Google to add Albums to Picasa! And I Need to Vent

June 6th, 2006 at 11:11 pm

Maybe it’s just me but the idea of a web based office application is incredibly unappealing. The primary reason for this is that when i do have to use an office application (rarely) I have to use it for something important. The information that I create is either private, owned by my employer, contains financial information, etc. There is no way you can convince me that working in an application that stores its state on a server that other people are using at the same time is more secure than using an application that stores all state locally. I would never consider using googles, or any other companies, spreadsheet tool online for anything other than a very quick “I don’t have a spreadsheet program available” moment. The comments about it being great for doing finances and other things scares the heck out of me. Yes, it is very likely these applications will be secure but I have no reason to trust Google with my financial information simply because they say they won’t do anything with it.

Now, the most common response I hear to my argument is that I use online banking services. My banking information is kept by my bank anyway so using their online services isn’t a fair comparison. I don’t have much of a choice in this case. I can use a bank that doesn’t provide online access or I can have the convenience of staying with my bank that does. I pay my bills check my balances and perform other basic transactions on my banks website. I have laws and the banks best interests helping to keep my information secure. I’m sure there will be breaches, but I accepted that risk when I decided to store my money in a bank rather than keeping it under my mattress.

As to competing with MS Office, there are alternatives. Primarily OpenOffice.org. While OO.O is far from perfect it meets the needs of the vast majority of people. There is no need for online office applications, nor a compelling argument for why it would be a good idea to spend time and money on the development of one. I think google spreadsheet is more of a “look what we can do” bragging rights app then anything else. What would be usefull is if the spread sheet comes with an API that can be used to place spread sheets in other online applications. There are a great number of services online that I think could benefit from that.

June 6th, 2006 at 11:30 pm

For what it’s worth, this is the first time I have come back to read TechCrunch since the site re-design and I don’t think I’ll be coming back until I hear the site design changes.

Everything is just so much more difficult to read. The previous design was EXCELLENT.

I get way to distracted by the current design to let you guys know.

I know I’m not the only one, hope your web traffic numbers are hurting too bad b/c of the design.

BF

June 6th, 2006 at 11:33 pm

Michael, I agree that if Google were to launch a suite of products that directly attacked Microsoft Office it would be noteworthy for “Journalists”. Unfortunately, products that are that obvious in their scope and market direction would fail to be well…visionary. Visionary is not to conform to the obvious and generate products with obvious market potential. Visionary is to produce products that take market share progressively in parallel and converging with the way markets are heading and Google has an uncanny vision and ability to do so. I’d give it a bit more time…

June 6th, 2006 at 11:41 pm

Gmail changed my world. It does email how I think about email.

June 6th, 2006 at 11:50 pm

I have to partly agree with the fact that what Google has been doing lately isnt exactly what one would have expected of a company that gave us Google Search, GMail and Google Maps. Now, one could still appreciate their efforts a little bit more if their services were better integrated, but I dont see that with many of their products. Half their products are just beta quality, and while this concept of get to the market fast even if it’s half-baked was “cool” in the early days, you cant keep doing that with every product release. google video is a shame, so is google notebook and well lets not even talk about Orkut (what are they doing with their billions, I have to wonder)

Also, it baffles me that they had to release their spreadsheep app without support for charting, something that’s very basic.

[Of course, credit where it's due: Google Maps and Google Earth are very cool products.]

But they made a big mistake letting del.icio.us and flickr go to yahoo

June 6th, 2006 at 11:55 pm

Michael,

I don’t believe Google are competing with Microsoft - why make the Google spreadsheet format compatible with Excel if you’re trying to beat it? Nick Carr is more eloquent on this topic than I - check his blog. I think he has the right idea.

Also, why do Google need to tell you what they are up to? This seems pretty arrogant to me - care to explain? Google are in the business of making money, nothing more, nothing less. They can do what they hell they like to make that cash pile bigger, as long as it’s legal, without having to justify it to , well, anyone.

