Official Website of Thom Allen » Google

Why Microsoft Shouldn’t Aim At Google Or Apple

Thom Allen — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 03:58:00 +0000

I read this Wired article today, and I had too cringe hearing Microsoft is taking aim at Google and Apple. Why would they want too? They own such an enormous desktop market, and they could own the mobile space too, but not trying to come at it from the rear. Utilize your existing customer base to build the best mobile experience for Windows users. The reason Android is catching on so quickly, besides the open software and the backing of Google, is it’s really the only smart phone alternative to the iPhone at the moment. There are other platforms, but nothing at the level of an Android phone.

I’m not foolish enough to think Microsoft doesn’t have a huge gap when it comes to mobile market share. I mean they haven’t really put any effort into it for years. But that’s what’s cool about the opportunity they have. If they want to take something from Apple, take the fact Apple goes to incredible lengths to make the user experience the best on the planet. Whether you think that is egotistical, close minded, or plain and simple snobbery, it doesn’t matter. They make products that people like. And Microsoft should focus on the same thing.

I think Microsoft is in the perfect position. I really hope they don’t blow it by trying to “be” a bigger better Apple or Google, because they will fail.

Google To Stop Supporting Older Browsers

Thom Allen — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 04:49:21 +0000

I just got an email from Google stating that starting March 1st, their web applications will no longer support older browsers, instead, pushing the new HTML5 standard. Here is what they said;

In order to continue to improve our products and deliver more sophisticated features and performance, we are harnessing some of the latest improvements in web browser technology. This includes faster JavaScript processing and new standards like HTML5. As a result, over the course of 2010, we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.

Google Apps will continue to support Internet Explorer 7.0 and above, Firefox 3.0 and above, Google Chrome 4.0 and above, and Safari 3.0 and above.

Starting this week, users on these older browsers will see a message in Google Docs and the Google Sites editor explaining this change and asking them to upgrade their browser

I applaud this. As a web developer, trying to create sites that work with a dozen web browsers is nearly impossible. I hope more companies take this stance, and help push new technology along. Google has a strong enough presence with their own applications (i.e. GMail and Docs), that they can control what browsers they will support and which they won’t. Here’s hoping others will follow.

My Take On 2010 Technology Predictions OS Wars

Thom Allen — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 05:38:39 +0000

In my first post I talked about the platform wars, today I want to talk about the Operating Systems (OS) Wars.

There are really only three operation systems on the market people will generally know; Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X, and Linux. There are a couple of operating systems that are getting some buzz, but most people don’t know they are using them, or don’t recognize the fact they are operating systems. These are mobile or light weight OS’s, like Google’s Chrome OS, Android, Windows Mobile, iPhone, and Palm Pre.

Desktop Operating Systems
Hands down the winner will remain the Windows, specifically, Windows 7. Personally I’ve been using Windows 7 for a few months now, written several blog posts on it, and can say it’s just as stable as Windows XP. Sorry non-windows fan boys, but it is.

Next up will continue to be Apple’s Mc OS X. The real issue most people have with the Mac OS is that it will only run on Apple hardware. Many have tried, some have succeeded, but most fail to run the Mac OS on anything other than an Apple computer. The cost for Apple computers typically keeps the average user from purchasing, and so never get an opportunity to use Mac OS X. Snow Leopard, the latest version, 1.6, is a fantastic operating system. It has all the bells and whistles you could want. But at least in 2010, it will stay behind Windows, and I don’t think Apple cares one bit.

Finally we have Linux. A real geek operating system. This system isn’t for the faint at heart. While distros (that’s what a version of Linux is called, a distro, or distribution package) from Ubuntu and Red Hat slip in consumer features such as a graphical user interface, pre loaded applications, and the ability to manage various hardware features, you still have to have some technical understand of computers, and how to use command line tools.

Personally, I like Linux. I think it’s a solid operating system that stands up to the most rigorous user. But in the coming year for desktop operating systems, Windows 7 will take even a wider market share.

