Category: Google Apps
June 4th, 2007
Google Office wins? Declares enterprise hierarchies 'dead'
What a difference six months makes? Apparently in the Google Enterprise (sales) world!
In Google Enterprise strategy: ‘Death to the hierarchy’” last November, I reported Michael Lock, Director of North American Sales for Google Enterprise, exhortation at the NYC Googleplex,
“Death to the (Microsoft) hierarchy”:
Given the “explosion” of unstructured data in the enterprise, “old methods of information management don’t work,” Lock asserted. He also offered a remedy: “Death to the hierarchy!”
Lock put forth personal anecdotes to proclaim “you don’t put email in folders” and declared GMail the victor over Outlook.
Lock spoke of the old (pre-GMail) Outlook days when he would “look forward” to his transcontinental commutes for six hours of time to “categorize email.”
Lock entertainingly, but pointedly, emphasized that Google solutions do not demand what he portrayed as labor intensive and inadequate user categorization via hierarchical folder structures. Lock then used his own GMail account to illustrate what he believes is the superiority of implicit organization via a single, intuitive search box, a Googley one. Lock proudly concluded that he has left behind hundreds of Outlook folders.
At the time, I asked Lock for a projection of when Google will succeed in bringing “Death to the hierarchy.” Lock offered that forward thinking enterprises are moving away from hierarchical data organization, but no specific date for an absolute demise of the “hierarchy” was provided.
Nonetheless in his return visit to the NYC Googleplex this morning, Lock said in the affirmative: “Hierarchies are dead.”
“Data has changed and it doesn’t come in columns and rows,” Lock underscored.
Lock provided the diverse audience of NYC professionals at the “Google @ Work” enterprise sales pitch with three key takeaways, “lessons that enterprise IT can learn from Google:
1) Fast is better than slow,
2) Simple is better than complex,
3) Assume chaos and deal with it.
Lock asserted the now familiar Google Enterprise rallying cry: Enterprise IT is in a sad state of affairs, but consumer friendly Google is to the enterprise rescue.
Lock on the antiquated enterprise way of doing IT business:
Define all requirements,
Buy vs. build,
Issue RFP,
Select vendor,
Do bakeoff,
Define implementation plan,
Customize application,
Build end-user training plan,
Deploy application.
The world has sped up, but how IT deploys has not, Lock deplored.
Why so enterprise conservative? Lock suggested. After all, Google is not so worried about getting things just right. Lock: “We put the product on the Internet before it is ready.” Why? “Fail quickly and learn from it,” Lock proclaimed.
Current delivery models have “insane” complexity, Lock warned. Take email, as a case study in bad enterprise business. Lock lampooned what current enterprise email operations entail:
Operating system,
Email servers,
security servers,
Backup storage servers,
Spam filer,
Content repositories,
Tape back-up,
Mobile delivery server,
Database to support content repositories.
The Lock ace in the hole: “Then there is that ‘Patch Tuesday‘ by some big vendor.”
What is the enterprise solution? It couldn’t be more simple, five letters is all it takes; GMail.
Lock nevertheless acknowledged there is still some enterprise reticence against “letting my email on someone else’s servers.”
How silly, though, Lock indicated. After all, he said, you are not afraid to put money in a bank are you?
To make his point Googley clear Lock showed a picture of a mattress, and then one of an ATM.
ALSO: Do Google Apps really trump Nintendo Wii and Apple TV?
Is Google Enterprise Search a joke?
Google to big business: Google love belongs in the Enterprise!
June 4th, 2007
Do Google Apps really trump Nintendo Wii and Apple TV?
Google baked itself a luscious cake Friday to give itself a rich pat on the back, and is showing off its self-indulgence to the world.
Why is Google so proud of itself? In sugar-laden frosting, Google announces Google Apps is #1!
Google even flaunts that Apps is a “winner” over Nintendo Wii, Apple TV, and the Slingbox Pro, and has the proof, so Google believes.
