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Re: Google Buzz

#161

Post by ytinas »

enki wrote: post #78
cantastoria wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

even if you don't use it yourself - how many times have you had to help out friends or relatives whose Windows installations got screwed up? Actually never... but anyway. Sure, giving stuff away may be a cheap ploy to earn goodwill But it's not a cheap ploy. It's a destroyer of value. Once Google moves into a market it's impossible to compete against them (same used to be true of Microsoft and still is in markets the…

i don't really see how you can complain about someone doing a good job at providing a valuable service to users. if they do a bad job, i can compete - if they don't, i can't add value. it's not like we're gonna run out of problems to solve, because google is solving all of them for us.

You don't? You're on this site so I imagine you dream of having your own start up some day, no? How would you like it if every single idea you have ends up with you working it to 80% completion only to have Google release a free version of it. Every time. Not freemium, not pay-as-you-go. Totally free. Would you like that?

If you say yes then I think you need to take a step back and consider the possibility that you've been brain washed.

Re: Google Buzz

#162

Post by ytinas »

artagnon wrote: post #156
intellectronica wrote: post #5

Is Google becoming the new Microsoft? Not in the evil sense, but in the lame me-too products that rely on brute force (their huge install base) and no innovation to hopelessly try to compete sense.

The difference is quite simple. Microsoft started off with an unpopular operating system, and forced it down users' throats by tying up with the hardware manufacturers. Users don't have much of a choice in the matter. I think they lost contact with their end users at some point. Today, they're stuck with the NIH syndrome, and keep running around in circles, without making an effort to understand the way the market/ c…

Google is a better MS in the same way that MS was a better IBM. And for me personally Google is synonomous with NIH. I mean, a search/ads company making their own Phone? Operating system??? Router?!

Re: Google Buzz

#163

Post by [deleted] »

sfk wrote: post #127
nostrademons wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends. GMail was fundamentally innovative - do you remember what webmail was like before it launched? GMail gave us a gig of storage and Google search over your inbox and threaded conversation view and keyboard shortcuts and a UI that didn't require page refreshes between each message. Similarly, Maps was fundamentally innovative. If you went to GMaps c. 2005 and then went to MapQuest, there was absolutely no compa…

I'm afraid I don't agree with your use of the term "innovative". Regarding Gmail, I'd rather say they managed to clone mutt+procmail for the web in a reasonable manner. Regarding Maps, the fundamental operations had been in place since at least 2002 at e.g. http://www.nl.map24.com/ . Actually I haven't been there for quite some time, and I think in 2002 their interface was actually better than now.

[deleted]

Re: Google Buzz

#164

Post by bad_user »

ytinas wrote: post #161
enki wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i don't really see how you can complain about someone doing a good job at providing a valuable service to users. if they do a bad job, i can compete - if they don't, i can't add value. it's not like we're gonna run out of problems to solve, because google is solving all of them for us.

You don't? You're on this site so I imagine you dream of having your own start up some day, no? How would you like it if every single idea you have ends up with you working it to 80% completion only to have Google release a free version of it. Every time. Not freemium, not pay-as-you-go. Totally free. Would you like that? If you say yes then I think you need to take a step back and consider the possibility that you'v…

Open-source has created more clones than any single company, and it keeps on cloning. And yet software companies that actually provide value aren't going out of business any time soon.

If Google really starts cloning everything, the way Microsoft is trying, they'll start losing the focus on their core values. As a result, their products will be inferior ... their resources are limited after-all.

Don't believe me? They have a social network for quite some time ... see http://www.orkut.com ... do you see it competing against Facebook? They also have a Wikipedia competitor ... knol.google.com ... do you see it overtaking Wikipedia?

But I do remember what my online-life was like before Google Search / GMail / Google Maps ... I used AltaVista and the first page of results was always full of junk. I used Yahoo Mail that had a slow interface, and only something like ~ 50 MB of storage ... I still have that account (using it for YIM) and it's practically unusable (their spam filters are crap ... in contrast with 2 GMail accounts + 2 Google Apps accounts that are doing just fine).