Mobile Operating Systems
As I stated above, several new mobile operating systems will make some waves. I know a lot of geeky friends will want the Google phone to take over the world, it just won’t. There needs to be a lot of baking before that phone will make a huge dent. You will see lot’s of hype, but just as the iPhone hasn’t succeeded in world domination, neither will the Google phone. But it will be cool to see what happens. What I’m hoping Nexus One does, with it’s unlocked phone (meaning it’s not keyed to any service provider) is to push the major manufactures to lower their prices for unlocked phones. People want choices, which is what Nexus One will give them. That will be fun to watch.

The net result of the OS War in 2010 will be negligible. Operating systems have become boring. As long as it’s stable, doesn’t require continual reboots, market shares will remain the same. Companies who produce operating systems make a huge capitol investment, and it takes several years, if ever, to recoup their costs. The average consumer is also averse to change. Updates are considered to be an annoyance, imagine having to upgrade the entire OS every couple of weeks.

I think the next big thing for operating systems will be slimmed down versions built specifically for an application. Linux does this, Chrome could do this. This will be the disruptive play; targeting hardware and applications. It’s happening now I understand, but it will get even more specific over the next year or two.

Now You Can Access Google Tasks In Mail, Calendar and Mobile Applications

Thom Allen — Wed, 13 May 2009 20:29:37 +0000

Finally, Tasks are part of the Google calendaring application. The Task feature has been available for a while now, but it wasn’t available as part of the calendaring system, where I believe most people want and need to use a task management system.

As is typical with Google, it’s not a flashy part of the calendaring system. Looking at the image below, you can almost miss it if you weren’t paying attention.

Just like adding a calendar event, when you click on a time line or day box, a bubble window pops up, giving you the ability to add an event or a task. Once you have entered the text for your tasks, you will immediately see the task show up on the day you want the task due. You will also see in the Task pane on the right of the calendar, you can see it in a pane on the right of GMail, and as you can see from my iPhone I was able to see the task immediately.

So as it stands today, Google has basically made tasks available across all the application you would expect to see it, GCal, GMail and in mobile applications.

One feature I hope they implement soon are multiple task buckets. You can create tasks on the iPhone in a sort of bucket, but all calendar and mail task entries end up in the default task list. That isn’t a big deal, but I have tasks separated into groups (like things I do every Monday as an example).

There are several actions available when you have the task list pane open. You can edit, indent, sort, and several more. You will find the actions at the bottom of the task list.

This is a great step for this feature. I use tasks all the time, now I can see them across all my Google apps.

[Update: 05/14/09]I wanted to make a small change to this post. It appears that you can move a task to another list once you have created it. There is a small drop down at the bottom of the bubble form when you are editing a task that lets you move it to a new list. Didn’t see that before. That drop down list should also be on the new entry form. Hello Google?

Google Offers Mobile Friend Finder With Latitude Service (But Not For The iPhone)

Thom Allen — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:22:21 +0000

Google pushed out a new product today called Google Latitude. It basically lets you find friends in geographical locations via Google Maps. This is pretty cool. Loopt has been doing this for a while, and so have others. I’m not really sure I see the value in this, other than its a great way to stalk your friends. If I really wanted to know where someone was, I would just ask them.

The interesting part is it wasn’t released for the iPhone. It does work on the Android of course, Blackberry and Windows Mobile. But with GPS and mapping so tightly integrated into the iPhone, I’m really surprised this was left out of the initial release. I hardly ever used mapping on my Windows Mobile device.

Is Google targeting a service like BrightKite.com, where I can check in at a specific location, or upload photos and give it a geo tag? I can see better uses for this service than just seeing who around me. I would also like to be able to update my social network too, like FriendFeed or Twitter, with a link to my latest location.

I’m not sure if this was intentional or chance, but the map on the Latitude home page was in my general area. Weird, huh? Stalking at its best.

[image title="Google Latitude" size="full" id="1051" align="none" linkto="full" ]

Google Finally Puts Tasks On The iPhone

Thom Allen — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 21:42:38 +0000

I noticed you can now get your Google Tasks on the iPhone with a very pleasing user interface. Even though its web based, it has pretty much everything you could possibly want from a simple and easy to use task management system.

The simplicity of this product is amazing. You can create and manage separate tasks lists, and create or remove tasks from the iPhone.

Couple of drawback I can see right off the bat:

Can’t move a task from one list to another
Can’t set a default list to show
Tasks aren’t ranked
Can’t see a list of all active tasks, if you have more than one list

But for basic task management, this is a good first stab. I know Google will release more features as it carefully tracks usage.

