Topic: Google: The New Microsoft

[burmashave]

My Google Rant

Google is the new Microsoft. I saw this coming years back. They've drawn users in via free, useful software. These tools provide more features than that of the competition, although Google applications may also contain more bugs and issues. Google's size and weight ensure that similar tools are thus knocked out of competition. Once Google owns a particular web space, they dump further development efforts. Sound familiar?

I'd say this is similar to what Harley Davidson did as it consolidated market share going into the 1960's

Gmail has been in beta for over 4 years. What a joke. The reason it is still in beta is that the Google "team" has done little development since it debuted long ago. When other companies keep products in beta for over a year, it implies that the company has no desire for further efforts.

Look at Harley Davidson history during the 1960's through the 1980's.

The story of Google search is even worse. Until last year, the "geniuses" (note that "intelligence" is possibly the most important criteria for hiring at Google) had not made major updates to the formulas used by the Google search engine since its debut over 10 years ago. The result was that Google searches began to return the same amount of spam as that of Alta Vista, Google's predecessor. Google had blown Alta Vista away by figuring out how to limit spam in searches. Why the updates for Google over the past year? Well, Ask.com has started stealing Google users. Use Ask.com and find out.

Look at what happened to HD as the US government decided to relax tariffs on competing Japanese bikes.

Google has a market cap in excess of a billion dollars, yet Google maps is what, as a software designer, I'd call "user antagonistic." Google maps drew users in with "cool" features, blew away competition, such as Mapquest, and then ditched further development. It's reprehensible, I'd say. In the least graphic terms I'd use, I'd say that I could cr*p better software.

Remember early versions (IE 2.0-3.2) of Internet Explorer? Also, did anyone notice a burst of new "features" for Internet Explorer after Firefox began to steal Internet Explorer's lunch?

Then there's one other major similarity. Remember Google's efforts to acquire Yahoo? Look at Microsoft's history. After developing a successful operating system, Microsoft began to acquire other companies simply to pick up promising software. As far as I know, all the Microsoft Office programs came from other companies. Do you enjoy the satellite maps in Google Maps? Google had little to do with that other than purchasing Keyhole.com.

Did HD have a prayer for building completely new bikes and engines from the ground up? Buell was formed in 1983, 15 years before HD had a clue about acquiring it.

Have you ever noticed that integration is lacking between "integrated Office" programs (look especially at Visio and its companions)? Well, this is what happens when you kludge already developed programs together. If you use (free) OpenOffice, you'll notice that all their office programs not only look the same, but different programs also use the same features, such as formatting tools.

I'd compare Office "integration" to be about what we'd expect for compatibility for motorcycle luggage. As for kludging Office products together, imagine building an entire SOHC four from an engine from a 750 K0, a '70 400F frame, '74 650 electrics and '750 K8 wheels.

Why is OpenOffice integrated so well? Well, somehow the volunteer developers for OpenOffice developed all the tools as a unit from the ground up. Microsoft is stuck with what it has. Redesigning Office from the ground up would be a nightmare. You can expect more of the same, but worse, from Office. Microsoft will sow FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) to maintain market share, and it will also provide new "features," most of which are not essential, but which also add more bugs.

To a small extent, this reminds me of the common practice for HD rebuilds during the dark years. Purchase an HD bike, and the first thing many owners would do would be to rebuild the engine. Many HD riders had more skill in building HD engines than the paid workers at the factory.

Enjoy