Kevin Gough, Apps point man, at the public Google Enterprise blog on why Google wants to: “Have our cake…and eat it to”:
On Friday at our company-wide TGIF, we celebrated PC World naming Google Apps Premier Edition #1 on their list of The 100 Best Products of 2007. Google Apps beat out the Nintendo Wii, Apple TV, and the Slingbox Pro, further reinforcing the convergence between business and consumer technology. Internally, Google Apps is a collaboration between Google enterprise and consumer teams. It’s great to see that it’s paying off.
The Google chef apparently got his or her recipes mixed up. The PC World “honor,” is not one with much “meat” to it, as I analyzed when it was announced last month.
SEE Google declares Google Office victory.
Just as Google does not seem to be paying much attention to what Google Apps users are really saying about Google Apps, Google does not seem to have paid attention to what PC World actually said about Google Apps!
How does PC World back-up its Google Apps is Number One claim? By pointing to a February review by Harry McCracken which itemizes all the reasons organizations ”aren’t going to switch to Google Apps”!Who needs Google Apps reasons cited by PC World include: NOT for power users, NOT for companies proprietary about their data… Even Google’s own rationale for Google Apps presents as a double edged Apps sword, touting its desire for a Googley consumerization of the enterprise.
Do enterprises really want consumer weight applications in the enterprise?
Despite Google’s belief, ”we’re all Google consumers” is not a guaranteed enterprise crowd-pleaser, as I reported and analyzed from the recent Enterprise Search conference in New York City.
SEE: Is Google Enterprise Search a joke? and Google to big business: Google love belongs in the Enterprise!
June 1st, 2007
Google Gears: NOT a Microsoft killer
Google Office vs. Microsoft? Maybe I indicated today, underscoring that Google finally, apparently, has the guts to let Google Apps compete in the big boys market, a for pay one.
Does that mean then that Microsoft is en route to being “flattened” by Google.
Moreover, does Gears magically stamp Google as developers’ best friend versus the supposedly perennial bad boy Microsoft?
Google would have the world believe in Googley who needs Microsoft super powers, and it overwhelming does.
Google Gears churns toward Microsoft
Not only is Google strengthening its presence in the developer community, it is pleasing many different factions by releasing Gears as open-source software, rather than proprietary. Microsoft has been criticized for locking developers into its Windows operating system and other Microsoft software.
And for consumers and corporations, Google Gears knocks down a perceived barrier in competing with desktop applications. While users of Microsoft applications, such as the popular Office suite, can work in the software and access data stored on their computer at any time, Google’s Web-based applications, such as Gmail, require a user to be connected to the Internet. That will change now that Gears has arrived.
Google, the open source poster child? Not so fast.
Eben Moglen, chairman of the Software Freedom Law Center was not convinced last week and it is unlikely that one announcement about a strategic Google move with an end-game to bolster Google’s own fortunes will spur him to see the Google light.
SEE: Does Google play fair in Open Source?
Google to the consumer and corporate rescue? Already? Hardly.
Google Gears circa June 2007 is a work in (slow) progress “early-access developers’ release,” disclaimed by Google itself as “not yet intended for use by real users in production applications,” let alone consumers or corporations!
Google is apparently pre-ordained to rule over Microsoft. Stephen Arnold, for one, will not deny the “Google legacy,” at Microsoft’s expense:
Gears ratchets the collar Google has around Microsoft’s throat. Each innovation takes some of the oxygen away from the behemoth in Redmond. If Google exerts more pressure, Microsoft might become more confused.
Microsoft dazed, confused and gasping for air? Google wishes.
What big bad Google innovation is there that has escaped Microsoft?
Google is the undisputed leader in search and search advertising, for now. BUT the search game is the only one Google is winning, despite its endless efforts to diversify.
What’s more, Microsoft trumps Google on the serious acquisitions front: aQuantive, TellMe, Massive…
The world may be routing for Google to outgun Microsoft, but “Redmond” is growing its anti-Mountain View search and advertising ammunition AND maneuvering on with legacy gains from long won victories on the software battlefield.
SEE: Why Google is more dangerous than Microsoft
ALSO: How Microsoft beats Google in ad agency battle
Google: Tough love for Microsoft
Google vs. Symantec, McAfee? Not exactly
Google’s love hate relationship with the desktop
June 1st, 2007
Google Office vs. Microsoft? Maybe
Is Google Gears really the ace in the Google Office hole? Is the Google-centric initiative the one missing piece in Google Apps vs. Microsoft Office aimed at sealing Google’s winning productivity applications fate?
