Why I no longer use Gmail - and am contemplating disentangling myself from GOOG entirely

As I write this, my personal Gmail account has been down and unavailable for about 36 hours.

There hasn't been a status update from "tech support" (and I use the term very loosely, as I haven't seen anything from Google yet that deserves the name "support") since 3PM Eastern yesterday.

I've relied on a lot of Google-based free services for everyday computing - Google Apps and Google Voice in addition to Gmail, to be sure, but also Blogger (since 2004.)

I'm done with that, I think.  Monocultures are dangerous.

As a first step, I have a new personal e-mail address.  I'll be sending updates out shortly - for those of you who care, Fastmail is my new provider of choice, for the following reasons:

• Good reputation for quality and transparency in the geek community
• Multiple tech support options
  
• Affordable: USD 35 for one year of "premium" e-mail service (free and lower-cost options are available)

I'll let y'all know how it goes.

And in the meantime - well, I guess it's finally time to suck it up and move enrevanche to a new home.  Stay tuned.

This is gonna be fun to watch

Google has taken direct aim at Microsoft’s core personal computer software business, with the announcement of a PC operating system to rival Windows.

The system, based on Google’s Chrome web browser, is designed for all classes of PCs, “from small netbooks to full-sized desktop systems”, and will be available in machines from “multiple” PC makers in the second half of next year, the company said.

Google to launch PC operating System (Financial Times, 8 July 2009)

Google Wave

Google is working on a Facebook killer. Whoa... very cool collaboration tools.

Random access memory lane

I've really been enjoying the new Gmail Themes feature.

Here's a theme called Terminal that looks like a blast from the past.

I can remember some BBSes that didn't look too dissimilar to this in the 1980s, and were it not on a very wide screen, it would look a lot like an old-school VT-100 or IBM 3270 display:



(That's my spam folder, so as to protect the privacy of my correspondents.)

Understanding Google Chrome

Google commissioned comic-book artist and theorist (yes, really) Scott McCloud to explain the design philosophy behind Google Chrome in graphic novel form.

Google Chrome

Windows-only at this point, so I'm running Google Chrome under VMware Fusion.

Light, fast.  I like it.

The Net, rewiring our nervous systems

For me, as for others, the Net is becoming a universal medium, the conduit for most of the information that flows through my eyes and ears and into my mind. The advantages of having immediate access to such an incredibly rich store of information are many, and they’ve been widely described and duly applauded. “The perfect recall of silicon memory,” Wired’s Clive Thompson has written, “can be an enormous boon to thinking.” But that boon comes at a price. As the media theorist Marshall McLuhan pointed out in the 1960s, media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.

"Is Google Making Us Stupid?" - Nicholas Carr, The Atlantic, July 2008

Holding the future of computing in your hand

At this very moment, in a building somewhere in Silicon Valley, I guarantee you that a team of engineers from Google and Apple are designing a set of devices that, hooked up as terminals to Google's "supercomputer," will define how we use computers in the future. You can see various threads of this system today - in Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch, its dot-mac service, its iLife and iWork applications as well as in Google's Apps suite and advertising system, not to mention its vast data-center network. What this team is doing right now is weaving all those threads together into what will be, for most of us, the fabric of cloud computing. (This is so big, you need at least two metaphors to describe it.)

Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog - Google, Apple and the Future of Personal Computing

(via GigaOm)

Techdirt: Microsoft's tough night

Just about 24 hours after [EU regulators] continued to insist that Microsoft is a monopoly that needs to be restricted, three major tech companies demonstrated why that might not be the case. First up, Google rolled out their long awaited presentations capabilities to Google Docs. Google continues to insist that this is merely a "feature" added to the Google Docs offering, but obviously, this is a light version of PowerPoint...

[...]

While the Google announcement may be more important long-term, it's also worth noting IBM's decision to offer a free downloadable office suite...

IBM is going to offer a commerically supported flavor of OpenOffice called "Lotus Symphony."

TechDirt: Microsoft's Tough Night: Google And IBM Both Launch Free Office Products

Like a squid spraying ink, and for the same reason

Frightened companies disperse FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) when threatened. Here's what Microsoft said yesterday, on the occasion of Google's announcement that major consulting and outsourcing firm Capgemini would start selling Google Apps to their customer base:

Microsoft also suggested a list of “top questions that enterprises should ask when considering the switch to [Google Apps Premier Edition]...

