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Google's Next Release

OREO [PersonRank 10]

Saturday, April 15, 2006
18 years ago3,629 views

Okay, so we've all been speculating for months that Google Calendar would be released, hopefully on April 1st. Google disappointed us with no major surprise (except the joke,) but after 12 days of waiting, luckily they didn’t keep our hopes down with the Calendar release. Why do you think they waited 12 more days? Was the product really not ready on April 1st, or did they wait intentionally?

As for the future, what’s next? We’ve all been dying to see the Calendar! Now what do everyone wish for in the future from Google? What other amazing services do we need? (Or upgrades to current services?) Can we start new speculations?

Sam Davyson [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Ok. I think they are going to keep updating Google Talk to bring it inline with other messaging programs but hopefully not have it so cluttered. Google Write is obviously on the horizon with the Writely acquistion. I don't use Google Desktop so I am unsure of its current state – whether it needs upgrades. I think that Google Groups need an upgrade but I doubt they will get it.

I think everyone wnats to see more integration between services so maybe Google could work on this rather than a new product.

Gmail wise we could get the voice features of Google Talk in Gmail (unlikely) or the ability to collect other POP3 accounts via Gmail.

/pd [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

1) extend capex in Dark fibre optics
2) Buyout of dubbledd http://www.dabbledb.com/
3) Strengthening Gbase
4) Working on Gpay systems

Sam Davyson [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Oo and Google Music Store is apparently coming.

Ludwik Trammer [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

I guess they were preparing Google Calendar to be released on April 1st, but something stopped them.

Next futures may be voice messages in Gmail, Writely in Gmail style, and others. But what I'm really looking forward to are not new futures. It's better integration. I want to see new items from Google Reader and Google Groups in my Gmail. And I want to see my agenda there. It should be optional, but would be great for people who use those services.

OREO [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Yeah I agree (Ludwik Trammer.) I want them to improve Google Reader. I want to have Google Reader within Gmail and not as a seperate page. I think a Google Music store is a bad/risky idea. Based on Google's video store, which in my opinion isn't so great, Gtunes type of service would have to be really really good in order to have any chance of people using it. Maybe if it offered songs for one cent or something... But I don't know.. the future looks really open for Google.

dpneal [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

yeah i agree. but i think they should just swap gmail web clips for an inline version of google reader.

OREO [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Yeah definitely! Those web clips look cool but they are uselss... I only use them for vocabulary word of the day.. Gmail needs to incorporate Google Reader and Google Calendar better.. and of course improve the Gmail Chat.

I think the only reason why I personally love Google is because of Gmail and everything that surrounds it. Gmail is the best part of Google! Don't you think? Everybody uses it the most.

Google needs to incorprate lots of its services into Gmail, but make it possible to edit/arrange how it looks according to personal preference. In this way Google will enable its users to access the information and services they enjoy FASTER and EASIER.

/pd [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Does anyone know if Google isworking towards SEO "solely" for Gbase ??

DannySullivan has some comments on jermey posting that makes me think that Gbase is the next thing that they will concentrate on ..

http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/006616.html

Stephen [PersonRank 0]

18 years ago #

Everything said above and GDrive.

pokemo [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

I pray for GDRIVE....

or [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

I think we are all forgetting the most important thing. I still use Google mainly for Google Search. I love gmail, but I would find it easier to switch if I was not satisfied with Google search (well, actually, I think gmail is now just as much a part of my life as Google search).

I hope within a year that Google releases something radically new or much improved in the Search arena that blows away the competition. But that is now hard to do (blow away competition) because yahoo and MS are now very focused on search. But there is a possibility google can do it because they have somewhat of a head start experimenting with different things over the last 6 or so years, and they probably have more search data that gives them a better idea of when users are satisfied with results.

Travis Harris [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

I was shocked that Gdrive was not mentioned for soo long :)
Also, I would like to see Gmail integration improved with many things... reader, Google pages, calendar. I would also like to see Google improve the Gmail search... it clearly is not as good as their usual search, also little things like I have an email from bobjones[put at-character here]stupidwebsite.com if I search for bob... no luck... if I remember that his address was stupid something... I can't search for stupid* and find it..... I need partial matches in my search!
Other things like Google pages/Gmail for your own domain which are on the horizon but not fully realized yet (I signed up for Gmail on my domain within hours of the sign up launch and have not heard anything)

I agree that their search needs help... I actually liked it three or four years ago when you could search for an obscure phrase that you know someone out in your situation has written, and you'd almost always find it... now I think they focus on keywords too much and not indexing the whole internet!