Google Apps is also really valuable ... I can have my email setup for my domain in a couple of hours, for free, having all the goodies of GMail.

I'm also using Google Translate ... which is really kick-ass sometimes (I'm not a native English speaker, and my native language isn't really popular, but Google Translate knows about it ;))

I'm also using Google Docs and Google Calendar ... Docs because it's there (came with Google Apps) and Calendar because it is intuitive and it is sending me SMS messages for free, plus my wife can see my schedule without me having to give her my password :)

Android and Chrome are 2 products launched to increase competition. I'm a Firefox user, but Chrome is so fast and so stable that it leaves Firefox in the dust ... I'd use it, but some Firefox-specific features are missing. And Android is the open-source mobile-OS we needed ... polished, backed by a strong brand, with a good SDK, and online-store.

I don't really think it's debatable whether Google provides value or not ... they clearly do. And what's "innovation" anyway?

Of course you're not going to see revolutionary ideas. That's why patents are so absurd.

But if you're fear-mongering about freebies, it means you're not providing enough value to justify your sales.

Re: Google Buzz

#165

Post by bad_user »

vegashacker wrote: post #158
lanstein wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How exactly is Wave not innovative? Not to mention the obvious GMail, Earth, Maps, Adwords/Adsense, ...

The difference is that I still don't really get what Wave's about, and I think a lot of folks agree. I still remember the first time I saw Google Maps--I got it instantly, and I was blown away. And the intial value proposition of Gmail (a gig of storage) was obvious too.

That happens with products introducing revolutionary ideas ... people don't quite get it ;)

Wave is probably ahead of its time, and also suffers from a poor user interface.

Re: Google Buzz

#166

Post by bad_user »

intellectronica wrote: post #50
ashu wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Argh what is the point of comments like these? It is totally drowning out any useful discussion about the actual merits or demerits of the product. The iPod was a lame "me-too" product, eh?

Actually the same can be said of your answer :-/ That the iPod was a me-too product is an interesting comment, because it reminds us to look at what was special about it (beautiful design, tight integration with the desktop and media store). What's special about Buzz?

I have lots of friends that are regular users, sending crappy content to each other via email ... like funny clips and stupid jokes. They don't even use BCC or a mail-list so it's not uncommon to see an email sent to 40 addresses at once, all there in the "To" header :)

IMHO, this is genius.

Re: Google Buzz

#167

Post by kerringtonx »

I like Buzz after using it a bit more on my iTouch (still not available on my computer yet ... :/ ). Still trying to decide if I like Buzz better than Foursquare. It's really fun checking in and competing with your friends, but if you don't live in a populated area like myself, there seems to be not as much interaction. When I signed on with Buzz, there were already people interacting. Sharing tips about restaurants, what they were doing for the day, how they liked Buzz, and etc. Both are definitely fun though! Anyone get to use it on their PC? How is it??

Re: Google Buzz

#168

Post by ekanes »

fnid2 wrote: post #90

I wonder if, when a company crosses a threshold we all think violates a Nash equilibrium, we start to oppose the company. With this move, Google is declaring war on a host of web companies that are heretofore thriving and collaborating and making tons of money. Every dollar of advertising that Facebook makes is a dollar or even more from Google. Every minute that facebookers facebook, google isn't showing them ads an…

>> With this move, Google is declaring war on a host of web companies that are heretofore thriving and collaborating and making tons of money.

From the perspective of those other companies they are indeed "declaring war" and it's all very dramatic... but for actual users, this is just another company competing for their attention by providing a better service.

I expect the product will fail because Google sucks at social stuff, but in principle more competition is good, and unless a company competes unfairly through a monopoly (and they don't have one for email or social networking.)

Re: Google Buzz

#169

Post by levesque »

frognibble wrote: post #103
gxs wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been fortunate enough to never have been employed at a company where the employer things its good practice to ban certain websites. How common is this? What field do you work in?

It's common enough that Gmail has a feature to allow blocking the chat feature and not all Gmail. http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answe...

Then it is safe to assume that gmail will have a feature to block buzz... problem solved?
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