Popular perception portrays Google’s announcement of Google Gears earlier this week as putting the Google vs. Microsoft Office battle in high gear, but the real test begins today, as Google Apps goes “For Fee,” although with a still “limited time” free trial offer.
What is Google Gears? What is its real-world significance? What is the Google Gears impact on Apps vs. Office?
I analyzed the issues yesterday:
Google vs. Microsoft Office: Game time
Google Gears: NOT ready for prime time
Google: Tough love for Microsoft
Google’s love hate relationship with the desktop
The Google Apps Premier current payment position:
$50 / user account / year
Limited time offer: Free 30-day trial
You will be asked to provide a credit card number to sign up for Google Apps Premier Edition. However, you can cancel at any time before the end of your free trial and your card will not be charged.
Apparently, then, Google is today busy ringing up $50 credit card charges for the hundreds? thousands? tens of thousands? hundreds of thousands? millions? of Google Apps Premiere prior “free-trial” users, those that didn’t “cancel” by yesterday that is.
NOW, Google must REALLY stand behind its product. Will Google do a better Google Apps job going forward?
Google says it is serious in the Apps game. But talk is cheap, so is Google Apps.
Google nevertheless will have a lot more riding on Google Apps success than the $50 tickets it apparently will be ringing up today:
With Google, you can afford to provide each and every employee with the tools they need to succeed.
ALSO: Why Google is more dangerous than Microsoft
Google CEO tows Google line at D5
May 31st, 2007
Google vs. Microsoft Office: Game time
Is Google Gears the missing “kick-ass” Google Apps link that will enable Google to kick Microsoft Office’s “ass”?
Is there really such a thing as a magic bullet? After all, Google must first get Google Apps right, in the Google cloud!
Google Apps has been around for a whopping nine months, several product cycles in the Googley scheme of things. Google Apps Premier version debuted in February.
As is the typical Googleplex fashion, a “game changing,” but only quarter-baked, Google add-on initiative is “unveiled” to the world, regardless that the base product is not meeting its stand alone expectations.
Today may be the start of a new Google Apps game though.
Google Apps Premiere launched as a “for-fee” product, but no fees were charged. Upon launch, April 30 was set as the drop-dead date for actually processing the $50 stated annual fee on Google Apps Premier users’ credit cards. Google then extended the “free trial,” through TODAY!
As it stands now, Google still indicates as of tomorrow, credit cards beware.
Knowing Google, however, there may just be another Googley twist looming in the cloud. Stay tuned!
ALSO: Google: Tough love for Microsoft
In the Meantime:
Google vs. Microsoft Office? NO: vs. Open Office (.org)!
Google Gears: NOT ready for prime time
Google’s love hate relationship with the desktop
How Microsoft battles Google in Search warfare
Is Google Enterprise Search a joke?
Google user data cloud: Do you trust it?
Google declares Google Office victory
Is Google Office really an enigma?
Google Apps goes Enterprise Professional: $5000 please
May 31st, 2007
Google Gears: NOT ready for prime time
Google Gears is not a defacto anything. Will it be though?
Once again, a strategic Google move with an end-game to bolster Google’s own fortunes is being lauded as a game changing Google gift.
How benevolent really is Google though?
The number one Internet company with ambitions to outseat the number one software company could have very well demonstrated that Google Gears is not all about Google applications by NOT using a Google product as its signature implementation: Google Reader!
Contrary to popular perception, Google engineers have NOT enabled what “Internet surfers for years have yearned for,” Web applications that work offline.
What has Google done to kick-off its day-long promotion of software developers that create products that drive more revenues to Google?
Google Gears, a browser plug-in that will let people run Web applications when they’re connected to the Internet or not. The company released the source code for the Google Gears software.
Really? And what are the tens of millions of civilan computer users to do with it? Nothing!
The initial code is aimed at JavaScript developers who write Ajax-style Web applications.