Here are a few screen shot from my iPhone

Gmail Adds Tasks But Still Has A Ways To Go

Thom Allen — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:39:06 +0000

Google Labs introduced Tasks as an add-on to their Gmail product yesterday. I’ve spent the past week looking for a good task manager, specifically one that works on the iPhone, and on the Web. So it was a timely surprise to see they added this feature.

The official Gmail blog gives some instruction on how to turn tasks on, and where you can find the task list. I’m not sure I like the list opening up in the same location as the Chat. That’s part of the reason I don’t use the Gmail web based chat tool. It’s clunky.

However, the coolest part of tasks is I can select one or more email, and under the More Actions drop down, choose to create a task. Even Outlook doesn’t support this nativley.

Here are a couple of other features of note:

You can pop out the task window and move it around on your desktop. This should eliminate neededing to keep the Gmail screen focused in your browser.
You can create different lists. A tasks list wouldn’e be complete without the ability to group items.
Creating sub tasks is easy with an indent feature.
The ability to add a due date and add notes. This is very cool. If you want to keep a running tab of things as you progress towards completion, the notes section is just the place.

I think I’ll spend some to create a simple Getting Things Done (GTD) workflow using Gmail Tasks. Shouldn’t be too difficult with the ability to create seperate task lists.

The biggest draw back, and maybe the deal killer for a lot of people, is that tasks are not support on the mobile platform yet. That is a real disappointment for me. Remember The Milk and many others have web/mobile combinations, and you would think Google would have made that combination a priority.

I suspect a mobile version will quickly follow once the features catches on. Makes no sense to use tasks if you spend most of your time on a mobile device.

One more feature I would like to see added are notification of uncompleted tasks sent with the daily events list.

[update]

Thanks to a great question from @utahcon, he brought up the fact it was difficult at first to find the Tasks link. So here is a picture of where you can find the link. Also, don’t forget, use the keyboard short cut Shift-T when you have items selected to create a new task.

[image title="Taks Link In Gmail" size="medium" id="991" align="none" linkto="full" ]

Google Sends Me 98% Of My Traffic

Thom Allen — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I was looking through Google Analytics™ web analytics service this morning, and of all traffic sent to my blog from search engines, 98% came from Google. Of course the stats came from Google, so I’m not real sure how skewed the numbers are, but that tells me one thing. If I were to focused on making money with this blog, I would do all I could to make sure I capitalize on the Google way of doing things.

Last week I saw a quote that said if eighty percent of your business comes from twenty percent of your products or services, why are you not focusing more on the twenty percent? Are you willing to get rid of the eighty percent that isn’t producing? If not, why? If eighty percent of my visitors are looking for help with problems, or for the latest Tumblr theme, maybe I should be looking closer at that.

Another interesting fact I noticed, is the search words are for things that I don’t normally talk about, but for some reason my posts make it high enough on the search results that someone clicks through. For example, I have a post about removing sharpie ink from a dry erase board. I wrote that post a long time ago. Its not something I have ever talked about since, but I get a lot of traffic from that post.

The one post I get sear traffic from, by a margin of a 100 to 1, is a post I wrote on a Tumblr theme I created. Its not a spectacular theme, but, interestingly enough, for every 100 hits I get on my site, I get 1000 to this post. I’ve never written about Tumblr themes nor have I created another Tumblr theme since. I should, for all the traffic driven to my site.

So how do I capitalize on this? I’ve heard in the past write more about the things people are visiting your website for. My first thought was I don’t care anymore about the sharpie ink problem. But maybe it’s not so much about the ink problem as it is people are looking for solutions to problems. Now that I can get on bored with.

I’m not an SEO expert, but I would say you can target a lot more of your posts than you are. Think broader. Use a mind map on a topic. I know you can come up with 50 different ways to write how-to’s, or creating solutions to problems, or even related problems. For example, I think I’m going to write a blog post on the abnormal passion people have with Sharpie pens. I’m one of them. I treat them like people. I give them names, have different types, thin, think, gigantic. It’s almost as bad as a passion for Moleskines.

Give me some examples on how you can expand or broaden you existing blog posts.