Finally, the effusive comments from bloggers around the globe is a symptom of the media transition we’re going through. Lots of people with space to fill with a whole lot of nuthin’ to fill it with. What happens? Desperate for something to write they churn out low quality tat. Unfortunately, all this does is make the stuff worth reading harder to find. Is it not also interesting that the Google Spreadsheet story was broken to the NY Times? That says a lot for new media does it not?

June 7th, 2006 at 12:13 am

Michael is dead right on this.

Google has positioned itself, for better or for worse, as a market innovator/disruptor. The brand is initmately tied to the belief that every product they release has to offer something that is uniquely valuable: with Search it was both abundance and relevance, with GMail it was a search-based metaphor and an order of magnitude increase in free stroage (1Gb).

The problem now is that if they don’t do this with every product release (at the very least for new products), they’re diluting the brand. Oh, the fanboys will still oooh and ahhh like Dan Bricklyn never existed, but more and more people will recognize what Michael is noting: there’s an inconsistency in expectations in what Google stands for vs. what they’re doing.

When I was at Apple ‘88-’94, we made a decision to become the leading PC maker. The problem was that in order to do that, we had to get the cost of the box down which meant using off-the-shelf components. The result was that we ended up making things that looked like all the other PC’s out there and with that move we doomed Apple to years of dark ages before its seeming resurrection.

So, sorry for being long-winded, but my point is that a brand is a function of the products, and if people start thinking the products are me-too or uninspiring, the brand will eventually follow that path off the cliff. So now the question for Google is whether they can evolve the brand to be something else?

Alex

June 7th, 2006 at 12:28 am

Mike,

without naming names, was the edit an independent rethink on your part, or something else?

One day two kids in a garage will come up with a new search algorithm that Google won’t get to buy, and then even AdSense will be worthless, let alone a rake of below-average products

June 7th, 2006 at 12:36 am

@ BF: First off, there are people who like the new design. And if you don’t, why not use NetVibes or PageFlakes or a good RSS reader? Close your eyes while commenting, many already do.

As to competing with MS Office, there are alternatives. Primarily OpenOffice.org. While OO.O is far from perfect it meets the needs of the vast majority of people. There is no need for online office applications, nor a compelling argument for why it would be a good idea to spend time and money on the development of one. I think google spreadsheet is more of a “look what we can do” bragging rights app then anything else. What would be usefull is if the spread sheet comes with an API that can be used to place spread sheets in other online applications. There are a great number of services online that I think could benefit from that.

I agree with you here, pyro. Open Office is a great suite. I think it’s ridiculous paying M$ for their Office suite. I just got a MacBook Pro and it came pre-installed with a lot of Microsoft junk which I’m soon going to trash and replace with OO.O. I also agree with your take on storing sensitive information on Google, however “secure” it may be. No ammount of SSL can protect you from a malicious Google employee. On Mac OS X we have iPhoto which is as good, if not better than Picasa and directly integrates with Flickr (with a plugin) and iWeb.

Saurab, you’ve got it wrong with Google NoteBook and Orkut. Orkut is used by millions of people. I even think it’s the best social networking site online. I presume you’re Indian (your name), and am surprised that you don’t use and appreciate Orkut. The number of people online from India is mad! Practically every classmate of mine from every school/college/institute I’ve been is online. The second most popular one here in India is hi5. And Google NoteBook is a really useful tool for research and publishing. I was using it a lot when I was on Windows. It’s the simplicity of it that makes it so good. You just highlight a batch of text or right-click an image and add it to your notebook. If you want to share your research notes with your classmates or friends, it just takes 2 clicks to publish it. Beautiful!

But they made a big mistake letting del.icio.us and flickr go to yahoo

This is something I too have pondered upon on occasion. I would have expected such wonderful online apps to be owned by Google. According to me, these two products are what saved Yahoo! and kept them in the Web 2.0 game. I mean, who uses Yahoo! My Web???? It’s a broken product in comparison with del.icio.us. And Yahoo! Photos? That’s okay for moms who can’t figure out that you have to sign up with Yahoo! first to get a Flickr account. (my aunt was struggling with this for days)

I agree with Rob, in that Google still isn’t a competitor to Microsoft. The only real threat M$ Office has right now is OO.O.

