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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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.

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On balance
On Gmail
On trampolines

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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