[...]

2. Google has a history of releasing incomplete products, calling them beta software, and issuing updates on a “known only to Google” schedule – this flies in the face of what enterprises want and need in their technology partners – what is Google doing that indicates they are in lock step with customer needs?

3. Google touts the low cost of their apps –not only price but the absence of need for hardware, storage or maintenance for Google Apps. BUT if GAPE is indeed a complement to MSFT Office, the costs actually become greater for a company as they now have two IT systems to run and manage and maintain. Doesn’t this result in increased complexity and increased costs?

And now you've had your irony supplement for the day. :-)

The marketplace already understands "Software as a Service," where the provider maintains all infrastructure and rents you the applications, even if Microsoft pretends not to.

These are early days yet, but this model is going to succeed in a big way.

Google News adds comments... for subjects of articles only

Beginning this week, Google News will start posting user comments, but only from people actually featured in news stories. Newspapers that were unhappy about Google News using snippets of their articles will probably be even less pleased to see the new feature deployed, since Google could become an even more formidable player when it starts hosting original content.

Here's how the new system will work: people or organizations that are mentioned in news stories can submit comments to the Google News team, which will then display those comments—unedited—alongside the Google News links to those stories.

The new system will at first be deployed only within the US, but Google is open to expanding it to other regions if the trial goes well.

Freedom from the press: Google News lets newsmakers comment on stories (ArsTechnica)

Sunrise From A Plane Window

Sunrise From A Plane Window
Originally uploaded by enrevanche.

JetBlue and Google are running a "photos taken from an airplane window" contest to promote live Google Maps on the seatback TVs.

Here's my entry, taken on July 29th, aboard JetBlue Flight 1100 from RDU to JFK, around 6:30 AM and near the NC/VA border as indicated by Google Maps.

Got the shot with my iPhone.

The Google-Postini deal

BusinessWeek's Stephen Baker on Google's purchase of Postini:

Yes, Google's $625 million deal for spam-fighter Postini adds another business application to its portfolio. But when I heard about it, I thought only one thing: Our bosses will gain an ever more powerful tool to search and analyze our e-mails and messages.

[...]

As Google storms into the market, more managers will be able to search employees e-mail the way they now search the Web. Imagine being able to call up every e-mail in the enterprise over the last month, for example, that mentions a key competitor and an upcoming product or service. Want to see it as it's happening? Sign up for an alert for certain keywords. It doesn't have to stop there. Once these data are searchable, it will become ever easier for managers to apply advanced analytics to corporate messaging. They'll be able mine these data for the latest trends of words and subjects that employees are writing about. Mapping the social networks inside and outside the company will be a cinch. And as automatic reading programs improve, companies will also be able to track the rising and falling sentiments of their work force.

Google with Postini: Searching Our E-mail (BusinessWeek Blogs, Stephen Baker, 10 July 2007)

Oh boy: Google acquires GrandCentral

4 July update -- Bumped to add:

While GrandCentral transitions to Google, they have switched from an "open signup" to "invitation only" model. As a current GrandCentral subscriber, I have a few (a very few) invitations to give away; if you'd like to try this service and you're a regular enrevanche reader, drop me a line.

---

As predicted, Google has actually acquired GrandCentral:

We're pleased to announce that we have acquired GrandCentral Communications, a company that provides services for managing your voice communications. GrandCentral is an innovative service that lets users integrate all of their existing phone numbers and voice mailboxes into one account, which can be accessed from the web. We think GrandCentral's technology fits well into Google's efforts to provide services that enhance the collaborative exchange of information between our users.

Official Google Blog: All Aboard

Related: GrandCentral's FAQ on the Google acquisition

TechCrunch: Google to acquire GrandCentral

Google is in acquisition discussions with telephone management startup GrandCentral, we’ve learned, and we have a high degree of confidence that the deal has actually been closed. We are trying to nail down the acquisition price.

The basic idea around GrandCentral is “one phone number for all your phones, for life.” As we change jobs, homes and cell phones, there are a lot of phone numbers to keep track of, and keeping everyone up to date with your most recent phone numbers is a real cost. If you use GrandCentral you can give out a single phone number. What happens when that person calls that number depends on his/her relationship to you, and what you are doing at the time.

