Lazycoder

A Google post NOT about the desktop engine

InsideGoogle: Hello! What’s This? It’s Google’s Most Underrated Product: Picasa

I found this article via the Weblog tools blog. I’ve been using Picasa for a couple of months to organize my digital images, but this is the first I’ve heard of Hello. I’ll have to try it on this weekend and see how I like it.

update: After reading this article and the comments, I’ve discovered there is a LOT more to Googles strategy than I thought. Do you think it’s a coincidence that Google bought Picassa, an image orgainzing application, and has released a desktop search application? It looks to me like they are trying to leapfrog WinFS, or at least marginalize it. Who cares if you can attach metadata to your “objects” if the Google desktop application can index images in your picassa collection? By getting this technology out there before Longhorn (wait, is WinFS still in Longhorn or has it been pushed back? Or is that forward?), they put Microsoft in an awkward position. Now people will have a lot of information about their images already in Picassa and they will be able to find them using the Google DA, why take the time to attach all that metadata in WinFS when they already have the functionality they need? Regardless of whether or not WinFS will work better.

The second thing I’ve noticed about Google is they really “get(tm)” the internet. There isn’t a lot of hype surrounding the release of their products, in fact I’d never heard of Picassa until I was poking around the “more” section of Google and saw it there. I’d never heard about a release date for the desktop engine or Gmail until I started seeing that it had been released in the blogs. That’s refreshing in this age of “biggerBetterFasterMORE!” and pre-hype for pre-hype for hype. Remember when things just…were….they weren’t “THE BEST EVER” or “the greatest product/event/speaker”. Things used to rise and fall somewhat on their own merit.

The third thing I’ve noticed is that I never hesitate to install Google products, even beta ones. That’s odd for me and repesents a shift in my thinking, at least when it comes to this one companies products. Generally I’m very mistrustful of software and I wait a few versions, at least 1.0, before I install it. I mean, even if your code is beta quality at least LIE to me and say it’s 1.0. Microsoft products have to wait until version 2.0…errr…the next year number. Googlebar beta, installed. Google desktop application beta, installed. No worries, no fear. You can’t buy that kind of trust and you certainly can’t hype that kind of trust. I don’t think it can be entirely blamed on Googles company motto, “Don’t be evil”. I think it goes farther than that. I trust Googles coders.