- Simran

PS: You can digg this story here.

June 7th, 2006 at 12:40 am

Mike, I agree completely. Google needs a focus. They need a goal. They need to act like they actually care about these products. The releases completely lack any pomp or circumstance… at this point it is more like, oops, there goes another one.

While I am entirely for secrecy during product development (I work for Apple), the company at least needs a vision, and “organizing all the world’s information” doesn’t cut it. They need a product strategy, or at least a semblance of one.

With regards to Spreadsheet, sure, it is might be useful… to some people… but as far as I can tell it is nothing more than an online spreadsheet implementation.. I am left asking why.

Finally, Rob, Google Spreadsheet is definitely competing with Microsoft: the fact that it works with XLS files speaks towards this fact, not against it. They are, correctly, doing this to completely remove the barriers to entry. Who would ever try out Google Spreadsheet to begin with if it did not work with the Excel data they already had? Decreasing the barriers to exit achieves the same goal: the average person will not use a system if they deem it difficult to exit at a later date.

:: Jeff

June 7th, 2006 at 12:44 am

Alex,

It’s obvious that you don’t know what a brand is and Google is not a brand. Furthermore, your idea of how this “brand” differentiates itself is clearly feature-based and not a foundation for what it even means to be branded.

Brand dilution has nothing to do with what you are saying and if it isn’t clear to you how Google differentiates itself then I have no doubt as to why you weren’t part of the revolution that turned Apple into what it is today.

June 7th, 2006 at 12:56 am

They’re making the same mistakes Microsoft did? What’s that, buying any company that could possibly threaten your products then trashing it?

It seems more like they’re buying technology and helping to make it BETTER.

In fact, it seems like they’re giving people the tools they need to make the most of their PCs, because Microsoft certainly aren’t. For example, compare a vanilla install of Mac OS X to Windows XP.

June 7th, 2006 at 12:57 am

Hey Mike, would you please moderate my comment?

June 7th, 2006 at 1:07 am

I agree with you on some parts, but I’m gonna have to disagree on most of it. Most of the recent Google products under-whelming? Sure, Google Calendar is pretty sub-par, and Google Video is not very aesthetically appealing, but hey. They’ve done a lot of great stuff. Google Maps is awesome, and the ability for others to use it to integrate into other apps is great. And Google revolutionized Free Mail services. 10MB attachments were unheard of until Google came around, and anything more than 2MB of storage was rare. I think you have to give credit where credit is due. But, I do see your point and agree somewhat. It does seem like they don’t really have a direction, and kinda just spit out new services. But when these services are updated and improved upon, it should turn out pretty good. I’m excited to see how Google turns out in a year or two. ^_^

June 7th, 2006 at 1:11 am

Michael, to your point about figuring out what Google’s overall game plan is–would you think it’s simply about getting EVERYTHING on the network from content to web services to traditional offline applications in order to maximize traffic? Maximizing traffic would then lead to maximizing advertising revenues!

Just my two cents.

Lo

June 7th, 2006 at 1:15 am

Gmail and Gmaps are the only two Google Labs releases that have made a lasting impression since the original search platform. On that topic, Google has foresaken the vehicle that drives their success - SEARCH! There’s so much fertile ground in search but it seems to be stagnant at the Googleplex. For example, vertical search in areas like real estate and other industries, etc. With it’s scale, why can’t Google kill local Multiple Listing Services (MLS)? Startups like Trulia are filling the void.

June 7th, 2006 at 1:22 am

Thanks Mike! I love Akismet, except when it turns me into a spammer!

June 7th, 2006 at 1:59 am

NO IDEA WHAT IS GOING ON HERE, ESPECIALLY THE TECHCRUNCH COMMENTS. YOU GUYS SOUND LIKE THE APPLE DUDES ON MACRUMORS HAILING EVERY BIT OF NEWS ABOUT WEB2.0 - LIKE IT’S NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE AND OH SO COOL. AND THE MOST INTERESTING THING: GO AHEAD AND COMPARE YOUR DISCUSSIONS WITH ARSTECHNICA… OH WELL.

maybe it’s time to step back and see what’s really up. who actually needs all this?

