Philoking.com

Google wants you to forget about Windows, Mac OS X And Linux. The latest ploy is to use HTML 5 to gather support for putting all of our personal computers on a serious diet. I don’t mean the type of diet that gave us iPhones and net books, the kind that gives us strings, entanglements and dependencies.

The Cloud is Scary

I am not talking about “steal your credit card” scary. The cloud is scary because any number of issues can separate you from your data. There are the obvious issues like your internet is down or the internet is acting slow for some unknown reason. But there are more obscure things that should really concern those of us that rely on the internet to store our data.

Who Owns My Email

I have become 100% reliant on Gmail. I use IMAP to keep my client updated, but in all honesty rarely use it. I live in the browser for personal email 99% of the time. I use a thick outlook client at work, but my personal email is now thin.

The reality is that Google can, and is, sift through my email at their own leisure to try and find better ways to sell me stuff. I am not a big brother fanatic, but it seems like they already have quite a grip on my personal life and data.

I know they say “Don’t be Evil,” but I am not so trusting.

Living Offline

Sometimes you aren’t connected. Sure Google Gears is a step in the right direction, but I don’t want thick clients to die. I like my fast, sleek and polished desktop applications. I like not worrying about JavaScript errors and what browser I am using. For some things it’s great, but I don’t see Logic Studio or Adobe Photoshop going thin (I know there is a thin Photoshop, but it’s not Photoshop, seriously.)

Other Solutions

I am already a loyal fan of the Windows Live Mesh services. I get my thin access to my files, but they are all synchronized and stored offline on my local machines (both PC and Mac) This is the best of both worlds solutions. I have thin access and convenience, but when the presentation that I have to finish is nearing the deadline, it doesn’t matter if I lose my internet access or decide to go to the cabin for the weekend and finish it. I still have it and don’t need internet access to work with it. Try doing that with Google Docs.

The Real World

We are always going to have taxing applications, we are always going to want games and graphics heavy applications. No matter how well you equip the browser for an immersive experience, you will still need horsepower. My fear is that the world gets sold on this thin client mentality, powerful computers become niche, and you have to pay through the nose to use something with some horsepower.

The title of the article that proves my point? “Is Google’s Chrome the New Internet Explorer?” The gist of the article? Microsoft thinks that bundling Chrome in Windows will give Google a search monopoly because of it’s speed and security.

The Battle for the Box

Let’s make one thing absolutely clear. Microsoft’s concern with the EU case concerning bundling IE has zero to do with Chrome, Firefox, Opera and the like. It should be called “The battle for the box.” Microsoft doesn’t want that little search box you see at the top right of your browser to fall into the hands of Google. Think about it, it’s THE reason that when you do use IE, Google really wants you to install their toolbar, not for the features, for the SEARCH BOX! Don’t get me wrong, Microsoft wants people using IE8. In a perfect world to them, the internet would run on Explorer and they wouldn’t have to worry about all these silly standards (note sarcasm).

The reality, however, is that Microsoft wants to make money, something that Google is very good at. They made all that money by selling ads in their search engine, you might have used it before. If you look at the monopoly numbers that have been used against Microsoft in recent years, you will see that they are quite similar to Google’s dominance in the search market.

Microsoft is David to Google’s Goliath

Microsoft is still trying to get into the search market. The Live Search product isn’t totally mature, but it’s getting better. Right now, the only thing really keeping them in the game is that Windows ships with Internet Explorer 8 and it’s set by default to the MSN.com homepage and the default search engine is Live Search. This, my friends, is the battle ground.

Forget which browser got you there, they money is in the search. Microsoft doesn’t make money when you use Internet Explorer, and they don’t lose money when you use Firefox or Chrome, at least not directly. They lose money when you use the search tools that are set up by default by those browsers.

I know that some of you might have a hard time seeing Microsoft as the underdog, but in the world of search, that is absolutely the case.

Think of it more bluntly. If the EU wins this case, it’s the rough equivalent of the EU forcing Microsoft to just hand money to Google, millions of dollars on a daily basis.

Keep Your Eye On The Ball

I know what you are thinking, and I hear what you have said in the past. “The customer needs choice.” The argument against Windows has been that the market share keeps other OSes like OS X and Linux beat down. Get ready boys, the same game is coming and it’s going to define where and how you search the internet. I use Google too, and I think it’s a great search engine, but it’s all but consumed every other search tool. Yahoo is on it’s last legs and Microsoft is not far behind them in market share. As much as they sing “Don’t be evil.” around the corporate campus’ campfires, Google has an eye on your personal information. The ads they sell are only as valuable as the information they can get about you before they serve them.

Look at this problem closely, and don’t take sides too quickly. Microsoft may have a bad rap over the OS Monopoly issues, but it’s also 100% responsible for building a platform that crossed oceans and united the world through the internet. If you think that you would have the technology at your fingertips without the ground that Windows 95 broke, you are sadly mistaken. Now there is a vast landscape in cyberspace, it will be these types of steps that hand the keys of the internet to Google.

So I decided to do a completely unbiased set of blogs on Google Search vs. Microsoft Live Search. It should be know that although I work for Microsoft, I pretty much use Google Search exclusively. Thinking about that today, I wondered why. This set of blogs is an attempt to answer that question, help me decide if I should switch, and of course, review the two for your reading pleasure.

