of hype from hyped up ads no one reads.

Give me a break, Google at best - used an alternative indexing algorithm/methodology to enhance web searches.

google.com ? I've found ask.com and guru.com is far better.

Groups.google.com ? Can we say usenet ? Dejanews ?

Maps.google.com Can we say www.mapsonUs.com for 5 years straight ?

froogle.com ? only shows products sellers post. Gee… how biased will that be ?

news.google.com ? Can we say XML Feed, give me a break, nothing new there.

Earth.google.com ? This data is not new, in fact, it's 10 years old, and not even proprietary.

Perhaps moon.google.com holds the future for google. First off, NASA gave them just 1 tiny strip of the moon surface to show on their crappy site, and let's ask ourselves, who the g'dmn'fck needs to zoom in on the moon ? Let alone to see the 'cheese' google exposed if you zoom down far enough.

I've had it with google.

In fact, goooooo huh?

Please - let us not utter the name again.

Paindeer

By: mike cianciabella

mike cianciabella — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 20:38:00 +0000

well stated martin

By: MartinE

MartinE — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 13:41:50 +0000

I think most of these comments are a little off. What Google wants is you on their site longer. Currently an average business user does 1.5 Google searches per day. They, in turn only last a few minutes, limiting ad impression time. With all these apps Google is working towards acquiring more eyeball time. In a spreadsheet I am likely to be spending a lot more time actually doing things. I am also adding content, which builds context, which gives us contextual ad space (revenue). Same with Writely, Maps, etc. It's not rocket science- they want our attention.

By: samgrover

samgrover — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 08:12:50 +0000

I agree with some of what Troy has said above. It's about their mission.

I think Google is building a platform for developing and hosting applications on the web. Their web applications are not just a distraction or a toy but rather a demonstration of the capability of that platform which is getting better all the time. I've written more about it here.

By: Thierry

Thierry — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 23:25:50 +0000

The Geek part of us diminishes our natural critical sense about Google’s numerous innovations, but the fact is that Google has not shown business performance in projects not directly related to its core search engine competency. ..

See:
http://www.wouarf.com/blogtk/index.php?2005/08/22/100-google-la-fin-du-debut

By: mike cianciabella

mike cianciabella — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 21:17:44 +0000

why does everyone want google producing products that generate huge revenues? they're just having fun at this point. an engineer proposed to sergey and larry that they add small sponsored links to their image search results, claiming that it could bring in an additional $80M/year. they shot it down with a smart-ass remark: "we're not making enough money already?" if it doesn't enhance the users experiance they're not down.

let google keep building us free online apps. who cares? i agree that the only legitimate tool they've come out with since the search is gmail, and google earth was pretty fuckin cool, but what the hell?

"we don't generally talk about our strategy…because its strategic, i would rather have people think we're confused than let our competitors know what we're going to do." - larry page. i don't think google is going anywhere. they will, in my mind, most definitely be successful in the long term.

they even want to build a space elevator to transport stuff to the moon!! might as well right?

By: RJ

RJ — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 21:01:46 +0000

It'll be interesting to see whether gmail, gspread, gwrite and gcal all make it onto their search appliance for SMEs .. single box from Google that has all the collab stuff in with a funky search.

By: Paul Jardine

Paul Jardine — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 15:58:09 +0000

I think you have to look at all of these Google pieces in the context of GData. That will allow synergies to be created by the people out there on the web. Google can then focus effort on what gets used.
It could, of course, also be the case that all of these apps are the result of the 20% free time that Google employees get.
I’d like to see a new version of Google Talk though, it feels as though it has been put on a back burner for now, which surprises me.

By: Ruben

Ruben — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 15:48:48 +0000

I think it's foolish to say google is wasting it's time. In doing so, you assume to know the total market response to their products before the product has dropped the BETA tag. Google is moving in the right direction.