OREO [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

"Now I think they focus on keywords too much and not indexing the whole internet!" – interesting point. I do believe Google's main purpose was to make search better. But apart from that, its entire new services seemed to change the way people use or see it. We sometimes take it for granted.

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

What might Google release/ come up with?

- Google Excel, Google PowerPoint and Google Access/ SQL are still missing from the Web Office suite
- Google Calendar API, Google Reader API, Google Base API
- SketchUp as free release now they acquired it
- More AI in web search – smart data mining to create new content, new conclusions (which could result in e.g. a new person search, new OneBox results)
- Google browser based on Firefox? Music Store? Google PC?
- Better localize its products (in particular Google Local)

I also think Google must find ways to better integrate all of its products. Windows came up with a taskbar. How do people organize their apps within the web OS? Where is our "desktop"? Maybe Google will deliver more Personalized Homepage modules for all of their services. Right now, we have the corner bookmarks (which don't scale, and already clutter the pages a bit) as well as the "Personalized Home | Searc History" links pane on the top right... which IMO have not found their final best place yet.

Utills [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Everyone seems to have forgotten about the Mobile Arena. They aquired http://www.dodgeball.com/ quite some time ago but haven't used it yet in any way.

Google Powerpoint I think sounds like something they would love to tackle. The standards exist to deploy a presentation straight into the browser, S5 (http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/tools/s5/) , and the business sector needs something simple and online.

Excel to me looks too difficult to be realistic, but they could tackle it from a different angle by designing different intrefaces for the different types of usage of excel (Accounts, Graphs (Data/Stats), etc)

As someone mentioned, Gmail has become almost the flagmark of Google after their search engine. They need a method to integrate the interfaces of their various services into Gmail in an effective manner. Also they need to push the bar on their Google Online Chat facility as it is very primitive at this present moment.

Sam Davyson [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

I think what Philipp says above is pretty key. The integration side is going to need some sort of serious rethink. Just thinking about it now something like a taskbar might work quite well if it was put say on the top of all of Google's web products. I think they need to extend the chat to across the Google Services. That would give a much more desktop feel. I am still interested in chatting when I am looking at my calendar.

CJ Millisock [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

To answer one of OREO's original questions, I think the reason Google didn't deliver GCal on April 1st is that they didn't want the world to expect them to deliver a big present every year from now on. We Google fans sorta made April 1st into our own little holiday, separate from April Fool's Day.

I would love to see Gmail integrated with Reader. They're basically the same thing if you think about it.

At first glance, putting Reader inside Gmail seems like a difficult task. Putting Gmail inside Reader seems a lot simpler. Perhaps each message could be treated as one news item. But after thinking about it, the Gmail interface is very simple, clean, and inviting. I'd rather have Reader added to it.

Just my 2¢!

OREO [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Yep, lots of good points brought up. I am personally not a fan of the way Reader works right now. I would rather have it Gmail style: getting new updates as messages to a Reader "Folder" within Gmail, with some enhanced interface.

I also like the whole "desktop" feel idea where you can chat throughout Google's services. Right now it is difficult to chat since it requires you to stay in Gmail.

But what I mostly hear from everyone (and definetly agree) is "better intergration."

And, CJ Millisock, I think I agree with you. Google probably wanted to eradicate the expected "Big Release On April 1st" trend. I personally think that would make a company really cool: having everyone around the world waiting in anticipation for a product or big release every year. However, I can see the logic behind what they did. Google doesn't want to "commit" a big release every year.. That will have to put them on that pressured schedule, and Google wants to have the freedom to release stuff whenever they want: they want to surprise us randomly every few weeks, according to their schedule.

I guess that's why we all are talking about it so much, since they are doing a good job of making us wait for their future releases. :-)

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

> I am still interested in chatting when I am looking at my calendar.

Yeah, and – when you turn your Gmail chat to a standalone popup, then close the underlying browser window, the chat popup will close as well! What's up with that?

Sam Davyson [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Yeah that is madness. As soon as they get chat across the Google services I think people will begin to see the way that Google can build an operating system on the web.

OREO [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Definitely. >Chat popup will close as well! What's up with that?

I hate that it does that. You should be able to stay in Gmail chat when you have the popup open. It is actually annyoing: my chats were closed many times because I accidently closed the Gmail window. Google needs to fix this!

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