June 7th, 2006 at 2:21 am

try :http://www.zohosheet.com/home.do

it is better than google spreadsheets, Google spreadsheets attracts so much attention because it’s google. if you compare the funcationality. zohosheet is much better.

try to import an Excel document to both google spreadsheets and zoho sheets.

June 7th, 2006 at 2:45 am

Philip said: “Picasa is Google’s desktop photo management software – something like Yahoo’s Flickr, except it’s not on the web.”

and your nitpick: “Yeah, it’s just like Flickr, except without tagging, sharing, commenting and, of course, it isn’t a web service.”

So let’s nitpick your nitpick - First, Philip already said that it’s not on the web, so i don’t really see why you have to reiterate it as if Philip said the contrary.

And, Picasa has tags, and obviously the comments (by others) would be absent since as said already, it’s not a web service. Again no need being redundant.

It got sharing, the implementation may not be the same as flickr’s (again because it’s not a web service), but it does have it.

I really like flickr, and it is impressive. What makes it better than what Picasa is is that it’s a web service (thus opening the floodgates for many ways of sharing and collaboration). So what does Google need to do to make Picasa better and be more competetive? Add a Web service component. So now apparently they’re doing it thru WEB ALBUMS, and you seem to be very pissed off. Either you didn’t get that what they’re adding is not just albums, but WEB BASED albums (web service) or it looks to me that you hate the fact that Google is improving a product. You see, belitling this development would be belitling something that has flickr a kick-ass web service.

Oh and about that rant about Google being too secretive for you? I think it’s really arrogant to demand a Company like Google to disclose its strategy to you (and other bloggers).

And let me point a contradiction in what you wrote:

“Now, if Google actually announces their intention to eat Microsoft’s lunch by trying to kill their Office revenue with a full online office suite, that would be interesting.”

then you said,

“This isn’t about corporate secrecy - we all know that Google is trying to hit Microsoft where it hurts. ”

Oh, so we all know that Google is trying to hurt Microsoft, why would there be a need for a full diclosure from Google? Or are you just pissed off again that Google is being careful by not overpromising? It looks to me that you just want to make them look stupid in the end. Hey, while it’s a nice thing to be open about strategies, it is also not wrong to follow the mantra: “under-promise, but try to over deliver”

You can rant all day about Google not sharing enough of its strategy to you, but in the end, you have to accept that in the real world, products like spreadsheets and picasa and maps that you seem to be too fond bashing were not made to be reviewed and criticized by “class A” bloggers, they were made to be used, by ordinary users.

I used to love TechCrunch, but ever since i started to get the feeling that it has turned into just another Google basher (besides beign a web2 products review site) blog, my respect for it slid down to the level of those blind Google-lover blogs.

This is really low.

June 7th, 2006 at 3:22 am

much agreed.

Google needs to work on the stuff its already delivered and not get into building little tiny websites to try and own every single niche in the world. They won’t win..

June 7th, 2006 at 3:47 am

Skimming over your article, the last sentence clued me in: Om posted a story so of course you had to jump on the “Hate Google” band-wagon too. I guess we’ll start seeing these posts all over the place now… the blogoshere is hilarious.

June 7th, 2006 at 3:56 am

Google continues to grab more and more share of search. To consumers they are doing plenty right and that is what really matters at this point of time. Search is their core business and they still have plenty of growth potential into local search, mobile, vertical, etc. As mentioned Gmail has been a great success as well. Now I’ve yet to click an ad from my Gmail but I’ve come close. As Lo pointed out this is what Google is all about and their most important business objective lies herein. For advertisers their biggest problem with Google is becoming that there isn’t enough inventory. In my opinion all these other little products are just PR blather. The one app that will be most important for Google over the next 12 months is Base. It will be interesting to see what happens here. I’m not too worried about their near-tem future though. Another thing they’ve disrupted is the job market. Go find yourself a really smart young engineer that Google hasn’t snapped up.