« Digital Maoism? (Or Mau-Mauism?) | Main | The future's back there » Gooogle fatigue?Wade Roush in MIT Technology Review suggests that "Google fatigue" has set in because bloggers aren't wowed by Google's new spreadsheet. He quotes Michael Arrington at TechCrunch: "When is the last time Google released a product that really changed our lives?" In fact, for me, that was recently, and it was Google calendar, which is incredibly easy to use and shareable, despite a couple of issues (e.g. you can't display a calendar to anyone who hasn't signed up, and its ability to sync is limited). Roush asks "Is the company searching for a strategy?" My sense is that the company looks for new ways for users to aggregate data and make use of Google's core search technology. And the spreadsheet, like the calendar, is shareable, consistent with the collaborative aspect associated with "web 2.0." And remember what Tim O'Reilly said about "data as the next 'Intel inside'." Roush goes on to fault Google's use of the concept and word "beta," forgetting that O'Reilly lists "perpetual beta" as one of the design patterns for "web 2.0." I put "web 2.0" in quotes because I have some issues with the label which I've addressed elsewhere, but to the extent there is such a thing, Google is supposed to be one of it's prime movers, and can't be faulted for continuing to follow the principles and patterns it helped define. jon posted this at 8:29 AM |
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