On Chrome

Another bloody browser, this time from Google. It’s a crowded field and Google’s efforts outside search have a mixed track record. Gmail is excellent but Knol is terrible. I installed Chrome and it’s nothing special. On the plus side it has a nice simple UI, on the minus side it’s not very intuitive. For my money Opera is still the best and I won’t be switching any time soon.

What’s more interesting is where Google is going with this. I think Arrington is right. Google is preparing to enter the OS market and Chrome is the first shot. Microsoft have foolishly left this avenue open first by allowing Linux to creep up on them in the UMPC market and then by not addressing the sector properly and leaving it to XP. Now I have nothing against XP, it’s a good OS. I’m just surprised MS hasn’t put out a purpose built UMPC operating system. W7 may have something along these lines but I don’t think MS can afford to hang around here. They may wake up in 2010 with their core business gone if they are not more careful.

Back to Goog. To keep denying they are working on an OS when they have already begun the Android project is clearly ridiculous. They basically admit as much in the Chrome announcement:

At Google, we spend much of our time working inside a browser. Like all of you, we search, shop, bank, read news and keep in touch with friends – all using a browser. People are spending an increasing amount of time online, and they’re doing things never imagined when the web first appeared about 15 years ago.

They are right here. These days all I use my OS for is to drive my browser. This minimises the importance of the operating system if all it has to do is run a browser and the associated plugins. My next machine will probably be a Dell E running Linux. This will be plenty to browse the web and send emails which is all I really need. The days of everyone having heavy operating systems are gone. Some people will still need dedicated desktop apps but I expect this small market to be dominated by Apple and high end macs.

The era of MS dominance is at an end. So on the Google browser I say no thanks but on the OS yes please. The more competition the better.

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On the death of Office

Google Apps is starting to turn from a sideshow into a proper business. Google seems to be using revenue from its search business to undermine paid for software of a competitor, Microsoft. Ironically this is how Microsoft killed Netscape and unfortunately for MS it is a very effective tactic. There are far too many advanced features in MS Office which means it is vulnerable to a stripped down competitor like Apps. Google charges comparatively nothing ($50 per year for the premium service) and hosts everything itself.

This approach is not without weaknesses if Google wants to get out of the SME market. As they grow some enterprises may want to take all their applications in house, not host them on Google’s servers. At the moment Google only offers its enterprise apps stuck to its own servers. Cloud computing is very attractive but any large organisation will want to control its own cloud.

Theory Y

Ultimately what I really want is the capability to hack together different suites into one service. So for example we could use Gmail for mail, SocialText for wikis, Sonar Dashboard for networking and Connectbeam for tagging and search. New services should be easy to trial and add to enable quick decision making when someone finds a new app they want to try. At the moment getting a new application added to a corporate environment is a very time consuming process with the result that the applications being used are miles behind what is available.

Software alone is not the solution though, these tools can only support good management. I am currently reading the Human Side of Enterprise. It was first published in 1960 but is fresh as the day it was written. The approach to management it espouses is maximum freedom and maximum responsibility for employees. Most organisations are not run this way and still cling to the idea that people are naturally lazy/incompetent and need to be constantly corralled by a management class. The alternative view is that people are naturally enterprising and will respond positively to a challenge so long as they aren’t constantly interfered with. Organisations like WL Gore & Associates and Semco have succeeded taking this approach long before collaborative software became a reality. And to really get the best out of collaborative software, management will have to change too.

Read more:
On balance
On Gmail
On trampolines

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On Gmail

To paraphrase the Arctic Monkeys it’s the beginning of the end for Outlook. TechCrunch reports that the Australian schools system has switched from Outlook to Gmail. Outlook is the canary in the mine for MS Office, it may be the first to fall but the other apps are not far behind.

Gmail is the best email system in the world. It’s not perfect but it is the best. Threaded conversations are the best. A near perfect spam filter is the best. Its UI is the best.

Where does it need to improve to become truly revolutionary? For my money what it needs is integration with a broader enterprise network. That means going beyond the clunky calendar functions in Outlook and melding Gmail into something like Connectbeam or Trampoline Systems, then it would be truly remarkable and part of a worthy enterprise tool.

Now Google has the makings of this with its apps suite but they need to show more imagination. In this they are behind MS which has already started tinkering with enterprise networks in the shape of TownSquare. Now I fully expect TownSquare not to make it as MS seems to have taken its eye off the enterprise apps ball, apparently believing that all they have to do is trundle out endless Office updates and all will be well. Gmail starting to replace Outlook shows they are heading for a rude awakening.

Read more:
On trampolines
On TownSquare

On Google’s mistake

For reasons unknown Google is trying to keep Yahoo out of Microsoft’s hands, thus rescuing their great rival from making a huge mistake and inviting a barrage of antitrust attention on themselves.

Schonfeld reports in TechCrunch that to avoid this “the deal is necessarily structured in a creative way” which sounds like the Google legal department has been working long hours. I always think in business you should try and avoid anything which means spending a lot of time with lawyers and government officials. And I say that as a former lawyer.

Yahoo is going down and if MS are unlucky enough to land the deal they will go down with them. Why on earth Google is stepping in to prevent this catastrophe is anyone’s guess. Yahoo search will never threaten them unless they put Schachter in charge of it which nobody at Yahoo has the imagination for.

What Google should actually do is concentrate on building out their enterprise apps. They already have a fantastic start in Gmail. All they need is a couple of innovative enterprise networks start-ups and they would be well on their way to an attractive 21st century alternative to Office while MS was choking on Yahoo.

Pic: SMH

Read more:
On Microsoft’s biggest mistake
On Microhoo
On Yahoo

On trampolines

Almost every organisation I have worked for has terrible information management, most of the time people have no clear idea how to find the information they need within the organisation or who is best placed to help them. Most intranets are static, badly designed and divorced from what users need with the result that nobody uses them.

Part of the reason is the general unwillingness of corporate IT departments to try anything new. To them, the convenience of the IT department is paramount and if that means forcing everyone else to work around bad systems then so be it. The result is that people are trying to use Excel to project manage and Word to collaborate without anyone actually asking what the user wants to achieve. We are still chained to Outlook despite the existence of far better solutions such as corporate Gmail. Even Google occasionally participates in this lack of imagination by simply porting old solutions onto the web: A limited functionality online word processor that is slow and hard to use? Fantastic!

Enterprise networks are the future of office applications, not dragging MS Office onto the web. They allow users to really see what is going on with an organisation and get a much clearer idea of who can help them. The two best applications I have seen are from Connectbeam and Trampoline Systems. There are differences between the two with Connectbeam incorporating tagging and search whereas Trampoline focuses on the flow of information around the organisation.

Neither is perfect at the moment and for my money would have to incorporate other features along the way such as wikis, discussion forums and email. If either puts it all together in a neat package I see them as the next generation office suite, Microsoft itself is in on the act with the underwhelming Sharepoint – especially when put alongside Connectbeam and Trampoline who are both streets ahead of MS. Google could do worse than acquiring one or both of these start-ups, rebuilding Google apps around them and relegating Google docs to the sideshow it should be.