Not to fear though, Google is on the real-world ball, so says Google:
Google expects to have a consumer-ready release of Google Gears, which will be under 1 megabyte in size, “within months.”
Time will tell, or not.
SEE: Google: Tough love for Microsoft and Google vs. Microsoft Office: Game time
ALSO: Why Google is more dangerous than Microsoft
Google’s love hate relationship with the desktop
Does Google play fair in Open Source?
Microsoft gains over Google in Holy Land
May 30th, 2007
Google's love hate relationship with the desktop
Google CEO Eric Schmidt takes every opportunity to rally “Who needs the PC or a laptop for storage!” in his never ending quest to gather all the world’s information “safely” in the Google worldwide cloud. That is the Google mission.
Nevertheless, he spearheads Google efforts to extend Google to the Desktop, Google Web applications in particular.
Google has shifted into high Desktop gear with the introduction of “Google Gears”:
An open source technology for creating offline web applications. This new browser extension is being made available in its early stages so that everyone can test its capabilities and limitations and help improve upon it. The long-term hope is that Google Gears can help the industry as a whole move toward a single standard for offline capabilities that all developers can use.
Google Gears marks an important step in the evolution of web applications because it addresses a major user concern: availability of data and applications when there’s no Internet connection available, or when a connection is slow or unreliable.
Has Google turned ecumenical then? Hardly. Schmidt underscores the end-game:
With Google Gears we’re tackling a key limitation of the browser in order to make it a stronger platform for deploying all types of applications and enabling a better user experience in the cloud.
What is Google Gears?
- A local server, to cache and serve application resources (HTML, JavaScript, images, etc.) without needing to contact a server
- A database, to store and access data from within the browser
- A worker thread pool, to make web applications more responsive by performing expensive operations in the background
The Google beta disclaimer: “Google Gears is currently an early-access developers’ release. It is not yet intended for use by real users in production applications at this time.”
As Google itself would therefore acknowledge, it is not yet time to call the Microsoft Office vs. Google Apps fight.
Things are starting to heat up, though, from all directions!
Read my exclusive interview of Gravity Zoo in Google vs. Microsoft Office? NO: vs. Open Office (.org)! discussing the implications of its OpenOffice.org porting project, designed to bring OpenOffice to the Internet.
UPDATE: Google: Tough love for Microsoft and
Google vs. Microsoft Office: Game time and
Google Gears: NOT ready for prime time
May 24th, 2007
Google declares war on $2 trillion health care industry
The Google health care die has been cast, it is a $2 trillion declaration of medical intent.
Adam Bosworth, Google Vice preisdent Engineering, is no longer content with “touch-feely” consumer reach-out campaigns to “learn” what the “health care consumer” wants, he is now doing what Google does best: Telling the world how it will be.
It WILL be Google’s “vision for the future of health care.”
Those on the winning medical team will go the Googley way, or it’s the Google medical information highway.
Google scary now? Personal Health Records, sponsored by Google, next I warned one month ago. That day is nearing.
In Google’s medical push I present Bosworth’s health care (pay for the right to perform) IT road show underway over the past six months. Bosworth’s most recent stop was the American Medical Association of Informatics, and it was a big one, a $2 trillion one.
YES, in order to organize, ie. controll, all the world’s information, Google needs to remake the health care system in a Googley image.
The Google medical call, for “the next decade”:
Discovery - Consumers should be able to discover the most relevant health information possible
Action - Consumers should have direct access to personalized services to help them get the best and most convenient possible health support
Community - Consumers should be able to learn from and educate those in similar health circumstances and from their health practitioners
As is the Google fashion, the $150 billion corporation’s massive takeover designs on the largest sector of the U.S. economy encompassing the most personally sensitive issues of relevance to individuals, Google is packaging and pushing its $2 trillion medical war as a principled fight, one that Google is taking upon its benevolent shoulders to wage on behalf of the world’s consumers.
The Bosworth call to consumer arms (Les Misearables score optional):
Putting Health Into the Patient’s Hands
The vision for the future of health care starts with the premise that consumers should own their own total personal health and wellness data (PHW) and that only consumers, not insurers, not government, not employers, and not even doctors, but only consumers, should have complete control over how it is used.
