Kyle Brady: Blog » Google

“The Buzz of Google’s Buzz Isn’t Just Buzz” [Self]

Kyle Brady — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 19:50:23 +0000

New column at Technotainment Revelations on True/Slant:

Google Buzz, Google Buzz, Google Buzz – the Internet is very, very excited at the moment about the latest software release from Google, and for good reason. Unlike the underwhelming Google Wave product, this may be, for lack of a better and less overused word, a “gamechanger”.

Go check it out.

A List of Reasons Why Google Isn’t Evil [Expose]

Kyle Brady — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:10:41 +0000

There's been alot of talk recently about Google "being evil", because they have their hands in so many product arenas and have access to substantial amounts of user data, so it's time that someone pointed out why Google isn't "evil" or even becoming so.

First, look at it from Google’s perspective:

their main interest is indexing the largest amount of content possible, and doing it fast so the content’s relevant

the majority of the modern internet, everything from server to browser to protocols, is at least ten years old at the core

Google’s results are only as good as their relevance and are sorted properly, so they have a vested interest in attempting to do so

Now, look at their behaviors:

“Webmaster Tools” was arguably the first attempt by Google to make things faster/better on their own, by allowing webmasters to help Google better access sites

Chrome takes marketshare away from Internet Explorer, which is beneficial to all mankind

Javascript engine developments, like those found in Chrome, are a good thing – especially when they’re spread back to the community. JS is notoriously slow in some browsers, and even in the fastest of them can still be sluggish

the HTML standards have been bogged down in meetings for years, and have achieved next to nothing – so Google’s begun pushing things like , rather than wait for the W3C, who could take many more years to produce the same results

Google has contributed highly to languages like Python, PHP, and MySQL because of their intense usage of them – creating a language entirely is only a half step away from helping optimize pre-existing languages

wanting to augment the HTTP protocol, and presumably make it backwards compatible, is a good goal: HTTP is pretty slow at times, especially over things like 3G wireless networks. If it can be expanded to do more, or do things better, this benefits everyone

In case this isn’t easily pieced all together, here’s the gist: Google may be doing lots of things out of semi-self-interest, but people need to remember that they’re not only doing these things in the open, they’re licensing many (most? all?) of these projects so that Google isn't in total control. A new language that could be used to rewrite/replace Apache, in combination with a new web protocol, may seem dubious, but once you consider their licensing it's not.

The comparison to Microsoft and other “monopolies” is easy to refute: Microsoft participated in similar activities (IE, ActiveX, VB.Net, Windows Server, etc.), but did so either behind closed doors or with strict, proprietary licensing. The fact that Google’s opening the door to Go in the same manner that PHP or Python does is an extremely crucial differentiation, and they’re very careful about doing this for all of their potentially gamechanging structure inventions.

Now if Google were to do all of this but not distribute source code, or sue a bunch of people for using it in a way they didn’t expect or don’t appreciate, that would be entirely different. But they’re not, and they’re not likely to either – even if they don’t have control over creations like Go, they’ll be happy to see it used because, in the end, it benefits them too.

Most of Google's products can't be forced on people – they have to choose to use them, something that Microsoft’s products have never really needed, or chosen, to do.

[inspired by Rob Diana]

A Google Reader Suggestion [Self]

Kyle Brady — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 02:23:54 +0000

I'm an avid fan of Google Reader, and they do alot of great/wonderful/awesome things.

But I have two complaints/suggestions:

Allow Flash videos. Not just YouTube videos, but even your own Google Photos slideshow doesn't work in feeds.

Create an API that allows bloggers/publishers to know how many times an item has been starred/favorited/read in Google Reader. This would be huge.

That is all.

Ruminations on Project Completion [Old Content]

Kyle Brady — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 02:03:38 +0000

Here's a short piece I had to write for a class, answering the question:

What do you believe is important for successfully completing a project, the formal management structure or culture of the parent organization? Why?

