On of the best acquisitions by Google ever: Waze. Navigating on your mobile socially. Every time I get in the car, even if I know exactly how to drive, I turn on Waze. Because info other drivers might tell me to take another route. And my info will tell other drivers what route to take. Brilliant, I wish more people would use it.
With Maps and Waze, Google offers great solutions for getting to your desination by car, riding your bike and on foot. But public transportation is a bit left behind. Sure, you can ask Google Maps for train and bus possibilities, but they are far from ideal. And live congestion updates like Waze offers are not there yet. But there is an app that tries to do all that: Moovit.
What Waze offers to car drivers, Moovit tries to offer to commuters on public transport. The two companies are actually already linked. Can you imagine what Maps, Waze and Moovit combined could offer the world? I picture a future where these three are no longer separate apps. Instead you click on an icon of your means of transportation by choice on your mobile (or other) device and it will tell you the fasted, shortest or most scenic route to your destination. So Google, buy Moovit!
Thursday, 19 May 2016
Buy Insightly
Google Apps for Work, I love it. Email, Docs, Spreads, you have it all under one account. In the Cloud. On any device. And when about three years ago someone introduced me to a Google owned, web based CRM solution, I got excited. It was super, felt very Google-esk, fully integrated with other For Work apps. But, it's not owned by Google. And Google does not offer an alternative.
I'm talking off course about Insightly. After working with Insightly for a few years now, I still don't understand why Google hasn't tried to acquire them. Or Google has and Insightly isn't willing to be acquired. But I think that is unlikly, I don't think they are making tonnes of money yet. A billion or two would look nice on the Insightly owner's bank account.
So, in summary: Google, the perfect addition to Google Apps for Work is out there. It is called Insightly. It's a web based CRM solution. It already has integration with For Work apps. So buy it!
I'm talking off course about Insightly. After working with Insightly for a few years now, I still don't understand why Google hasn't tried to acquire them. Or Google has and Insightly isn't willing to be acquired. But I think that is unlikly, I don't think they are making tonnes of money yet. A billion or two would look nice on the Insightly owner's bank account.
So, in summary: Google, the perfect addition to Google Apps for Work is out there. It is called Insightly. It's a web based CRM solution. It already has integration with For Work apps. So buy it!
Either combine everything in one app, or don't
First there was Talk. Quite successful, quite good. Then came Hangouts, Google+ Messenger and Voice. None of them ever the success Google hoped it would have become. And Talk was neglected.
Then came the integration. Talk, +Messenger and Voice were to some extend integrated in Hangouts. But the app was and is too slow. And in the meantime, others have won the market already. Google lost the battle for the messaging app and did it to themselves.
Then came sms and mms integration in Hangouts. Smart, one app for different means of communication. This could the future. But then Google developed the new Messenger app. Just for sms and mms. You can still use Hangouts for this, but Google advices to use the new Messenger.
Soon YouTube and Google Photo's will have chat functionalities build in. And later this year Allo will be launched. Build around your phone, not web based, not cross platform, exactly why Whatsapp is still crap. And Duo, a video chat app will be launched. Alongside Hangouts, which started out as a video chat app, not instead off.
Please Google, make up your mind. Either build one application for all means of communication, chat, voice, video, file sharing, or build a lean and mean application for each individual means of communication. I don't mind switching from Chat to Video if that means the apps work. I do mind having two or more apps from Google to chose from for chat. Or for video. And please don't build apps around phone numbers. Make that an option, not a prerequesite to sign up with a phone number.
Then came the integration. Talk, +Messenger and Voice were to some extend integrated in Hangouts. But the app was and is too slow. And in the meantime, others have won the market already. Google lost the battle for the messaging app and did it to themselves.
Then came sms and mms integration in Hangouts. Smart, one app for different means of communication. This could the future. But then Google developed the new Messenger app. Just for sms and mms. You can still use Hangouts for this, but Google advices to use the new Messenger.
Soon YouTube and Google Photo's will have chat functionalities build in. And later this year Allo will be launched. Build around your phone, not web based, not cross platform, exactly why Whatsapp is still crap. And Duo, a video chat app will be launched. Alongside Hangouts, which started out as a video chat app, not instead off.
