Google won’t become irrelevant until the appliance in which we interact with it does. I have been around the PC industry since it began. What was wrong with it then is still wrong with it now. The model is to reverse engineer what already exists and get something a little bit better to market before the next company does.
More importantly, the biggest mistake this industry ever made was to not standardize. Compare the medical industry or the space industry or pharmaceutical drugs, even telephones. Who cares if you’re a MAC or a PC or Open Source? Not so very long ago I could ask to borrow your phone and have some chance of making a call, now I need you to get me started, then I can hand it back to you to end the call. This model has held back the industry and the Internet social fabric as well. Imagine what Information Technology would be like if Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, Oracle, Intel, AMD, Motorola, Google and Yahoo all insisted on using the same standards. Sure it’s gotten better; we all know that Cntrl+S, Cmd+S saves the file, but what about Cntrl+Shift+S, Cmd+Shift+S. Try one of these in Word and you’ll apply styles instead of file: save as: found in Adobe apps. This is ludicrous, and it’s because of the mad race to market your product first, i.e, GoogleWave wanted to be first. They previewed wish ware that doesn’t have any use at all in its current form. None of the features that made it attractive are in the preview release. It’s just a complete time waster that a million people actually asked to be invited to see. Hype-ity Hype Hype. For those boneheaded moves, yes Google could become irrelevant, especially if Microsoft envisioned the idea starting with Bing and SharePoint, then moving into a collaborative communications system that really is innovative, useful and intuitive.
What’s the down side? We are all at the mercy of the entrepreneurial paradigm. We get whatever makes it to market first with the most hype and we actually put up with our appliances being outdated at a clip that would get most objects into near Earth orbit. These are stupid time wasting decisions we all have to make. iPhone? Windows Mobile? Blackberry? Palm? Symbian? Droid? MAC? Windows? Linux? It’s a communicator Spock; surely you can communicate with it. “Spock: The term “half-breed” is somewhat applicable, but “computerized” is inaccurate. A machine can be computerized, not a man.”
By now we should all be masters of the interface. I bet you a dollar you can get in my car and drive it. I bet you another dollar an Anesthesiologist can go into any hospital in this country, maybe the world and get to work. Can you imagine the look on the Cable Guy’s face when I tell him that my TV isn’t an RGB device, it’s CMYK.
Mike Vance once told me, “If you see something wrong, you should do something about it. Stop the insanity, tell Google whatever it is you want, tell Apple and Microsoft and tell AT&T and Verizon. You should do this before you buy Windows 7, Linux, Mac OS X, Blackberry, iPhone or Droid. It’s just wrong for the players in the industry to try and guess what it is that we want. Try that with your clients when they ask for help, sorry I can’t provide 1.0 help, I only offer 2.0 help right now and I’m afraid it doesn’t offer what you’re currently interested in doing.
I’m not sure I really have an opinion on this subject. :o)
~David