Google's new clothes
I have been a fan of Google (like almost everyone else) for the last 5 years or so. I have lauded praise on them in the past in this blog, but recently I have been disappointed. In the early days, Google's search sought things out with an almost unworldly accuracy, and huge speed. Since then we have seen that it can do far more - the superb GMail, GTalk, GMaps, Desktop search, and lots of cool search toys. Their share price has soared to heady levels and they are the name on everyone's lips.
But.
I am concerned about the haste with which people are praising them. Little things disturb me. The kudos they got for getting a web search that actually works has lent them credibility in all sorts of other areas. Some of which, in the cold light of day, they do not deserve.
The Problem with Google
With that I'll go though my list of gripes with Google:
The Neverending Beta
This one has to be put first, as some of the other items on my list are in beta.
I know having a beta is a good idea - stress testing stuff when delivered to an audience the size of Google's is a nightmare. However I have started to feel that Google are using it as an excuse to not finish things. The argument to nay sayers about any thing it does poorly is "Oh well its only a beta". Neat PR, not so good for people using it. In the last few years many things - even the great GMail have been left in Google's version of Beta limbo.
GTalk
GTalk is brand new. Launched with much pizazz, it got everyone saying how cool Google were to do this. Well having used both Skype and GTalk, I'd say GTalk was an alpha, not a beta. Its features are so light you can see through them. The voice stuff is good, but the chat client is a "my first chat". Where's file sending, contact management directory services and all that stuff that almost everyone else does? Once the dust had settled you find you have installed yet another chat client - to go along with the other 5 or so.
GTalk also likes to remove Gmail notifier, that is a much superior product. GTalk doesn't clear how many messages you have or give you any visual clue when one is waiting. When it asks you if you want to uninstall notifier, just say "No".
GMaps
Google maps is very impressive. The DHTML interface is slick and quick. The maps are clear and easy to read. Whats the problem? Well, in the UK, accuracy for one. Microsoft's mappoint.com does a *far* better job of route finding, and estimating. Yes the interface is old school, but when someone tells me this trip is 56 mins, and then mappoint tells you its 24, something is up. I can tell you mappoints route is far better.
Its not just routine finding either. Satellite shots are at a far lower resolution that Microsoft's - check out Terraserver which has been around for an ages. Compare maximum zoom of, say, the pentagon. GMaps is a quarter the resolution.
GMail
Gmail is probably my favourite google app. I have found only one problem with it - logging on. If Gmail and the notifier log on in the wrong order all hell breaks loose when you enter your messages. You find it thinks your session has timed out, and you have to retype/copy the message to another window. Its a minor bug I know, but I has been around for ages. When I got a new laptop, I first experienced it - in around May this year. I found a solution that was dated 6 months before (with a long chain of queries I might add). I was suprised they hadn't fixed this, since they had been busy adding features in that time. I don't know if it still suffers from it in fairness.
My only other grip is general to the way modern search engines work. You cannot do partial word matches in your email. This is less of an issue with the web, as you are usually searching for information, but when you cannot remember the name of an attachment, and the message has no body this compromise shows its weaknesses.
Desktop
Google Desktop is now in version 2, and it was that app that made some of the scales fall from my eyes. Desktop has now "graduated" out of beta, but to me its still the same. My biggest fault with it is *it doesn't find stuff*. Oh yes, it can find somethings, just not everything. It has a 100,000 file limit on first scan then it is supposed to index changes in after that, however I reckon its a fixed limit in version 2. And no warning is given
Problem: I have 250000 files on my laptop. OK more than most, but not an unreasonable amount for a developer. I wanted to find some bank details, in the folder C:\Todos\bank stuff.txt. I tried what I though it was. No hits. Tried a few other words. No hits. Started looking around on other machines - I have about 3 I use constantly, and only one has Google Desktop on it. So I thought it must be one of those.
Still no joy. I started to think something was up, so I just picked a filename at random out of my todo's folder. No hits! I opened it. Hit! That's how I found out about the 100K file limit. Cheers for telling me. Eventually a very slow Microsoft filefind troll for "files containing text" found my file for me.
Then I wrote a little program to iterate thru the drive opening everything and reading 10 bytes out of it. After running that still my file wasn't found.
I will continue to investigate, but my confidence in it has gone.