Please Google, make up your mind. Either build one application for all means of communication, chat, voice, video, file sharing, or build a lean and mean application for each individual means of communication. I don't mind switching from Chat to Video if that means the apps work. I do mind having two or more apps from Google to chose from for chat. Or for video. And please don't build apps around phone numbers. Make that an option, not a prerequesite to sign up with a phone number.
Monday, 2 May 2016
Improve Hangouts
There used to be Google Talk. Great app. Great name. You new what is was about. Then came Hangouts, Voice end Messenger, I do not know in what order, and Google lost the battle with the competition. Now all four are intergrated or replaced by Hangouts, more or less. Which is better, because why have four applications if you can put it all in one? But still, Hangouts is winning any territory back from the competition, is seems. In my opinion there are a few reasons for this.
First of all: the name. Google once started with a chat app called Talk. Which is what chatting is about: talking. Even if you add phone functionalities (Voice) and video chatting (Hangouts), Talk is still a great name and it still tells you what the app is basically about. But what does Hangouts mean? A Hangout, we hang out, let's hang out. Sounds like you want to go outdoors because the sun is out. Does not sound a chat application. It does not.
Then speed. One of the great feautures of Hangouts is, you can use it on your phone, tablet, desktop, laptop, home computer, work computer and actually any computer with a browser and internet connection. But in my experience, on all devices Hangouts is not really that fast. Whether I 'hang out' on my work computer via it's own URL, on my home Chromebook, Nexus 7 tablet or Nexus 4 phone, Hangouts is slower than I would hope and expect from Google.
Thirdly, pictures, video's and other files. Or the lack of other files and video's. Because you can share jpg, gif and png files over Hangouts. No pdf's, no mp3's, no doc's, xls's and no video's. And why not? I don't know? When I'm at home chatting with someone at work via Hangouts, why do I need to send a separate email if I want that person to print a pdf for me? I shouldn't have to, I should be able to send it via Hangouts. As well as Excel sheets, Power Point presentations and what have you.
And lastly, integration with other apps. I loved it when Google opened Hangouts up for SMS and MMS messages. But later Google created a new Messenger app just for SMS and MMS. I still wonder why. And also, Google acquired Meebo a while ago. I was expection more integration with other messenger apps as a result of that acquisition, but I've seen nothing so far.
So in summary, good job on replacing four chat applications with one, but please Google, work on that name, the speed on all platforms, the capabillities of sharing files and make Meebo's fuctionalities visible, please!
First of all: the name. Google once started with a chat app called Talk. Which is what chatting is about: talking. Even if you add phone functionalities (Voice) and video chatting (Hangouts), Talk is still a great name and it still tells you what the app is basically about. But what does Hangouts mean? A Hangout, we hang out, let's hang out. Sounds like you want to go outdoors because the sun is out. Does not sound a chat application. It does not.
Then speed. One of the great feautures of Hangouts is, you can use it on your phone, tablet, desktop, laptop, home computer, work computer and actually any computer with a browser and internet connection. But in my experience, on all devices Hangouts is not really that fast. Whether I 'hang out' on my work computer via it's own URL, on my home Chromebook, Nexus 7 tablet or Nexus 4 phone, Hangouts is slower than I would hope and expect from Google.
Thirdly, pictures, video's and other files. Or the lack of other files and video's. Because you can share jpg, gif and png files over Hangouts. No pdf's, no mp3's, no doc's, xls's and no video's. And why not? I don't know? When I'm at home chatting with someone at work via Hangouts, why do I need to send a separate email if I want that person to print a pdf for me? I shouldn't have to, I should be able to send it via Hangouts. As well as Excel sheets, Power Point presentations and what have you.
And lastly, integration with other apps. I loved it when Google opened Hangouts up for SMS and MMS messages. But later Google created a new Messenger app just for SMS and MMS. I still wonder why. And also, Google acquired Meebo a while ago. I was expection more integration with other messenger apps as a result of that acquisition, but I've seen nothing so far.
So in summary, good job on replacing four chat applications with one, but please Google, work on that name, the speed on all platforms, the capabillities of sharing files and make Meebo's fuctionalities visible, please!
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