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Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Saturday, September 03, 2011
Google, Discontinuing Google Desktop is a Mistake
Among the list of Google products that Google plan to discontinue, Google Desktop is the least I'd see it go. I think Google is making a mistake of discontinuing Google Desktop.
According to Google's blog, below is their reason for discontinuing Google Desktop:
I agree that there is a "huge" shift from local to cloud-based storage and computing. However, I think Google over estimated the speed of "cloud adoption" among computer user. I also think Google completely missed the benefit of Google Desktop's potential in Enterprise business.
In the Consumer market, most people store pictures, music and movies in their local hard drives. Picasa does a great job of find and organizing pictures on the hard drive, and most people have a preferred and consistent way of managing their entertainment files - iTune or dedicated folders.
However, in the Enterprise market, people store mostly documents in their local hard drives - things like emails, office documents (World, Excel, PowerPoints) and other proprietary information. For corporate security policy and technology cost reasons, most American corporations have not yet custom the applications of cloud computing. That means either they back up information in company servers, or relying on employees PC hard drives. Finding out a specific piece of information among these files was extremely painful before Google Desktop was available. PC users, which is still the majority of all computer users, should know that Windows' "Find" is almost useless and painfully slow. Windows 7 has made huge improvements on its ability of locating files quickly, but it still lacks the simple and elegant offer from Google Desktop. Similarly, finding a piece of information among the thousands of emails in Outlook is equally bad. Outlook searches by folders instead of the entire email database.
I use Google Desktop on a daily basis. Sometime, I try to find a specific email written or received several quarters back. I remember a few keywords related to the conversation, but I no longer recall the email's subject, and during which time frame I filed that email to a local folder. Using Outlook 2007's search button would sometimes drive me crazy. In these situations, Google Desktop is my time saver. A double-click of Ctrl, and a few seconds later, I can open the email or any related document in its original application (e.g. Outlook or Microsoft Word), and I can resend, attach or continue the topic of discussions very quickly.
First, I don't believe many American corporation would move to cloud computing as quickly. The benefits of cloud computing is very clear, but due to the overall economical situation, IT budget control is a realistic issue. Also, implementing, training and adopting new IT technologies take time. Moving to cloud simply takes time.
Second, cloud computing require network/Internet access. This is a "given" situation among American corporations and consumers, but believe or not, I think it's still a very expensive and luxurious thing in many countries. Countries like Japan or South Korea are the leaders in wireless and wired infrastructure coverage, but other countries like China and India are still far behind. Without sophisticated networking hardware and infrastructure, cloud computing would reduce productivity without effective offline access. Thus, I once argue that there are many corporations and people in the world store information on local hard drives, which could benefit from using a "local" search engine for locating information.
In either way, Google has the right of terminating their product whenever they want to because they were offered free. However, I think there is much more Google can do to improve Google Desktop search. Above all, people still need a "desktop" to access information, regardless where it resides. As for me, I hope to keep using Google Desktop until I no longer can find and download its installation file.
According to Google's blog, below is their reason for discontinuing Google Desktop:
Desktop: In the last few years, there’s been a huge shift from local to cloud-based storage and computing, as well as the integration of search and gadget functionality into most modern operating systems. People now have instant access to their data, whether online or offline. As this was the goal of Google Desktop, the product will be discontinued on September 14, including all the associated APIs, services, plugins, gadgets and support.
I agree that there is a "huge" shift from local to cloud-based storage and computing. However, I think Google over estimated the speed of "cloud adoption" among computer user. I also think Google completely missed the benefit of Google Desktop's potential in Enterprise business.
In the Consumer market, most people store pictures, music and movies in their local hard drives. Picasa does a great job of find and organizing pictures on the hard drive, and most people have a preferred and consistent way of managing their entertainment files - iTune or dedicated folders.
However, in the Enterprise market, people store mostly documents in their local hard drives - things like emails, office documents (World, Excel, PowerPoints) and other proprietary information. For corporate security policy and technology cost reasons, most American corporations have not yet custom the applications of cloud computing. That means either they back up information in company servers, or relying on employees PC hard drives. Finding out a specific piece of information among these files was extremely painful before Google Desktop was available. PC users, which is still the majority of all computer users, should know that Windows' "Find" is almost useless and painfully slow. Windows 7 has made huge improvements on its ability of locating files quickly, but it still lacks the simple and elegant offer from Google Desktop. Similarly, finding a piece of information among the thousands of emails in Outlook is equally bad. Outlook searches by folders instead of the entire email database.
I use Google Desktop on a daily basis. Sometime, I try to find a specific email written or received several quarters back. I remember a few keywords related to the conversation, but I no longer recall the email's subject, and during which time frame I filed that email to a local folder. Using Outlook 2007's search button would sometimes drive me crazy. In these situations, Google Desktop is my time saver. A double-click of Ctrl, and a few seconds later, I can open the email or any related document in its original application (e.g. Outlook or Microsoft Word), and I can resend, attach or continue the topic of discussions very quickly.
First, I don't believe many American corporation would move to cloud computing as quickly. The benefits of cloud computing is very clear, but due to the overall economical situation, IT budget control is a realistic issue. Also, implementing, training and adopting new IT technologies take time. Moving to cloud simply takes time.
Second, cloud computing require network/Internet access. This is a "given" situation among American corporations and consumers, but believe or not, I think it's still a very expensive and luxurious thing in many countries. Countries like Japan or South Korea are the leaders in wireless and wired infrastructure coverage, but other countries like China and India are still far behind. Without sophisticated networking hardware and infrastructure, cloud computing would reduce productivity without effective offline access. Thus, I once argue that there are many corporations and people in the world store information on local hard drives, which could benefit from using a "local" search engine for locating information.
In either way, Google has the right of terminating their product whenever they want to because they were offered free. However, I think there is much more Google can do to improve Google Desktop search. Above all, people still need a "desktop" to access information, regardless where it resides. As for me, I hope to keep using Google Desktop until I no longer can find and download its installation file.
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