Google has kicked around the idea of a product internally called My Stuff for a couple of years now. In its original form it was a user-facing dashboard of your important files distributed across the web.
Your photos, videos and office documents, which all used to sit on your computer desktop, are increasingly being stored and shared online. Flickr for photos. YouTube for videos. Zoho and Slideshare for office docs, etc. Google’s My Stuff would aggregate those files via available APIs for the various third party services into one web based user interface.
Sounds like a good idea a couple of years ago when the project first launched internally. And it sounds like a great idea now with cloud storage becoming ubiquitous.
But the project got sidetracked and the product manager assigned to it moved on to other things. Why? Perhaps because Google didn’t want to promote the use of third party services over its own (they have their own services for photos, videos and office docs). Making it easy for a user to choose their favorite service for each type of media and then aggregate it nicely under one interface just helps small services stay relevant.
That argument fits nicely, but people I’ve spoken to with knowledge of the product say it’s unlikely. Rather, My Stuff may have simply have evolved into something much more interesting, and Google may be prepared to unveil it as soon as the upcoming Google I/O conference in May.
One source says My Stuff will be merged with GDrive, Google’s long (long) awaited cloud storage service. But I’m not so sure. There is certainly overlap with the GDrive concept (store what you want at Google, and access other files distributed across the web in one interface). But GDrive is becoming less important strategically to Google as time goes on (cloud storage just isn’t so novel these days). A service like My Stuff, though, allows them to grow as a web infrastructure player.
I see this as worthwhile for Google.
There is and never will be a one-stop shop liked and used by all. Google could herd many sources of info under 1 umbrella…sources I as the user deem applicable.
Who cares if “My Stuff” included photos from Flickr and not Google’s Picasa…this attractive umbrella would give me flexibility…and ensure I keep an active Google account.
This seems like a good fit for Google. They can’t win every battle.
I’m not so sure this would be such a great idea for Google given the saturated market of online storage competitors. I’ve been keeping track of that sector and it’s nearly over populated. There’s between 50 and 100 different major companies doing that already.
Then again, if Google’s doing it using their patented servers, they can probably do it much cheaper, offer better prices, and more stability.
The webmail market seemed pretty saturated before GMail.
I like how ‘good idea’ and ‘great idea’ line out in the article, to emphasize the comparison.
Truly a Paul Van Ostaijenesque work of art.
Well, before the break, that was.
yaaaawn
Probably a good idea. I like Apple me.com, it’s been doing the same thing since iDisk. It does device synch too, something Windows Azure and now Google wants to do. Maybe you could synch all your Android MIDs and smartphones?
If Google doesn’t start getting its act together around their Cloud Web Strategy, then their only other viable business model is surely doomed to fail.
To me Google has all the right components to make this work. But so far the overall end product is a mish mash of badly executed ideas. Rather like a 20% Google Friday.
Just like Microsoft Search will never be more popular than Google Search, Google Docs is just a fly againgst the Microsoft Office cash cow.
What Google really needs is a visionary whom can shine a light on their grey Cloud.
still waitin for myGoogle to come out of the closet. anything good with a “my” attached has a tendency to become a hit.
HitLocator.com – dont strikeout
I don’t know that why Google want to become like Reliance Industries LTD.
Google wants to win every battle.
Lets see how many it wins.
whatever u’re saying, the sexy looking are always on
focus!! know what, she really should be famous on the tall
dating site ___ TallMeet…………………….com
___ for dating~ ,seems it’s such a
waste being here!!lol…..
The solution that Evernote are pushing is a sensible approach to modern information management.
Google is missing a piece like this – which could act as the glue between different services.
This is perhaps the reason why google notebook was halted.
CRM/PIM/EVERNOTE.
Great idea. What about combining it with a fractal map UI?
) (www.fractaledge.com)
Anyway, if Google does not seize the opportunity, someone else will!
Just on time I guess.
I was thinking about moving to skydrive to use that 25GB to upload my 8GB of videos and photos (I know it would take a while to do that), which at the moment I have spread over on 10 picasa accounts.
I have already moved about 3GB of data to skydrive by now.
So I am really excited about mystuff project and I hope google will make it easier for users like me to fetch all our images & videos from picasa and shydirve to Gdrive..
see what they do offer.
Rashid
A SlideSix user proposed something very similar in this presentation (click menu – full screen for best viewing):
http://slidesix...gle-Dashboard-2
Some interesting ideas in that preso – looks like he’s suggesting that social network activity be incorporated in the dashboard in addition to docs, vids, links, etc.
PS – Google, if you’re listening, SlideSix has an API and we’d love to work with you on integrating user presentations into such an application!
who gives a flying fuck? google is a one trick pony
Will be interesting to see what they unveil at the conference in May.