I thought I really cared for Google’s Spartan approach, just the box ma’am, just the box. I compared the launch page and found Live Search’s search page to be very pleasant to look at and while still being basic in it’s functions. So what do we have besides the box? I’ll list them out and give you my best guess at percentage of how useful it is:

• Links to Live Search, MSN and Windows Live – 30% – I am already at Live Search, if I wanted MSN I would have just typed it, and while I love Windows Live products, that’s not what I came here for. If this is my default landing page and I use either of those services frequently, it’s nice to have a one click launch.
• News Link – 40% – This is same as the links at the top, but slightly more useful to me, I can get some news with one click if this is my browser’s launch page.
• Links to Country, Options, Cashback, Advanced and Sign In – 60% – Most of these are things I would use regularly, and when I don’t they aren’t obtrusive. Nice.
• Make Live Search Your Home Page – 90% – This works well and if you change it, it goes away. For those who want to change it, it’s easy and if you don’t it’s not blingy or annoying.
• The Search Box – 100% – One thing I do like about the Live box particularly, is I can change the search before I get a list. With Google, it’s no more clicks, I can search then click images instead of clicking images then searching. But something about seeing my options first is a little more “informational” just a preference.
• Bottom Links – 50% – A news splash, more bling for Windows Live Messenger and some admin links. I understand you have to have the latter, but the other two are not all that needed.

The bottom line is of the things I don’t find all that necessary, they don’t get in my way, so I don’t mind them so much. So what about Google?

• Links for all of the search types – 20% – just like Microsoft, but not at the search box, I think proximity adds to usability, just my opinion.
• Login links for my accounts @ Google – 80% – I do use Google a lot so these things are very handy.
• The Search Box – 90% – I can dig adding the Advanced, Language and Options beside the search box, again proximity is good, Microsoft Live Search did well with the search types, but the advanced and options are a bit too far away for my taste, nice one Google.
• Google Admin Links – 10% – Got to have them, at least they aren’t obtrusive or in the way.
• Add Homepage Link -  90% – Works as well as the Microsoft one, it adds then goes away.

It really is a wash and neither clearly wins, the real answer will come in the next blog, search results. I will do variety of queries and then compare the top 5 results. See you next time.

I would have to say that Microsoft SharePoint could be considered the foundation of the product I work on at Microsoft, PerformancePoint Server 2007.

That being the case, I try to keep myself very aware of what’s going on in that space. Last night I got an email from Google advertising a new service that was available to me as a Google Apps customer. The Announcement read…

Greetings admins!

Today, we’re excited to announce the introduction of Google Sites as part of Google Apps.

Google Sites makes creating a team web site as easy as editing a document. You can quickly gather a variety of information in one place — including videos, calendars, presentations, attachments, and gadgets — and easily share it for viewing or editing with a small group, your entire organization, or the world.
As of today, Google Sites is enabled for philoking.com, which means your users can get started immediately. To help you announce this new offering to your users, we’ve included a template message below that you’re welcome to use.

It didn’t take long to realize that sounded a whole lot like SharePoint. Now Google has already been trying to take on Microsoft Office with cloud services like Google Docs, and to be honest it’s a pretty impressive product given the complexity of having an entirely web based spreadsheet solution.

So what does this new service offer exactly? Well I took some time to play with it and some of the highlights are as follows…

Google has 5 page types for your sites:

• Web Page allows you to create basic static content, you can format it with the basic Bold, Italic, Underline, Font Color options, define tables, insert links, images, Google Docs, Picasa slideshows, Gadgets, video and more.
• Dashboard allows you to create something similar to iGoogle on a page within the site, useful for a landing page, news, etc.
• Announcements duplicates the formatting function of Web Page, but adds in the ability to date thread them so you can use it like a calendar of sorts. Oddly enough I see no integration with Google Calendar which seems like a common sense fusion.
• File Cabinet is a file repository complete with subscription capability and commenting. I looked through the help and could find no documentation on file size limitations, for uploading or total storage.
• List is very much like SharePoint. You have 3 standard templates for Action Items, Issues and Unit Status, as well as attachments and comments, and a free form “Create Your Own” list feature which allows you to create a totally custom layout. Missing from this seems to be any raw url to access the list or any API to expose it as a data source of any kind.

The site itself is quite customizable, and in cases of cross geo teams who need to collaborate, even with actual Office documents, I can see it as a real competitor. The place it falls short, which is the majority of SharePoint installs in my opinion, is extensability.

There appears to be no actual API, no way to access web services to extend it with additional functionality and most importantly no way to use it as a data source for any other tools or products. I am sure that this is clearly on the Radar as this is only a beta and will probably continue to grow.

I did see a few performance issues and when testing it with Google Docs integration I saw some problems with formatting spreadsheets, especially with charts into your pages.

The bottom line is that this is one impressive piece of web coding. Cross browser it’s beautiful, the feature set is incredibly rich for a free product. The question I ask is:

How many are going to trust Google and “the cloud” with their data 100%. If you place your life in a site and it dies, the service is discontinued or whatever disaster you can dream up, having no access to the data and no traditional way to back it up or export it to another tool, that’s a pretty scary proposition.

If you would like to view my test site, you can access it here http://sites.google.com/a/philoking.com/testsite/lkists

If you would like to play with it, send me your Google ID and I will set you up access to modify it.

My co-worker found a scary little footnote:

Content you create with Google Sites may, if you choose, be read, copied, used and redistributed by people you know or, again if you choose, by people you do not know. Use care when including sensitive personal information in content you share, such as social security numbers, financial account information, home addresses or phone numbers.

I have been looking at the "Microsoft, keep your grubby hands off of Flickr" pool and in reading some of the comments and tone of the images, it’s clear the users want Google to come in and buy Yahoo to save Flickr. The question I have is:

Isn’t Google as likely to convert Flickr to Picasa web albums as Microsoft is to convert it to Live Galleries?

I may be way off, but Google is in it to win it too, they aren’t going to buy up Yahoo, keep flickr and kill their own product they obviously believe in.

I love flickr, but I think the odds are it’s going to go one way or the other. I just home it "goes" in a migration and get’s integrated in to a product at Microsoft instead of jettisoned.