April 6th, 2007
When will Google commit?
Google is on a product test roll this week, capping off a whirlwind week with an “experimental” free directory assistance service, GOOG-411.
Steve Ballmer recently “told” Google to slow down, and so did I!
Google will not be deterred in its never ending quest to organize ALL the world’s information, however. A blizzard of product enhancements, experiments and tests continues to spew from the Googleplex.
This week alone:
April 3: Google Television Ads “Test”
April 5: My Maps upgrade to Google Maps
April 6: Google Voice Local Search “Experiment”
But WHERE are the honest to goodness product LAUNCHES in the REAL marketplace, with no disclaimers?
Is this season’s blizzard of betas, trials, additions, tests, experiments, destined to melt away without ever coming to fruition, just as past season Google innovation storms have dissipated, leaving no meaningful product legacies in their wake?
(see Google: Any rain on My Maps parade?)
Google presents GOOG-411 Voice Local Search toll-free directory assistance to the public, but qualifies it as an “experimental service”:
Google Voice Local Search is still in its experimental stage. It may not be available at all times and may not work for all users. We’re fine-tuning the service to get better at recognizing your requests. It’s currently only available in English, in the US, for US business listings.
Such a service stance says Google is not being accountable to its users, Anil Dash writes:
If your product "may not be available at all times and may not work for all users", then either fix it or get yelled at by angry users. Either one is a good option. Don't hide behind a "well, shucks, we said it was beta, and it's free…" excuse.
Having paying customers (or the equivalent — something to indicate users were invested) would help focus the product team.
Google would not disagree. I heard the Distinguished Google Engineer Luiz Barroso at the Googleplex last evening discuss how product outages are considered differently depending upon whether services are free or if paying users are impacted.
DASH: Connecting people via VOIP or sending them an SMS, two of the key features of the new service, cost money. At Google volumes, they cost a lot of money. I want to have a service I can rely on — which again means I need to invest in it. I understand that the idea here is for this product team to use a beta test as a starting point to make the service more reliable, but the sad reality is that a line has been crossed where there's no sense of urgency or expectation that those actual launch days ever arrive.
Google’s sense of urgency is to be present in every single technology, in every single market, in every single way, regardless of readiness or long-term viability.
At the NYC Googleplex last evening, no less than 35 different engineering specialties were being recruited! SEE Google challenges NYC software engineers.
ALSO: What Microsoft is telling Google about mobile search and Nokia gets local: Mapping, navigation smart2go platform