Consumers rule in the Googley world of health care? Who needs medical professionsls?
The Bosworth spiel is incredible not only in its condescending dismissiveness of credentialed health care specialists, but for the incredulous Google pitch that a Google branded health care system WILL put consumers in charge.
“Only consumers should have complete control” over how their medical information is used? If Google REALLY believes that, why does it also claim that Google’s worldwide server farms are the place for consumer health care safekeeping!
After all, once in the Google cloud, always in the Google cloud, under Google’s intractable and unilateral control.
SEE: Google privacy jungle: Where is YOUR data? Don’t ask! and Google user data cloud: Do you trust it?
Bosworth assets: “We believe consumers should have the right to all data that is about their personal health and wellness in electronic form.”
Of course Google touts consumers should have the “right” to hand over all their private, personal, confidential medical data to Google for massive digitization and archiving for perpetuitiy within the confines of Google, Inc.
Worried about Google the world’s librarian? How about Google the world’s doctor!
MORE: Google battles Microsoft for medical domination and
Google wants $4 billion drug ad market in 23andMe
May 23rd, 2007
Google vs. Microsoft Office: Do you buy it?
Google declares Google Office victory I reported, AND DEBUNKED, yesterday!
In typically Googely fashion, Google is sending very mixed, and very incomplete, messages about the Microsoft Office killer, or not, Google Apps Premier.
Launched as a for (small) fee SaaS in February under the guise of a “free trial” through April, Google nevertheless pushed back the “for fee” drop dead date to May 31, just days before it was to have kicked in on the 30th of April.
What will happen next week, on June 1? Will Google Apps Premier “testers” see a $50 Google charge on their credit cards? I asked Kevin Gough, the Google Enterprise point man, just that last week.
“We will be announcing a Google Apps for fee plan very soon,” Gough told me.
Really? Yesterday would have been an opportune time, as Google patted itself on the back for “Getting it done with Google Apps,” while the “paid” clock nevetheless ticks down to May 31.
Google also missed an opportunity last week, when it “unveiled” Google Apps Partner Edition. As usual, Google was enthusiastic, but vague:
With Google Apps Partner Edition, you can:
- Decrease your operating costs
- Provide a better user experience for your subscribers
- Increase the amount of email storage for your subscribers
- Offer customers the very latest innovation from Google, on your domain
We designed Google Apps Partner Edition to meet the specific needs of service providers – affordably.
Nothing is quite as affordable as FREE!
Earlier today, I announced that Google is going the subsidy route to try and jumpstart its lackluster radio advertising efforts. Google Checkout has long been a subsidy-prone drain on the Google bottom line.
WHAT ABOUT GOOGLE APPS? WILL YOU SOON BUY IT?
Loading ...ALSO: Google vs. Microsoft Office? NO: vs. Open Office (.org)!
How Microsoft battles Google in Search warfare and
Is Google Enterprise Search a joke?
May 22nd, 2007
Google declares Google Office victory
Google Office aka Google Apps are “powerful” applications, and Google is delivering the “powerful” services to organizations “large and small,” so declares the Official Google Blog today.
After all, “getting up and running is a snap,” Google underscores.
Google does not seem to have been paying much attention to its own Google Apps Google Group (which is one of Google Apps users’ many complaints aired there) SEE: Is Google Office really an enigma?
Why a glowing Google Apps self-report card today then? After all, Google is not so confident in Google Apps to turn on the “for fee” switch just yet.
A PC World “honor” motivated Google to tout its own Google Apps horn:
Just this week, PC World named Google Apps Premier Edition #1 on their list of The 100 Best Products of 2007.
We’re honored to be recognized by PC World this way — and are more inspired than ever to expand what’s possible for groups of people to do using the power of the web.
However, just as Google does not seem to be paying much attention to what Google Apps users are really saying about Google Apps, Google does not seem to have paid attention to what PC World actually said about Google Apps!
How does PC World back-up its Google Apps is Number One claim?
By pointing to a February review by Harry McCracken which itemizes all the reasons organizations ”aren’t going to switch to Google Apps”!
