TODO: Google Search Google Reader Google Chrome Google Maps Google Analytics for the blog In my blog last weekend, I set out to discuss whether I could quit Google’s software and services. To begin, I decided to start just with using Bing instead of Google. This caused no end of amusement to friends on Twitter who mocked be because I wasn’t searching with Google, but worse, I was using their browser all the time. That, exactly, was the reason why…
If you asked me a few years ago about Google, odds are I would talk your ear off about privacy, about how Google aggregates your life together in a manner you can’t imagine. Ask any co-worker at my last job before I left Austin – it’s true. Yet while I’ve still held up my stance as someone concerned about online security and privacy… I’ve lowered my guard. I’ve used Google. I use Google a lot, actually. But Google has been…
For over a year, I’ve struggled to quantify something that I’ve felt was a truism in the iPhone vs. Android battle. I still can’t fully quantify it with evidence, but I think the market is beginning to bear out what I’ve thought was the case. For a long time, I’ve believed that the consumers who buy Android devices and the consumers who buy iOS devices (I’m talking Android phones to iPhone, primarily) are fundamentally different types of consumers. It’s not…
When you travel somewhere, especially somewhere new, somewhere eclectic – do you ever buy your airline ticket, hop on the plane, and eagerly look forward to planning your activities once you arrive? No. No, you don’t. You plan a trip, buy tickets, get everything lined up long before you go. It’s been my contention for some time that buying a new computing device – smartphone, tablet/slate or other, is just like taking a trip. Also, unlike years ago where when…
With the tepid reception of the first generation of Google TV devices, the article that follows may seem too kind to Google. I ask you to suspend reality for a few minutes, and imagine that Google will, as Google often does, “try, try again”. Recently I discussed three devices that today may not seem terribly similar. However, I believe that in the next 1-2 years, you will see these three devices, and the three companies behind them, going head to…
Name: Parking finder Product: Mobile maps (iPhone, Android, Windows Phone 7, any other mobile device) Problem: When looking up directions to a destination – why not provide parking resources too? Proposed solution: You’re looking up directions to a theatre, pub, or some other venue that you want to go to – and almost any mapping software can get you there. But if you’re traveling to any densely populated area, such as downtown in a major city, a theme park, or…
This is the first post in a series I plan, outlining ideas either for modifications to existing products, or a desire for an entirely new product. As a product manager or program manager for almost 10 years, random ideas strike me at a moments notice, but I can’t productize everything I dream up. If I post an idea here, it is public domain. Name: Route builder Product: Mobile maps (iPhone, Android, Windows Phone 7, any other mobile device) Problem: When…
This Tuesday, Google revealed more about Chrome OS, though it remains likely at least 6 months away from anything available commercially. For now, it’s prototype and beta testing time. One of the most common questions I’ve heard about Chrome OS is, “Why? Google already has an OS. It’s Android.” Recall Google’s mission statement: To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Noble goal, and seemingly altruistic. But at the end of the day, Google makes revenue…
The 1990’s saw Microsoft invest considerably in IPTV research as well as investing directly in communications providers, in 1998 they collaborated with Sega on the Dreamcast and they acquired WebTV for $425M in 1997. I distinctly recall no end of criticism from the press for Microsoft’s continued investment in IPTV, something that Microsoft felt was a longer term investment, but that pundits missed the wisdom of. The Dreamcast is of course now discontinued, as is WebTV, though it is hard for me to…