But I'm not finished with desktop. I like the new feeds, but that too seems to be broken - it constantly seems to readd stories to the "News" section it has just shown me. Oh and quick note: when you uninstall and reinstall (I did this to see if the 100K limit would be broken) asking it to hold on to its indexs does not mean that it will remember your Scratch pad.
Video
Very shonky media play lashup. Not really what we'd expect from the premier brains at Google - I mean Real produced a far better player in their first go. Google's looks like "My first media player". Where's the contract and picture controls, hidden away in a neat Google interface? Instead its a laughable flash player lash up.I especially like "zoom in". That's a good feature.
Search
Search is still pretty good. It tends to find the things I am after. However many other people are saying the index is starting to show signs of fatigue. When I have strayed to Yahoo, I have been more than happy with the results. I don't do this enough to notice. My only real grip is the beta stuff - the customized front page, suggest and the preferential search seem to have spent forever in beta, and are not readily accessible still.
... But its free
That's the fall back argument I have heard given for poor applications in the past. But Google are very definitely making money out of me waving my privacy rights. I am not particularly concerned about privacy on the whole. I realize at some point you have to given something away, and it will get tracked. Products like Google desktop and Mail, however take this to a new level. Most of my life is in Email, and they effectively can sift it for anything they want to learn about me - eg adsense. I am happy to give this up, for the ease that their tools give me, but I am under no illusions I am not profitting them by doing it.
In conclusion
The coverage I see of Google every day implies they can do little wrong. Analysts are fawning over them, the IT industry is heralding them as the next Microsoft - and in this they have some similarities. Both release good products that do almost, but not quite, what they say they will. What concerns me most is inaccuracy in the results. Its too easy to do the maps test and be unaware, or the desktop search and believe something is not there. Integrity of their results was Google's rise to power. Let's hope its not their fall.
Google use the "best brains" argument to writing software. Most people can see the sense in this argument, and I am not about to disagree that they tend to write the best code. However super-bright people tend to get bored easily, and can ultimately deliver less than the slow and steady as they get diverted into something else much more interesting. Yesterday they announced a hook up with Nasa - something the founders have been alluding to since they floated. Hopefully this is not a sign that rot will set in sooner than expected.
So will I stop using them? No. I, like everyone else, appreciate good software that is quick and simple to use. Still, the seeds are there for me to look at the alternatives and remember Google aren't the only suppliers of such stuff...
But.
I am concerned about the haste with which people are praising them. Little things disturb me. The kudos they got for getting a web search that actually works has lent them credibility in all sorts of other areas. Some of which, in the cold light of day, they do not deserve.
The Problem with Google
With that I'll go though my list of gripes with Google:
The Neverending Beta
This one has to be put first, as some of the other items on my list are in beta.
I know having a beta is a good idea - stress testing stuff when delivered to an audience the size of Google's is a nightmare. However I have started to feel that Google are using it as an excuse to not finish things. The argument to nay sayers about any thing it does poorly is "Oh well its only a beta". Neat PR, not so good for people using it. In the last few years many things - even the great GMail have been left in Google's version of Beta limbo.
GTalk
GTalk is brand new. Launched with much pizazz, it got everyone saying how cool Google were to do this. Well having used both Skype and GTalk, I'd say GTalk was an alpha, not a beta. Its features are so light you can see through them. The voice stuff is good, but the chat client is a "my first chat". Where's file sending, contact management directory services and all that stuff that almost everyone else does? Once the dust had settled you find you have installed yet another chat client - to go along with the other 5 or so.
GTalk also likes to remove Gmail notifier, that is a much superior product. GTalk doesn't clear how many messages you have or give you any visual clue when one is waiting. When it asks you if you want to uninstall notifier, just say "No".
GMaps
Google maps is very impressive. The DHTML interface is slick and quick. The maps are clear and easy to read. Whats the problem? Well, in the UK, accuracy for one. Microsoft's mappoint.com does a *far* better job of route finding, and estimating. Yes the interface is old school, but when someone tells me this trip is 56 mins, and then mappoint tells you its 24, something is up. I can tell you mappoints route is far better.
Its not just routine finding either. Satellite shots are at a far lower resolution that Microsoft's - check out Terraserver which has been around for an ages. Compare maximum zoom of, say, the pentagon. GMaps is a quarter the resolution.
