Update 2: Google has killed its $182 million acquisition of Slide as it shifts its social networking efforts to Google+. Since acquisition, Slide has operated as an independent entity, releasing apps such as group-texting app Disco and Prizes.org. None of them have gained traction. Larry Page streamlining operations and betting the farm on Google+ said that there was no need for Slide.
Update: Techcrunch updates: As a group of Googlers have announced on the WebKit-Dev group today (relayed by Google’s Peter Beverloo), the Android team is now committed to working more closely with the WebKit community. More here.
Five years back, I was reading a book called ‘The Google Story‘ and I was in awe of Google. Google was supposed to solve every difficult engineering problem that the information age had to offer and make money along the way. The book goes on to describe 4 Google products namely Google Search, Gmail, Google News, and Google Adwords.These 4 products still remain the core of the company( Google Search and Google Ads are the major revenue sources). Add to these Android (Purchased by Google in 2005),Google Voice, Google Maps,Youtube(Bought by Google in November, 2006), Google Docs(originating from the acquisition of XL2Web product by 2Web Technologies), and the Chrome Browser which completes a suite of amazing products that Google has offered to the information age.
While offering these amazing products, Google offered some real bloopers on the way. Wave, Buzz, Knol, Lively, Orkut, SideWiki, OpenSocial are a few to name. There is no doubt that any company which would venture into so many fields will come up with some bad one’s too but that is not my problem. Google is still a great company but it can be still greater by prioritizing better, by doing what they are good at. No company can be good at everything. Trying to be good at everything is the Microsoft-mania and it sucks.
I am very happy that Google is buying Motorola Mobility to protect Android. This is a positive move (defensive but an important step to fight the so-called Evil Forces). However, here is a list of few things which I would like Google to set right for it to become the greatest company on Earth.
- Stop copying things the Microsoft way : Google didn’t need to come up with Google offers just because Groupon is making a lot of money with the deals. I am okay with Google buying thedealmap and organizing all the deals just like they would organize any piece of information. But, to come up with a service like Google Offers is not the Google Way( remember, Do No Evil). Google needs to understand one thing quickly and that is -- it is bad at customer service. Ask anyone who has ever had to contact Google regarding Adsense and you will have the answer to how Google sucks at customer service. Just because Foursquare is doing well, Google didn’t need to come up with a check in service( Any of the readers using Latitude, please leave me a note). Just because Twitter is doing well, Google didn’t need to come up with Buzz. Google realtime search (Sadly, it is closed now as the agreement between Google and Twitter is over) was a much better attempt and Google needed to carry on with it.
- Stop killing wonderful startups by acquiring them and then letting them do nothing: Starting with Dodgeball(the native form of today’s check in services), many wonderful starups have been killed by Google. I loved Aardvark till Google acquired it and did nothing with it. Google acquired Picnik and I have never seen any improvements in Picnik ever since. Google acquired Slide(Team which made disco) (the much famed group messaging app) and I have no idea what is happening with Disco. Google- Stop fooling around with Startups if you have no plans for them further. Atleast, let them create a better information ecosystem. Update: Google has killed Aardvark.
- You suck at realtime and there are a lot of things you can do about it: For a while, when Google had the Twitter-firehose integration, the realtime search results were getting better. With the Google-twitter deal coming to an end and the the URL google.com/realtime first showing a 404 error and now a redirect to the Google.com domain, things have gotten worse than ever. Google, however, was the first company to create a realtime news aggregator in Google News. Google news was wonderful when it got created, when 30 minutes back was still considered realtime but it has hardly done anything to make google news better. Google news can still be a wonderful realtime news ecosystem and the company needs to put in a lot of energy into Google News. A combination of Google News and Google Reader along with some nice UI tweaks can still be better than Flipboard.
- Stop boasting about what you have copied. Focus on what you made : One good thing about Google Plus is hangout. Google needs to boast about hangouts and not about Google Circles. Google Circles is just a Facebook group put in a Apple-ish way. The difference with facebook being that Facebook groups were not there right from the beginning and Google has had the late mover advantage. Google needs to boast about hangout and make it more social, more viral. Also, Google plus needs to be made more social. Maybe, letting the users share Google Plus posts on Facebook will help :-/.
- Focus on your strengths when trying to make Android better: . Google doesn’t need to say that Android also has this feature just like iOS. It needs to make features different and better. Make the developer platform for Android better. It is just not good enough.It is much more difficult to make a good Android app than to make a good iOS app. Focus on making the app store better organised. Google is good at organising all the information of the world,so, it shouldn’t be a tough ask for them to better organise their app store. What is Google’s take on multiple Android appstores and low-quality apps? Can’t they just put in a app search which searches all app stores in one go?
What is the state of Chrome OS, the Chrome browser and what is Google’s take on Web Apps and Native apps?:Google has been a big supporter of Web Apps and that was the purpose of Chrome OS. Google declared to the developers -- Make Good Web Apps and Chrome OS is there to support you. With the growing popularity of native apps, and of Android (in a war against iOS), the Chrome OS seems to have taken a backseat. A touch optimized Chrome OS which supports nothing but Web Apps can still make Google the winner.It was all supposed to be like that. Make one good web app and publish it on all platforms. Yes, the developer was ruling with the browser as the only platform to worry about(Internet Explorer was the only problem). But, good things don’t last too long. A sad day for the developers will be when(and if) Google shuts the Chrome OS project. I hope, the day never arrives. One final question for Google and it has been asked a lot of times? Why can’t Google port chrome, the browser to Android? Chrome is the best browser and it needs to available not only on Android but also on iOS( Remember, Opera Mini is there on iOS and Google can try to put in Chrome out there too in the iOS appstore)
There are a lot of other thoughts on my mind and I keep sending out feedbacks. I hope, Google focuses on the core engineering problems faced by the information ecosystem rather than think of making quick money from stuff like Google Deals.
Get in touch with the writer at mitra[dot]arkid[at]gmail[dot]com.
P.S Gmail is still the best emailing system. Thanks a lot Google for the same.
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