Google Updates the "10 Things" Philosophy 2006/03/29

The list of “Ten things Google has found to be true” has been under the corporate information section of the site for forever (well 4 years) - but was updated for the first time just this week - likely in response to post about Google Finance on John Battelles Searchblog.

In the post he jokes about how out of date it had become, as the company has offered more and more services they promised were outside the scope of Google’s search driven mission.

(Of course, as Google now points out in a disclaimer at the bottom of the site, their actual mission is so broad - “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” - it can certainly be held to include a financial site or mail service here and there if it helps improve their market share.)

But, there is also no doubting, the company’s philosophy really has changed since Larry and Brin first found those 10 things to be true. Even at the time, boasting to never offer horoscopes or financial advice was more than just a thinly veiled (very thinly) jab at Yahoo - it really did set Google apart as a technology company devoted - obsessed even - with search.

So the question becomes: Is Google really a technology company, a “search” company - “the search company” - or is it a portal, a mass media company - can it be both?

I can think of another company that manages to pull that off in stride.

Internet Explorer 7.0 - disappointing so far… 2006/03/25

I just downloaded and installed “Internet Explorer 7.0 for Windows XP SP2 Beta 2 Preview” - and I have to say I’m more than a little disappointed. PC magazine agrees with me, you can read their full review here. While offering some long overdue improvements over IE6, most notably the smaller footprint, the newest version of Microsoft’s browser is hardly innovative, me-too features like tabbed browsing and live bookmarks abound. Maybe once Vista is (finally) released, it will get better - but I’d definitely steer clear of this beta and stick with Firefox for now. But, if you really want to try it, you can download it here.

Wired News: Airport Security Fails Tests… Again 2006/03/23

According to Wired News, even 30% of guns got past the screeners! The magazine purports that automated screening computers might be the answer (it’s Wired, afterall!) I’ll take whatever makes getting through the line faster - although just taking your laptop out of it’s case is a lot better than when you used to have to boot it up before they’d let you through.

Writely on Moving to the Googleplex 2006/03/23

So how does the Writley team feel about the aquistion?

Check out their blog and find out.

You can also try the web word processor here - but it seems that with all the hype, now you have to join a waiting list…

Google turns up the heat on Microsoft 2006/03/09

More direct competition seems to be looming as Google announces plans for another addition to its web application offerings - edging closer and closer to the software giant’s toes.

As of yesterday, Google added the web word processor Writely to its arsenal. Read more below…

Google Acquires Writely

If ad-supported web applications and online storage really are the future of the consumer software market, Microsoft is going to have some serious restructuring to do.

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