Harry on Who Does NOT Need Google Apps:
Any company that’s staffed by power users.
Any company that’s using Microsoft Office apps that have no counterpart in Google Apps.
Companies that need true disconnected mobility.
Anyone who’s proprietary about their data.
Right on, Harry! AND, Here are more reasons for Who Needs Google Apps!:
Google partners up? Salesforce.com deal NO Microsoft killer
Google vs. Microsoft Office? NO: vs. Open Office (.org)!
Google user data cloud: Do you trust it?
SponsoredWhite Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads
- Finally, an easier way for Small and Mid-Sized Companies to Run Their Business Applications: IBM Smart Business IBM From the PC to the Internet to every piece of hardware and software in ... Download Now
- Five Steps to Determine When to Virtualize YourServers VMware Server virtualization isn't just for big companies. Entry-level ... Download Now
- Building the Virtualized Enterprise with VMware Iinfrastructure VMware VMware virtualization software has been adopted by over 120,000 enterprise ... Download Now
Recent Entries
- Goodbye Digital Markets, Hello InsiderChatter.com
- Salesforce for Google AdWords: Promoting human welfare?
- Ask.com wages Google search war, NOT AdWords battle
- Salesforce.com plays Google ad sales game: Big tease? Big letdown!
- Google OS? Why Microsoft STILL rules
Blogs From Our Sponsors
Top Rated
Premier Vendor Content Whitepapers, webcasts & resources from our Power Center Sponsors
- Save time with automated shipping solutions
-
The Business Essentials Guide provides you useful tools and templates to help grow your business and save you time with automated shipping solutions.
- Visit the UPS Business Essentials Guide
- New Online Dashboard for IT Leaders
-
Read about top issues IT decision-makers face every day, plus get cost-effective solutions to real-life IT problems.
- Learn more >>
- The more you simplify, the more you save
-
When you transition from your existing Red Hat environment to SUSE Linux Enterprise from Novell, you can recognize dramatic cost savings, perhaps as much 50%
- Learn more >>
- The best support in the Linux business
-
If Linux is going to power your mission-critical applications, you'd better have the best support known to business. Novell was rated the top provider of Linux technical support.
- Learn more >>
Archives
ZDNet Blogs
- All About Microsoft
- The Apple Core
- Between the Lines
- BriefingsDirect
- Collaboration 2.0
- Dev Connection
- Digital Cameras & Camcorders
- Ed Bott's Microsoft Report
- Emerging Tech
- Enterprise Web 2.0
- Forrester Research
- Googling Google
- GreenTech Pastures
- Hardware 2.0
- Home Theater
- iGeneration
- Irregular Enterprise
- IT Project Failures
- Laptops & Desktops
- Lawgarithms
- Linux and Open Source
- Managing L'unix
- The Mobile Gadgeteer
- On Sustainability
- Rational Rants
- The Semantic Web
- Service Oriented
- Smartphones and Cell Phones
- Social Business
- Social CRM: The Conversation
- Software & Services Safari
- Software as Services
- Storage Bits
- Team Think
- Tech Broiler
- Technology and the Global Supply Chain
- Tom Foremski: IMHO
- The ToyBox
- Virtually Speaking
- The Web Life
- ZDNet Education
- ZDNet Government
- ZDNet Healthcare
- Zero Day
White Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads
- The Impact of Virtualization Software on Operating Environments VMware Today's use of virtualization technology allows IT professionals to ... Download Now
- Five Steps to Determine When to Virtualize YourServers VMware Server virtualization isn't just for big companies. Entry-level ... Download Now
- Why Isn't Server Virtualization Saving Us More? A Few Small Changes May Dramatically Increase Your Efficiency VMware Companies have rapidly adopted server virtualization over the past few ... Download Now
SmartPlanet
- Thought-provoking progressive ideas on diverse topics that intersect with technology, business, and life, and matter to the world at large. Visit SmartPlanet
- More from IBM
-
- Innovate your business' process model, play against the market, compete against others on our scoreboards and WIN! Try INNOV8 2.0: A BPM Simulator
- Enabling Real-World Business Transformation through IBM Service Management Read the EMA Analyst Report
