Pounding the Keyboard: Good/Bad Google

By Cliff Feldwick

I've long been an admirer of Google. Any company with a corporate motto of "Don't Be Evil" has a refreshing viewpoint, to say the least. They also try a lot of new things. Some work out; some don't, but the company is always interesting.
On that note, let's look at a couple of its new ventures - one good, one maybe not so much.
First there's the Google app for the iPhone. Anyone who starts using an iPhone soon realizes what a sorry excuse for a browser the (pre-loaded) Safari that comes with the product is. It's slow, slow, slow and makes you wonder if it's the app itself or AT&T. It's certainly not at the level of technology that you'd expect of an Apple product.
Therefore, searching for information using Safari is frustrating. So when I saw that there was a direct Google app, well, it called to me. And indeed, it is tremendously faster.
But that's not the neatest part. The app has voice recognition, too. You just put the phone up to your ear, say what you want and bam - there it is.
Its accuracy in interpreting speech is uncanny. Say "wine shops Ellicott City" and it immediately lists shops with maps, etc. Try speaking the name of a local business and a directory listing with phone numbers pops up (and quickly). Say "cranky geeks" and it immediately lists the online tech show that is fun listening (well, maybe that's because I'm an occasionally cranky geek).
I've been trying to make it mess up, and (so far) it has worked correctly on every attempt.
That's not as simple as it seems. For decades, different companies, primarily Dragon Naturally Speaking, have been promoting the idea of using your computer to convert speech into documents. Usually it requires "training" that involves speaking laundry lists of words so it comes to recognize your accent and speech patterns. Even then, its accuracy is probably no better than 90%.
I remember watching a demo at a D.C. computer show about 15 years ago where the carefully chosen company demo guy made it jump through hoops; but then several clients tried it, with spectacularly unsimilar results. The time spent correcting its wrong guesses overwhelmed the time saved in writing.
As bad a typist as I am, I'm better than 90%. It soon wears you down.
I wasn't sure if there was a similar app for the Blackberry, so I spoke "Google on the Blackberry" into the phone and - boop - a list of Google sites with G-Mail, maps and all such items for the Blackberry popped up.
Pretty neat. Certainly recommended.

Is that 'Buzz' ... as in 'Buzz-Saw'?
On the not-so-sure side is Google Buzz, the company's entry into the social networking field. It arrived somewhat unexpectedly; if you were using G-mail, as many users are since it's free, all of a sudden you had Buzz.
And in a move that almost immediately opened it to lawsuits, it had a feature called "auto-follow" that created your circle of friends using addresses you used a lot. Unfortunately (hence the lawyers), your friends of friends could see everyone, as there are no screening or privacy settings.
This meant that wives could check to see if any other women were on their husband's "friends" list, etc. And if we've learned anything from Tiger Woods' adventures, it's that this could be dangerous.
Soon after it came out, Google scrambled to limit this "feature," as well as require you to "opt-in" or ask for Buzz, rather than just adding it summarily. It no doubt will do a lot of quick fine-tuning as such circumstances take the buzz off of Buzz.
One of the funnier aspects of Buzz occurred during the news conference Google held to unveil the service. During the entire event, no one from Google uttered the name "Facebook." That's sort of like going to a Pepsi confab and them acting like Coke didn't exist.
Nope, no other colas out there. And Facebook? Never heard of it.
I'm willing to bet that Buzz will not take off and certainly will not rival Facebook. It may become this year's version of Google Wave, the instant mass collaborative software (even better than IM, for sure, maybe) that seems to have died. The best review I saw of it was: "Wave crashes on beach of overhype."
As I said in opening, some of it works, some of it doesn't.

Cleanliness Is Good
The best explanation I've heard as to why Facebook has overwhelmed MySpace (remember MySpace?) came from Ilana Bittner, a local media guru who has done several talks on social media as a business tool, etc.
On MySpace, the user is able to customize absolutely everything. Backgrounds, songs playing, strange fonts, exploding volcanoes, you name it. People with absolutely no visual skills overdid everything to the point of unreadability.
But if you look at any Facebook page, it will allow you to find things quickly and easily. Picture and name on the left, along with Friends, etc. Posts in the middle, tabs at the top for photos ... you soon know where everything is.
There's a lesson here: Simplicity and cleanliness equals ease of use, thus acceptance.

Cliff Feldwick is president of Riverside Computer Consultants, and offers PC troubleshooting services and network set-ups for small businesses - when not searching for what he deems to be clean and simple. He can be reached at 410-880-0171 or at cliff@feldwick.com.