I spent most of today volunteering for the GO ON Barnsley campaign. Basically wearing a rather fetching t-shirt and badge (see above photo) and bestowing the wonders of this new fangled ‘internet’ thing to anyone who would listen.

It was a lot of fun and I’ll be doing the same again twice this month. I even helped out designing the ‘Barnsley’ version of the GO ON logo:

The GO ON Campaign, getting people online

What will make +1 a success where other products have so recently failed? I don’t know and wouldn’t like to guess – the only thing I can do is look back at these recent Google flops and find out how such an innovative and HUGE company could get it so wrong.

What went wrong?

In my opinion, none of the aforementioned products were inherently bad, they were just mismanaged. Some may have been flawed from the start and grossly miscommunicated but they were never really given the chance to evolve before being thrown aside and their resources placed elsewhere.

Lets take a look at this rouges gallery and see where they went wrong and in some cases, what could have been:

What went wrong with Buzz?

Google Buzz was essentially a proof-of-concept that was thrown together by Google employees to see if they could bring Twitter-style messages to Gmail – guess what? They could! So they did. But it was rushed to market and because of this a shit-storm erupted around privacy (or lack of).

But the REAL problem with Buzz was – nobody wanted it. Everyone who cared about microblogging at the time was already knee-deep in Twitter and didn’t want to leave. Google had a simple solution, link your Twitter accounts TO Buzz – which is what I did – ultimately making it just another useless social feed.

How could Buzz be saved?: Now, if Buzz was sold as a social aggregation and augmentation tool from the start it maybe would have been a success. I could happily see Buzz hooking into Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn and even apps like Google Reader and Delicious to pull everything together in a single place – useful? I think so? Will it happen? No.

What went wrong with Wave?

Ah Wave! My favourite of the Google flops, why? Because I still have no idea what it was meant to do. I was blessed with a Wave invite not long after launch and probably spent no more than 7 minutes checking out the UI before shrugging and getting back to work. I mean, what was this thing? It wasn’t obvious? Some sort of email collaborate email, work-flow, document and task  system right? Wrong, well sort of.

To help explain this confusion further here is one of many descriptions of Wave features (via Wikipedia):

Waves, described by Google as “equal parts conversation and document“, are hosted XML documents that allow seamless and low latency concurrent modifications

Wut?

How could Wave be saved?: Its too late, the Wave platform lives on as the open source ‘Apache Wave‘ but its still a useless product with a small uptake – however, what if Wave had evolved into a Basecamp-style project management tool with SharePoint like online document management and One Hub style workspaces and widgets all linked into your Gmail inbox and contact list?

Sounds pretty damn cool right! HELL YEH! WHERE DO I SIGN UP! But no this never happened.

What went wrong with Answers?

Answers was a decent enough idea – real ‘quality’ answers to specific questions at a small price (a few dollars per-query). Think of it as eBay for questions. It worked very well for the period it was open and gathered a lot of useful content. But, it was a playground for lazy plagiarists and needed to be continually policed for bad-Answers and copyright infringements.

How could Answers be saved?: It doesn’t need to be. The idea lives on though sites likeg Yahoo! Answers and Mahalo with sites such as the infamous Experts Exchange and the new-kid Stack Exchange serving a similar product but to a more niche market. The Answers methodology is alive and well, I just don’t think Google had the stomach for it.

What went wrong with Videos?

Google Videos was YouTubes biggest competitor until Google bought them out – but for many (me included) Google Videos was a very different beast. It was less about ‘user generated content’ like piano playing cats and skateboarding dogs – the stuff that makes YouTube legend – and more about quality full-length online video.

I remember Google Videos being a dumping ground for excellent documentaries, training videos and even full-length movies. Sure, YouTube may have also had these hidden away under all the junk, but that wasn’t the point – the You in YouTube was all about your own videos, made by You and it still is today – even with the vast commercial changes.

How could Videos be saved?: By going back to the original strategy of digitizing offline content and publishing a high-quality, curated database of essential historic and educational video content. Things we can’t find on YouTube or anywhere else, things no one would even think to upload. Old movies, historic speeches, world news events, stuff like that.

This of course won’t happen – Google Videos has already been neutered and no new content is set to be added. Google are focused on making YouTube their only video service.

More Flops Products on the way!

