> -----Original Message----- > From: Justin Scott [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Thursday, April 09, 2009 11:23 AM > To: cf-community > Subject: RE: All your google belong to us... > > > > But now that Google has offline access now to at least > > two of their big main items: email & calendar (I think > > docs does too now? havent checked) this argument > > doesn't really hold water anymore does it?
Completely ignoring the political aspects of this: I like a lot of the Google stuff, but I also find them to be less capable than MS office (or WordPerfect Office or Star Office for that matter, but MS is definitely the one to beat) and a little "flighty" and uneven in their implementation. The tool still have an "experimental" feel to them and features and behaviors often change. They are improving but the apps are definitely not as well integrated as (most) offline office suites. They also don't integrate as easily into large enterprise environments that have come to depend on certain higher-end features available in offline apps (such as revision tracking, work-group management, etc). In the end tho' the kind of documentation that I develop simply can't be done with the Google tools. They're not even close (yet). Of course the reality is that the offline access is still just "access": completely browser-based with no option to truly work 100% offline of keep your primary data storage offline. It's not even clear if you can really start a session offline (can you?) It's also very experimental and only applicable to two of the PIM apps, not to the general office applications. Google also doesn't provide all of the capabilities of a good office package (they have a basic Word Processing and Spread Sheet but no presentation, layout, project management or diagramming packages - yet). Bigger picture I still think that Google is spreading itself way to thin. They've all but abandoned search enhancements (they're core business) while other companies are constantly improving. Yes, they are still a de facto monopoly on searching... but ask WordPerfect or Netscape (or MS for that matter) how fast that can change when you allow yourself to stagnate. They've produced so many tools lately, for so many platforms, that's difficult to even get a clear picture of how spread out their focus has become. They lack a consistent presentation of their tools, many are essentially without documentation and there's seemingly no cohesion to the efforts. Tools appear, change, sometimes disappear outright, etc - it's hard to consider them seriously for purposes of business planning. In a large enterprise an office package rollout may easily take one-to-two years and be five-to-eight years in use. So I guess, to bottom-line it, I don't feel that the Google applications have reached the productivity/usability level that would convince me to switch personally and I don't think that they've reached the maturity/stability level that would make them attractive to larger enterprises. All that said the 80/20 rule definitely still applies: the google tools do provide MOST of what MOST people need. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:294594 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
