Bad Time for Google

Posted on January 13, 2012 by greggannicott

Since October, Google’s GKBO appears to have been systematically accessing Mocality’s database and attempting to sell their competing product to our business owners. They have been telling untruths about their relationship with us, and about our business practices, in order to do so. As of January 11th, nearly 30% of our database has apparently been contacted.

Via http://blog.mocality.co.ke/2012/01/13/google-what-were-you-thinking/

Google are having a rough time keeping to their Don’t Be Evil motto:

paying bloggers to post a Chrome advert (resulting in Google punishing Google by reducing Google Chrome’s ranking in search results)
blatantly favouring Google+ in its new social search results, and causing a shit storm in the process
and now this.

It’s a long read, but I found it interesting. The sort of sting they performed on Google is the type I’d expect Google to do to others.

‘It Gets Better’ – Google Ad

Posted on June 5, 2011 by greggannicott

Good on Google for taking the time and money to do this. I realise it’s not as if they’re not flogging their wares in doing this ad, but they didn’t have to do it this way.

I know a similar ad aired during Glee in the States, it would be good for it to get some mainstream exposure over here too.

Source: Pink News

As a bonus, here’s another Google ad they’ve released lately. As a Dad who’s tried to blog about his Son, I really appreciated it:

Facebook Busted in Clumsy Smear Attempt on Google

Posted on May 12, 2011 by greggannicott

The social network secretly hired a PR firm to plant negative stories about the search giant, The Daily Beast’s Dan Lyons reveals—a caper that is blowing up in their face, and escalating their war.

via Facebook Busted in Clumsy Smear Attempt on Google – The Daily Beast.

I always figured that the press and blogs simply created this idea that company ‘x’ is at “war” with company ‘y’ (replace ‘x’ and ‘y’ with Google, Apple, Micro$oft (huh huh – see what I did there with the $?) and Facebook). That when Google puts down Apple on stage, and weeks later Jobs responds it’s all theatre. But the above story kind of suggests otherwise.

Google Instant

Posted on September 10, 2010 by greggannicott

Google Instant is a new search enhancement that shows results as you type.

via Google Instant.

I’m very impressed with Google Instant. I’m always using Google Search in my job (sometimes it feels like I actually Google for a living), so any improvements are very welcome.

I’m already noticing the difference in how I search and how often I search. As searching is now quicker and easier, I’m even more inclined to try a search that I might otherwise have considered more effort than it’s worth. On a related note, as my iPhone 3G is no longer painfully sluggish, I’m now reaching for that much more than I use to (and probably as much as I did before it got painfully sluggish). Basically, the easier, quicker and less painful you make something the more I think you’ll use it.

Google Instant has led me to make www.google.com my ‘new tab page’ in Firefox. It’s been a while since it’s taken that position, as I usually just Google via the address bar. Thanks to the fact they focus the cursor on the search box that’s working really well.

Now there is just one more step I’d like to see from Google and I’ll be happy: Keyboard navigation of their search results.

The introduction of Google Instant means I want this even more than before. It now feels like I’m doing much more keyboard work when searching than before (I’m probably not), and getting quicker results. I naturally want to hit j and k to navigate the results and continue to get to my target site as quick as possible. Instead I’m finding myself refining my search to a ridiculous degree just so I can “feel lucky” and visit the site by hitting down and right when it’s the number one result.

One final thought… it’s a strange, unnatural feeling typing in your search and reaching for the mouse without hitting ‘return’. I get a similar incomplete feeling when I don’t have a lingering sugar taste resulting from the final bit of a cup of tea (ie. I don’t finish drinking a cup of tea).

Gmail’s Priority Inbox

Posted on August 31, 2010 by greggannicott

Priority Inbox splits your inbox into three sections: “Important and unread,” “Starred” and “Everything else”

via Email overload? Try Priority Inbox – Official Gmail Blog.

I like the new Priority Inbox feature in Gmail. It’s got a pretty good grasp of which emails I consider important.

Admittedly though I don’t really get enough email to have a need for it, and that’s helped by the fact I tend to read my email through the day via my phone rather than check every time I’m at my home PC.

One thing Google might have misjudged (at least in terms of how I use Gmail) is the fact they consider the starred emails as ‘todo’ items: emails I need to action or read properly when I get the chance. The new priority email interface seems to be designed with that in mind.

However, I tend to use the stars more of a “I’m forever needing this email, so I’d just as well make it easy to find” kind of way. You know, login details. That sort of thing.

Chrome OS/Browser: Side Tabs on their Way? (Updated)

Posted on June 24, 2010 by greggannicott

Chrome OS appears to be coming along nicely:

Chrome OS Adding Polish. Zip Files, Boot Up, And “Addictive” Games Being Debated.

Assuming I can, it’s definately something I’d like to install on our laptop (if we still have it) in place of Ubuntu. Although in theory the iPad may have completely replaced the laptop for us by then.

What I find most interesting about the Techcrunch article though is the screenshot including side-tabs. Side-tabs is the one thing preventing me from jumping the Firefox ship and hopping on board the Chrome one. If these changes find their way into the Chrome Browser that would do it for me.