So what else do Google have on the way after +1? Well, we have Google Music, which is currently in BETA and the Groupon-killing Google Offers. Both potential world beaters, if managed correctly. Both major embarrassments if not.

So that’s it – a brief look at recent Google slip-ups. But please, not NOT misunderstand this post – I love Google, I really do. Gmail/Andriod/Chat/Maps/Search they are all great products but I’m always let down by their attempts to do something new. They just seem to be letting themselves down time and time again and the negative PR-fallout is getting out-of-hand.

Don’t be Evil Stupid

My final word is that I just really, really hope the recent management changes will finally get them back on track so they can compete with Apple for music and entertainment and Facebook for social (sorry Microsoft).

This Spotify ultimatum irked me a little, I don’t mind being blasted with ads after ever couple of tracks and the free service has always served me well.

I guess its time I made a choice – or perhaps only being able to listen to songs 5 times will help to expand my musical vocabulary

It came with a few surprise like a cool widget for your homescreen and a really snazzy UI but the real big news was the introduction of OCR support.

Usefulness

Although I’m deeply entrenched in the Google-sphere (email, calendar, mobile OS, Picasa) I’ve never really embraced Google Docs. The introduction of this new app changes this.

I doubt very much that I will use the Google Docs app to really do any heavy duty word processing (yet) but for note taking, idea storage and project/task/action management its perfect.

At the moment I use a mixture of tools to achieve these processes – Dropbox, Evernote and Gmail are the main candidates but I can now see Google Docs replacing most these tools in some way (Evernote will most defiantly fade into obscurity) .

How does it fly?

To give the new OCR feature a trial run I decided to take a quick snap of some clearly printed text and see how the app performed:

This example is a page taken from the book ‘HTML5 for Web Designers‘ the text in the image is a little hard to read so here is a transcript of the most legible part:

Error handling might not be ofmucli interest to web designers, especially if we are writing valid. well-formed documents to begin With, but very imporkmt for browser makers. Whereas previous markup specifications were written for authors, HTML5 is written for authors and implementers. Bear that in mind when perusing the specíñcation. lt explains why the HTML5 specification is so big and why it seems to have been Written with a level of detail normally reserved for

Taken from ‘HTML5 for Web Designers‘ by Jeremy Keith

Now, I see you smirking but its not half bad! This was a first attempt in bad light on a bent page with pretty small text and you can make out most of it.

Not bad for a v1.0 release!

What’s missing?

Google Docs ain’t perfect, its missing a couple of key features on the web and app versions.

One thing that Evernote still has that trumps Google Docs is audio note taking. I love warbling into my phone at length and letting it store my ramblings in the cloud for later use – I’m pretty sure Google will trump this feature eventually as they have invested a LOT in audio to text conversion, its just a matter of time.

Finally, cloud storage is great, but I’d love to be able to sync to my desktop/device in a Dropbox-style fashion. I know this is against the Google-ethos but I can dream

Here are 4 Web Apps that changed everything for me:

1. Spotify

OK, its not neseserilly a true Web App but Spotiy changes the way you can take your music anywhere in such a simple way its worthy of a mention. What really sells Spotify for me is its speed and mobility. In the past if I wanted to share an artist or song with a friend I would have to burn a CD or use a USB stick or use some sort of internet-based file transfer like email or Dropox.

With Spotify its a simple matter of installing the app and then sending them the link to the artist/track, for example: Brandon Benson easy right? Spotify is also great for parties, its library walks all over even the most addictive Mp3 hoarders music collection.

Best of all, all this music is FREE. I don’t have a Spotify premium account, surprised? Trust me, you don’t need one to enjoy Spotify.

2. Beluga

On the surface Beluga is a just a multichannel chat app but this simple and effective system has managed to replace most of my email habits in just a few months. Beluga takes a nod from twitter, IM and classic group mailing lists and mixes them into a clean and refreshing experience.

I love Beluga because I’ve always loved email groups like Google Groups, Yahoo! Groups and the now long forgotten SmartGroups. For over 10 years I’ve used these email services to stay in touch with friends, organize events and generally rant and banter about anything and nothing in particular. Beluga is great because its replaced the one or two line email rants I used to be so famous for with a simple twitter-esqu group chat which the app calls a ‘Pod’. You can make Pods for anything and invite anyone you like to use them. I have a Pod with all my buddies in, one with just a couple, one that’s for rants one for banter, one for sorting nights out and a few for private one-on-one chats.

