Is Google's Big Bet On Google+ Too Risky?

Google is ending 2011 with a cliffhanger: Will Google+ succeed? And if it does not, how much damage will the company suffer as a result?

Google has made it clear that Google+, far from being a stand-alone social networking site, is rather a much broader and more ambitious initiative that carries implications for the company's other products.

Well, although risky, i believe it's a must-do thing for Google. Without a doubt Google+ is now nothing close to perfect. Like after half year of its beta launch, i still can't +1 my maps, my locations (which is kind of a big deal for local business). Also connections between Google services are still very weak, and there's no way i can connect my Gmail to my calendar to my maps and to my real life. After all, i see some improvements but Google definitely needs to speed up, I don't think there is much time left for Google.

Office is the next focus

Only my prediction, when you see the popularity of quick office among different age groups, it is definitely the next battlefield. While google is busying working on UI stuff (and it has way more to do), maybe it is time to think about your crappy Gdocs application. To lift up android and google itself, business applications like M$ word, powerpoint are more than essential. though Google already has its office application Gdocs, its functionality is keeping users including me away. Only by building a great office application and easy experience transition from chrome to android would shift business users from M$ to Gdocs, and this is the next cash cow.

First time

I see 8 Androids and 3 apple only. It's quite impressive especially happens in Hong Kong.

LG Rumored To Announce Google TV Device at CES

LG Rumored To Announce Google TV Device at CES:

I know, I know, TV would definitely be the next battlefield for IT companies, but right now, i can't see any edges google has, Why? look at its core business, Gmail, Calendar, Gdocs, google reader, Chromebook, none of them is perfect, not even good. Google TV i am afraid is another failure product, okay but not great.

Adding android market doesn't help it, on TV, service is way more important than App, we want to subscribe different services to help lifting our experience on TV but not to use apps on a bigger screen! we might want to browse the internet on TV, but website on TV is different from website on desktop, the experiences are totally different and right now, there is so little support for surfing internet on TV. In the next 10 years, i am sure the website should have more than 3 versions: mobile, tablet, desktop and TV, and Google TV, should be focus on how to get people on the TV version's internet.

App is a dying idea, it is outdated as i mentioned before. Service is the new king, if google can't figure out how to add "service" on TV by using android, it will fail. of coz, if google can't polish its UI, it will fail too. 

Chrome Apps aren't apps

The interface is better than previous version, but the idea is that, using Microsoft's words, "tile is better than icon", because it gives more information rather than just an icon, a shortcut. In android/google world, tile is actually another name of "widget", and because we love widget in android, chrome should do the same. Chrome app is nothing right now, google's chrome apps are simply shortcuts, and people don't need it. What make an application useful is not only about to add an icon on homepage, but rather have to provide service. chrome extensions in this way are actually better applications because they give me more functionality than most of the chrome apps. Such as allowing me to send content to phone, to copy pure text without formatting, to add tasks or remove ads. for example, gtalk on chrome is a very useful extension, but again, it is not an app. so developers, if you want to sell chrome app or make chrome web store more useful, you should provide services rather than icons. just like "send to phone", i would actually pay for it if it has a price.

Google News is getting better

Not many of you might notice, google news is currently the most improved product among all google services, it's even better than the gamil, calendar, docs, google+, and of course, reader. The most significant improve is its fluid width feature which fits any screen size, and its left navigation bar and the right column will automatically be hidden when reducing the window size. the second best thing i like is its integration with google+, which you can see the authors of articles (if they are on g+) and circle them without leaving the page (which, is a bit slow, blamed on G+, but is still acceptable). The customized news search works great, though it doesn't support chinese very well. The news list isn't really timely and there is no way to filter news by time range is the main drawback to me. But still, if you compare this with other products, you will easily find it much better than most of the redesigned products. 

Gdocs Makes me Mad!

I really think google makes gdocs simply unusable. on what earth designer can make such crap, the list shows only author and date? but no title? Not to mention there is no web-view in document which is essential for editing document with limited width space and will never be printed out, Come on! this is just basis feature and why it takes so long to fix? google, please focuses on your products, i am tired of your crappy products, which are so not well thought, so many stupid misdesigns, those tiny things just keep users away.