Update (22/07/2010)

Here’s the issue for this feature:

http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=31763

It was due to go in to Release 6, but has been delayed to Release 7.

Also worth noting is this comment:

You can try out side tabs on windows by way of –enable-vertical-tabs, right click on a tab and choose ‘Use side tabs’. On chrome os go into the experimental menu.

I don’t know which version of Chrome you need to perform this.

Why People Don’t Like Microsoft

Posted on May 31, 2009 by greggannicott

I read this great blog post over the weekened by Zoho basicially explaining why people don’t trust (or like for that matter) Microsoft, but do trust Google. Funnily enough they say it all boils down to karma.

As someone who’s believing more and more in “doing good things and good things will happen to you” (and its not just ‘Earl’ that makes me believe this – its several things that I might write a blog post about one day), it was quite pleasing to read. Here it is:

http://blogs.zoho.com/general/microsoft-silverlight-vs-google-wave-a-study-in-contrasts

Google Chrome: So close!

Posted on September 2, 2008 by greggannicott

Its not been available long (1 hour and 20 minutes in fact) but I’ve been giving Google’s new browser Chrome a run.

To sum up, I really like it… however its not enough to pull me away from Opera.

Credit where its due, its certainly tempting me to switch (more so than Firefox 3 did) but there are a few features its missing that prevents me from using it as my default browser:

Most importantly for me, there’s no sync feature. With Opera I can add a bookmark at home and know full well that it will be available in work within the browser. Same applies to certain other functions. I just added a bookmark to Chrome and it felt like a waste of time. Daft I know, as I still get to use it at home, but its just not the same. The incentive isn’t there to get them right.
The keyboard shortcuts aren’t up to scratch. I thought Google would nail this (as they’re the sort of company who puts in this attention to detail), but they’re lacking. The thing I like about Opera is the ability to navigate the web page with shift+up/down/left/right. This isn’t important to almost everyone, but I love my keyboard shortcuts. They make it so much quicker to get around at times. This is highlighted when I perform a search in Chrome. With Opera I’d hit F8, type “g <search term>”, Google would return results and I’d shift+down to the page I want. Usually the first result. With Chrome I hit F6, type “<search term>”, Google loads up with the result and then I have to reach for the mouse to choose it. Again, I don’t like reaching for the mouse if it can be helped.
When you close the final tab, the whole app goes. Again, not a big deal to most, but I’ve got into the habbit of closing the final tab in Opera with Ctrl+W and the speed dial tab appears and I can start again (all without touching the mouse as well). Do the same in Chrome and the application closes. Doesn’t sound bad, but I then need to reach for the mouse to re-open it. I consider that poor design myself. It wouldn’t be so bad if you could change a setting so this doesn’t happen.

There are other minor faults as well, but they wouldn’t prevent me from using it as my default browser. For instance:

Certain features don’t work in Facebook (I can’t join a group for one – an Ajax issue).
Certain pictures don’t display on Techcrunch (the file format I guess..).
The ctrl+tab doesn’t work for tabs in the same way as alt+tab does for applications (as in you can go back and forth between the same two tabs (this happens correctly in other browsers). You end up cycling through them all from left to right). This isn’t the natural behavour expected, and again Google surprises me here because they’re usually good with that.

But I’d say for a first attempt, they’ve done really well. I’m that close to switching. If they could sort out the 3 niggles I highlighted, I’d switch.

So far I’ve only highlighted the negatives but its got some really good things going for it.

‘Application Mode’ for certain pages. When I’m on Google Reader or Google Mail, I can choose to make it an app. What this does is (depending on your choices) add a link to the web app on your Desktop, Quick Launch and Start Menu – it even uses the .ico image as the icon. Its the little touches like that which completes things nicely. For this reason, although I may not use it as my default browser, I will likely use it for Google Mail, Google Reader, Google Docs and overtime other web apps.
Its fast. As a result it feels a pleasure to use.
The ‘default page’ is an improvement on Opera’s. Where as Opera allows you to select 9 sites for your default page (Speed Dial), Google offers your most visited ones. These are likely to be the pages you want on such a page. It also includes all your search options (more on this in a bit), recent bookmarks and recently closed tabs.
Chrome notices the sites you perform searches on. Do a search on Amazon and it will offer that to you on your default page (and when you start typing “amazon” into the Omnibar (Address bar))
Its nice to be able to drag a tab away and have it open a new window.
Its nice to drag a download to where you want it to go. Dragging is good. It feels natural. Natural is good. Its intuitive I guess.
It offers plenty of screen space for the actual web page. The tabs sit at the very top of the window (alongside the ‘red x’) with only the address bar below it. Every thing else is dedicated to the web site.

I could go on, but I think I’ll leave it at that. I’m sure the more I use it, the more faults and nice touches I’ll find. With it being a Google product I expect to see more nice touches than faults. I can imagine the Default Page and the fact it notices what you search will really come into its own after a while. If they could build that into a sync feature.. well, then I’m sold!

There are so many more things to talk about with regards to this browser. I’ve scratched the surface in terms of using it, but there’s other angles that are worth looking at if you’re an web industry obsessed geek like myself. Best place to start is Techmeme.

greg.gannicott.co.uk

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