Google’s getting a spanking.
In a previous post I mentioned that Google Apps made the world better. Here is the disclaimer:
I like Google. A lot.
Not everybody agrees with me. Especially those who are trying to be Google, or at least take a share of the same market. Google gets in legal trouble a lot. Of course many of these cases are probably just people who want a get-rich-quick scheme so they go after Google’s deep pockets.
Some of them may be legitimate.
The New York Times published a piece called “We’re Google. So sue us.” that talks about the intellectual property disputes against Google. This includes a pending dispute against YouTube, a video-sharing website purchased by Google. The acquisition of YouTube has made them a bigger target as YouTube has plenty of user generated material including some copyrighted material uploaded by users.
One of the complaints against Google is from French search engine 1PlusV. Their claim is that Google is kicking butt without the courtesy of taking names. Google is taking over the search market and shoving others out of their way. That’s how 1PlusV feels about it.
People who use Google are not forced to do so. They do it at their own free will. That said, Google should feel free to make search however they want it. If their competitors don’t like it, then they should get better marketing and a better product.
That’s what Google did.
An Old Dog vs. New Tricks
The web is incredible. Of course it has always been incredible in its own time, but it got better with introduction of Google Apps.
Google Apps is a collection of web apps designed for business productivity. Email, Spreadsheets, Documents, Instant Messaging, Calendar and all of this in your own custom domain.
Previously Microsoft had the market for Email, Calendar and Office Applications like Spreadsheets and Rich-Text Documents. These were available in software that you install on your PC computer. Google took the same concept and put it on the web making it accessible from anywhere over the internet, across platforms on Windows, Macintosh, Linux and even on a cellular phone. Microsoft has recently taken the challenge and created their own software as a service productivity suite.
I heard that on WIBC Indianapolis this morning.
Microsoft Office 365 is a hosted solution for documents and spreadsheets, email and calendar. It is similar to Google Apps, but I’m sure it is bloated with too many graphics, and back-end software. Office 365 is available for $6 per user per month.
$6 x $12 = $72
Google is $50 per user per year. So by going with Google you get a cleaner look and you save $22 per user per year over Office 365.
Check out this comparison of the two services.
Google knows that Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office are still popular. So they made it easy for those who use these softwares to also use Google Apps.
Google Cloud Connect is a plugin for integration with Microsoft Office. It allows MS Office users to open Google-hosted documents inside their locally installed Office Suite.
It is notable that The State of Wyoming has converted all of their employees to Google Apps for Government. Nice going, Wyoming!
Drop, Box and Roll.
There is a lot of talk about the “cloud” lately. It is the way of modern technology.
One of the functions of the cloud that has become especially popular lately is file synchronization. A directory on your computer (and all of its contents) can be synchronized between all of your computers. This is a great function for small business partners in the beginning stages of their business who may work out of separate homes or coffee shops but share the same files as if they had an office with a server and networked computers.
Synchronization of files is a common feature. Each service comes with their own additional features such as interactive editing, integration with third party services, or restore from backup to a specific date.
Amazon Cloud Drive is exceptionally cool in my opinion because of the Amazon Cloud Player, a music player that functions inside the browser. This means that you can upload your own music to your Amazon account and then play it directly in the browser like Pandora or YouTube.
Apple recently announced a cloud service, iCloud, to be released this fall. At first glance, it appears to be competing with Amazon Cloud Player, as it syncs your music, you could expect that it would have a player for the browser too.
It doesn’t.
But one thing that makes iCloud great is iTunes Match. For all the songs in your library, iTunes will recognize them and if they are in the iTunes store they will automatically be added to your iCloud account. All songs added from the iTunes store are 256kbps quality even if your copy was not. This significantly decreases synchronization time.
Another service worth noting is Box.net. Box.net integrates with Google Apps, an alternative to Microsoft Office, and Microsoft Exchange.
Currently I use Dropbox.
See LifeHacker’s comparison of Windows Live SkyDrive, Amazon Cloud Drive, and Dropbox here.
Chrome is faster than a fox
The battle of the browsers is nearly as old as the internet itself. Several years ago, Microsoft had a hand up in the browser market as it was bundled with Microsoft Windows desktop OS, the most popular desktop operating system at the time. With the world moving to the cloud, the browser is a critical tool in your daily computer use. There are several browsers available to consumers, the three most popular are Microsoft Internet Explorer 9, Mozilla Firefox 4 and Google Chrome 10.
A popular function in mobile devices is the “App Store” or “Market” which is a place where you can download apps for your smartphone. Apple has recently added this function to their desktop OS and now Google has added an app store to the Chrome browser. I think this a good move. I enjoy the ability of adding functions to my browser with the click of a button.
What is your favorite browser?
It’s not Internet Explorer. Microsoft’s IE browser had some 85% of the market share earlier this century, but with the introduction of Firefox, IE started losing fans. In 2008 IE and Firefox had an equal piece of the pie. Internet Explorer is hovering around 25% now.
What makes one browser better than another?
Speed and Appearance.
According to this, IE9 lost the speed battle.
I personally prefer Google Chrome, however I would recommend Firefox as well.
EDIT 09/15/11: Interesting Info on the Evolution of the Web.
Ding Dong the RIM is dead
I read this article on TechCrunch today. It stated that RIM (Research In Motion, the maker of the smartphone Blackberry) was dead. As the CEO of a technology company in Indianapolis, I thought it was fitting to get a smartphone. I had a Blackberry for a couple years. I didn’t hate it, but when I upgraded I chose a Droid, and I love it.
I’ll say it again, though. I didn’t hate the Blackberry.
It had its pros and cons. More pros than cons. But the fact is, once I started using something else, I appreciated the user interface and the availability of apps on another device.
In the past couple of years we have seen the Apple and Droid phones flood the marketplace, and with that I assumed that Blackberry was dead. But then I read this article regarding tablet computers on TechCrunch that predicted that Apple would lose 40% of their market share and Blackberry would double their market share by 2015. Blackberry is third in market share this year. In their prediction Blackberry remains in third with a bigger piece of the pie.
I realize that the tablet is in a different market than smartphones, but it seems like they would go hand in hand as they are both mobile, and being similar operating systems, they would integrate easily.
I am not surprised at their prediction. I personally prefer the Droid over Blackberry or iPhone.