Introduction

2008-04-20T23:46:00.001+05:30

Hi!

From my childhood, I have ever been interested to know how things work - what makes them tick!
I could have been an engineer; only if there was no mathematics involved in the process ;) . Still, I really have an engineer's head,.on quite many other scales.

So, I will take tech-topics, issues, resolutions etc which I have been through. But, a word of caution: you will find number of articles related to the computer technology here. Thanks.

Let's proceed..

Gmail and Google Applications: achillies heel for Google?!

2008-04-20T18:14:00.012+05:30

Review and Story

CAUTION (Updation): Though I am leaving the views below unchanged, I have to tell you this that my own perception of Google's services has changed. The views below reflect the experiences of a limited time period. Google has been able to fix the issues very quickly. Rather, they now provide cutting-edge features which I have started loving..

Gmail: for Messenger inside Email, Auto-Save emails, Emails as Conversations, neat Interface, Rapid..and then some.more, but mainly for the Mail Search feature.

Is Gmail the resolution to your Email communication voes?!

In the times before Gmail, I used Rediffmail, Yahoo Mail and Hotmail as my email services. But, Rediffmail was my preferred email service. Rediff was always on the top to add new features to their mail service. Rediffmail was blazing fast, provided more data space than any other service. The interface was very intuitive. And I still like that package a lot.

But, one fine day Google announced its plans for an innovative email service called as Gmail.

So, due to Google's enormous brand appeal as 'an Innovator', people jumped in for the initial invitations for Gmail. Some people were even selling these invites on sites like ebay and many were buying this hoopla. For those who came late: Gmail was initially a "By Invitation Only" email system.

Gmail's feature-laded entry had toppled the cart of Internet's most commonly used utility called the Email.

Yahoo and Hotmail were very slow in responding to this challenge. But, Rediff immediately came out with new versions of its email service. Rediff provided 1Gb space for free to all its mail service users. With search and the MS Outlook-like interface (which you now find in yahoo mail too) was first put in the place by Rediff. It also offered all its users 1Gb of free space. Rediff even brought the chat-box inside mail page, ahead of Yahoo. Yahoo improved its service too late. And hotmail, under that situation, is not worth discussing.

This is the background of the scenario in which Gmail was "happening"! Now, its time for some futuristic info.

When Google was building Gmail rapidly it was also supporting Mozilla's Firefox browser as a competent alternative to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. [FYI: Just like and because of Microsoft's Windows dominance on the planet, Internet Explorer became the dominant browser too. ]

With Google's push Firefox started eating into the behemoth's browser's share.

But why did Google do this? [right guesses win cookies : ) ]

Google is Microsoft's competitor. And is taking MS head-on. Google has already entered inside Windows by placing its Desktop Search and by displacing Windows built-in search feature. Google is also coming with its own Mobile phone called Gphone with its own Operating System ( though Open Source and for now only for Mobiles); which is a challenge to Windows Mobile. This a great pro-active behavior by Google.

Also, with Google's backing Firefox is slowly improving over its DOM. Cutting the crap.. You would soon be able to work on Google's Applications like Documents (similar to MS Word) or on Spreadsheet (similar to MS Excel) or on Presentations (similar to MS PowerPoint) even when your computer is not connected with the net. That too for FREE! (Also read this)

Ain't Google going a bit fast? I am not being against Google or its speed. And I am not even a pro-MS guy.

Google, must look into the coding issues cropping into Gmail and its other applications. Gmail's coding is slowing down computers and browsers world wide. And, this is more a problem with Gmail version 2.

You can go back using Gmail version 1 once you click on the link called "Older Version" which is at the top right corner of the page. You will notice the change in computer's and/ or browser's behavior and speed. Specially, if your comp is low on resources.

With this much information and overall view, it is now time for conclusion.

Google has been very successful in carving out its niche. And, it has beaten Microsoft on the Internet and on its own turf 'Windows'. Google's 'being Open' value has helped it this far. However, Google is now making some of the same mistakes that Microsoft made. Like crashing of computers and browsers. Slowing down computers can actually take Google down.

Right now, we are only seeing the beginning of Google code's crashing; causing other softwares to crash as well. Before stepping on the gas pedal Google should look into its own source codes well. Those are my words of caution for Google.

Introduction

2008-04-20T17:13:00.001+05:30

Technology

Introduction

Gmail and Google Applications: achillies heel for Google?!

Introduction