TechCrunch: Google to acquire GrandCentral

I have been a delighted user of GrandCentral for some months now. Integration points with various Google services are fairly obvious (Gmail, Google Talk, etc.) Sounds like a good plan.

Don't be evil (unless, you know, there's a lot of money involved)

Google on Wednesday recommended to its shareholders that they vote against a proposal calling for new policies to protect internet freedoms.

The world's biggest internet company gave no explanation in an SEC filing why it opposed the proposal, which is being put forward by The New York state pension funds, one of the biggest investors in the US, at its annual meeting in May.

The group has submitted an identical proposal for consideration at Google rival Yahoo's annual meeting in June.

Funds press Google on Internet freedoms (Financial Times, April 5, 2007, via MSNBC)

Google may not have explained it, but I can sum it up in one word: China.

Larry and Sergey's famous dictum, "Don't be evil" (in summing up Google's corporate philosophy) clearly has some wiggle room built in.

Overpriced at $85? (sigh)

When Google went public, I steered friends (all of whom are, thankfully, still speaking to me) away from the IPO, feeling that the stock was overpriced at its opening value of $85/share.

Now that Google has broken the $500/share barrier (with no ceiling in sight), another one of the Google Stock Price Milestone stories has hit the papers.

Of course, there are still naysayers:

As with any highflying stock, though, a few investors are actively betting on a reversal of fortune. Fred Hickey, who writes the High-Tech Strategist newsletter from his home in Nashua, N.H., says that Google’s shares are sharply overvalued and will fall as investors notice that the company’s rapid growth is slowing.

He points out that its revenue increased 11 percent from the second quarter to the third quarter — a brisk pace, to be sure, but a lot less than the 18 percent pace in the corresponding time a year earlier.

“Google showed the sharpest revenue slowdown I’ve seen,” he said, “and nobody has paid attention.” He argued further that the company’s expenses are “out of control,” and that if the economy headed into a recession, Google’s revenue would falter and its profits plummet.

“Google will suffer the same fate that Yahoo did in 2000,” he said.

Mr. Hickey has put his money where his mouth is: he sold Google shares short, a bet that the stock price will decline. But not much: the short position is just 50 shares.

“I just wanted to be able to say I was short Google when it blew up,” he said.

A $500 Milestone for Google Believers (New York Times, November 22, 2006)

Heh, yeah. He's "short Google" in almost exactly the same sense (and not far from the same dollar value) that I am "long Berkshire Hathaway."

Hey, a couple of Class B shares (and continued fractional investment via Sharebuilder) is a position...

Stop laughing.

Computerworld reviews Google Docs and Spreadsheets

Computerworld reviews Google Docs and Spreadsheets, formerly known as Writely, and concludes "good concept, but far from ready for prime time":

Looking for a free word processor and spreadsheet? Google's newly released Docs & Spreadsheets suite that offers just that, but in this case you get what you pay for. While the number-crunching power of Spreadsheets is adequate for simple workbooks, the Docs program (formerly Writely, acquired by Google earlier this year) is so underpowered we wouldn't recommend it for even casual use.

We tested the program pair with Internet Explorer 6 and 7, Opera 9, and Firefox 1.5. While our testing of Google Spreadsheets left us generally pleased... Google Docs didn't impress us. Furthermore, we encountered so many performance problems that we hesitate to use the programs in any but the most desperate circumstances.

For example, we were repeatedly stymied by a "Network error" message that prevented us from saving our work or even performing a spell check (since Docs must save the document first). Likewise, "Unable to connect to the network" left us frustrated and at a dead end. Worrying about whether your documents and spreadsheets will be available and hoping they won't disappear or be corrupted is no way to work.

I've been using "Google Docs and Spreadsheets" since the Writely days, and while I wouldn't be quite as harsh in my assessment as the Computerworld reporter, I have to agree that I'd never rely on these applications for primary use.

Still... it is very, very clear to me that network-delivered applications are the future, and that the tottering baby steps being taken now are in no way indicative of what offerings are going to look like in a few years.

By the way, if you're looking for an amazingly terrific free word processor, spreadsheet, and office application suite, the newest version of OpenOffice (2.04) just became available.