GMail
Gmail is probably my favourite google app. I have found only one problem with it - logging on. If Gmail and the notifier log on in the wrong order all hell breaks loose when you enter your messages. You find it thinks your session has timed out, and you have to retype/copy the message to another window. Its a minor bug I know, but I has been around for ages. When I got a new laptop, I first experienced it - in around May this year. I found a solution that was dated 6 months before (with a long chain of queries I might add). I was suprised they hadn't fixed this, since they had been busy adding features in that time. I don't know if it still suffers from it in fairness.
My only other grip is general to the way modern search engines work. You cannot do partial word matches in your email. This is less of an issue with the web, as you are usually searching for information, but when you cannot remember the name of an attachment, and the message has no body this compromise shows its weaknesses.
Desktop
Google Desktop is now in version 2, and it was that app that made some of the scales fall from my eyes. Desktop has now "graduated" out of beta, but to me its still the same. My biggest fault with it is *it doesn't find stuff*. Oh yes, it can find somethings, just not everything. It has a 100,000 file limit on first scan then it is supposed to index changes in after that, however I reckon its a fixed limit in version 2. And no warning is given
Problem: I have 250000 files on my laptop. OK more than most, but not an unreasonable amount for a developer. I wanted to find some bank details, in the folder C:\Todos\bank stuff.txt. I tried what I though it was. No hits. Tried a few other words. No hits. Started looking around on other machines - I have about 3 I use constantly, and only one has Google Desktop on it. So I thought it must be one of those.
Still no joy. I started to think something was up, so I just picked a filename at random out of my todo's folder. No hits! I opened it. Hit! That's how I found out about the 100K file limit. Cheers for telling me. Eventually a very slow Microsoft filefind troll for "files containing text" found my file for me.
Then I wrote a little program to iterate thru the drive opening everything and reading 10 bytes out of it. After running that still my file wasn't found.
I will continue to investigate, but my confidence in it has gone.
But I'm not finished with desktop. I like the new feeds, but that too seems to be broken - it constantly seems to readd stories to the "News" section it has just shown me. Oh and quick note: when you uninstall and reinstall (I did this to see if the 100K limit would be broken) asking it to hold on to its indexs does not mean that it will remember your Scratch pad.
Video
Very shonky media play lashup. Not really what we'd expect from the premier brains at Google - I mean Real produced a far better player in their first go. Google's looks like "My first media player". Where's the contract and picture controls, hidden away in a neat Google interface? Instead its a laughable flash player lash up.
Search
Search is still pretty good. It tends to find the things I am after. However many other people are saying the index is starting to show signs of fatigue. When I have strayed to Yahoo, I have been more than happy with the results. I don't do this enough to notice. My only real grip is the beta stuff - the customized front page, suggest and the preferential search seem to have spent forever in beta, and are not readily accessible still.
... But its free
That's the fall back argument I have heard given for poor applications in the past. But Google are very definitely making money out of me waving my privacy rights. I am not particularly concerned about privacy on the whole. I realize at some point you have to given something away, and it will get tracked. Products like Google desktop and Mail, however take this to a new level. Most of my life is in Email, and they effectively can sift it for anything they want to learn about me - eg adsense. I am happy to give this up, for the ease that their tools give me, but I am under no illusions I am not profitting them by doing it.
In conclusion
The coverage I see of Google every day implies they can do little wrong. Analysts are fawning over them, the IT industry is heralding them as the next Microsoft - and in this they have some similarities. Both release good products that do almost, but not quite, what they say they will. What concerns me most is inaccuracy in the results. Its too easy to do the maps test and be unaware, or the desktop search and believe something is not there. Integrity of their results was Google's rise to power. Let's hope its not their fall.
Google use the "best brains" argument to writing software. Most people can see the sense in this argument, and I am not about to disagree that they tend to write the best code. However super-bright people tend to get bored easily, and can ultimately deliver less than the slow and steady as they get diverted into something else much more interesting. Yesterday they announced a hook up with Nasa - something the founders have been alluding to since they floated. Hopefully this is not a sign that rot will set in sooner than expected.
So will I stop using them? No. I, like everyone else, appreciate good software that is quick and simple to use. Still, the seeds are there for me to look at the alternatives and remember Google aren't the only suppliers of such stuff...
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