Beluga also has excellent business and project management applications. Pods can be used to share ideas, set agendas and have online group meetings.

3. HootSuite

Twitter was a massive deal for me. I’ve never been a fan of using Facebook or LinkedIn or any other similar social networking tools, they just don’t click with me and I struggle to see the point to most of their features. Twitter is different, its an announcement and discovery tool – I use it to promote interesting articles I find online while mixing in the odd true status update like: “I’ve just seen a cat riding a dog”.

HootSuite is by far (I’ve tried a few) the best Twitter app. Its strength is in its simple layout and fast delivery of messages from multiple accounts and sources. I use HootSuite to find new information based on hashtags (like #wordpress, #html5, #jquery), search terms (‘wordpress+plugins’, ‘icon packs’, ‘uk tech event’) and from a legion of people that I follow. These ‘feeds’ can be set up as tabs and it works great because its all there on one screen in a simple and intuitive layout.

4. Dropbox

Dropbox doesn’t need an introduction, it has no competition, it is the undisputed king of simple and effective cloud storage.

I started using Dropbox in a similar way to Spotify, to share files with friends and as a replacement for USB drives and email attachments. More recently however I’ve become reliant on it as a productivity, project management and development tool.

If you work on multiple computers like I do then Dropbox is your best friend. I have 2 office PCs and a MacBook, all of them have my Dropbox synced up. If I come up with a great idea while on the sofa surfing the web – I throw in into a text file in my Dropbox safe in the knowledge that tomorrow I can get to it in the office. I’ve also started using project folders in Dropbox so when I’m, for example, developing a new WordPress theme I can make changes in one place and easily be able to pick it up elsewhere.

Dropbox also rocks for collaboration. I work on projects with people who I rarely see face to face but we can keep up with a few twitter DM’s and a Dropbox folder that pings me when an update is made. Its seamless for this sort of work and I can’t recommend it enough.

And you know what, I don’t have a premium Dropbox either! The free 2gb has lasted me for a good couple of years and I don’t yet see a need to upgrade.

Everything Changed

So that’s my 4 Web Apps. I use each of them pretty much every day and in the case of Dropbox and HootSuite I really couldn’t live without them, they changed everything for me just like when I sent my first email or did my first web search or wrote my first couple of lines of CSS. If you have yet to try any of these Apps, don’t wait, use them today.

Thankfully, its fine. Sure its scratched up to hell and the back flew off but once I’d put the pieces back together it all worked just the same.

This has been the same for every modern phone I’ve owned. None of them were ever seriously damaged by my clumsiness – they just got beat up.

In the future however, I may not be so lucky. Check out this video of someone dropping a brand new iPhone:

A design flaw? Sure, but because Apple provide the inception for other firms to follow suit we can expect Samsung, HTC, Motorola and Co to put their own swing on the new iPhone design which could result in a bevy of breakable phones in the near future.

I’ve never had to worry about the ‘dropability’ of a new phone but if the new iPhone is a glimpse of the future I’m seriously worried!

Both mice are showing their age with my office one only recognising 1 in every 3 clicks and my home one freezing every now and again. Because of this its time to move on and get a new mouse, hell, I may as well get a new keyboard too.

Enter Logitech

10 years ago Microsoft were at the forefront of mouse design. Recently Logitech have taken this mantle after a string of excellent gaming mice.

Its also evident that wireless is the new in-thing. Try as I might I couldn’t find a high-tech wired mouse for the office!

After a couple of weeks doing R&D into the new world of mice I settled for the ‘Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 5500 Revolution’:

The MX 5500 bundle includes the MX Revolution Mouse which by my reckoning is the best non-gamer mouse on the market right now.

It also comes with what appears to be a super snazzy keyboard, something I have needed at home since I accidentally ordered a Dell USA layout keyboard from eBay 2 years ago.

At £50 for the mouse and £100 for the bundle they arn’t cheap but I paid £50 for each of my Intellimice and got almost 10 years out of each of them.

This actually made me LOL, I really did roll on the floor.

My wife sad she had to see what was “sooooo funny” guess what, she didn’t get it…

I’m currently using this one.