--- --- ---

Completing any non-trivial project is a difficult task, and so-called "experts" are typically divided into two beliefs on the most important aspect of the project: formal management structure and the culture of the parent organization. However, I believe that a mix of both a formal management structure and the overall organization's culture are important, neither one eclipsing the other.

Companies such as Google thrived for years with an loosely formed corporate hierarchy, and a culture of freedom, fun, and brilliance. Recently, Google has found that such a structure does not facilitate a high level of productivity and innovation, and has begun to formalize itself into a more rigid version of itself. On the opposite side of the corporate structure rainbow is strictly hierarchical management, found at such companies as Microsoft. However, Microsoft is no more successful at pinning down innovation and productivity to a corporate structure, as they are well known for lazy employees and product delays of epic length.

Given these two radical examples, I can only conclude that a mix of the two would be the ideal goal: an organization with a formal hierarchy that also respects the employees' freedom and individuality, but only until said freedoms encroach on the overall productivity and innovation. Whether or not this is ultimately achievable is up for debate; however, many modern companies aspire to reach such a "happy medium" and have been at least moderately successful, both financially and culturally.

Microsoft, Please Steal My Data! [Old Content]

Kyle Brady — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 00:06:23 +0000

I think we should all let Microsoft take our data. Really. Everything about us... blood type, injuries, health insurance...

Did you catch the sarcasm? Did you? Because something tells me the creator of the most buggy, flawed, attacked, and hacked software in the world is going to have a hard time convincing people their data is secure. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, but I just have this weird feeling that they're probably running the same software that gets hacked thousands of times a day worldwide...

Congratulations, Microsoft. You beat Google to a release of a new product for once. That is admirable. But that doesn't mean it's a better product, or that people will even care. Being the first to the finish line may win you a race... but we all know that in war there is no ticker tape. There are only mines, rocket launchers, and stealth bombers, but I digress.

Google has been supposedly developing their own product that is intended to revolutionize the medical industry, this is common knowledge in the tech world. Who do you really think is more secure with their data? How many times have you heard of your personal account information being leaked from Google? How often has Microsoft's systems been hacked? How often has Google's systems been hacked? Who is generally treated with greater trust?

The answer is obvious: Google. The world leader in search and information storage considers your personal health information to just be one more shelf to index: all the better to personalize your services, my dear. From my personal experience, people who use Google's products love Google, whereas people who use Microsoft's products typically don't. What is your most used email account, Gmail or Hotmail/Live Mail/Whatever-they-call-it-today?

When the battle is begun, and sides are taken, where will you side? Where will the doctors, and subsequently, the industry side? I'm willing to put the smart money on Google, it's a pretty simple choice. The two behemoths will face off, and battle for the attention... this much is true. But given the history of each company, and their respective mottos (both official and unofficial), chances are that Microsoft Windows Live Spaces Personal Health Identifier Super Home Edition will fail.

Completely, utterly, disastrously... fail.

Sweet, GOOG-411! (Stop Complaining People) [Old Content]

Kyle Brady — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 03:31:36 +0000

Everyone's complaining about GOOG411 these days. The real question is: why?

Google has a habit of releasing their new products whenever they feel like it, and in what they consider a BETA stage. (In reality, the products are more like a fully developed v1.0, but that's beside the point.) After a unusually short gestation period, the products are removed from BETA and advertised in some fashion to the general public... and destroy the competition.

Everyone in the tech industry/Silicon Valley knows this. So when GOOG-411 became more than a semi-unknown secret, why did people come out of nowhere with a bunch of complaints? Not only are many of their complaints stupid and pointless, they're also not even related to how wonderful the service is.

Until now, if you wanted a 411/info service that was free, you had to call a number that was either heavily ad supported, or not of a high caliber. Until now, only people "in the know" were aware of Google's phone services (GOOG-411, and the text message version... send a message to "GOOGL").

Here's how it works:

You call GOOG-411

You hear a very enthusiastic voice saying the name of the service

A soothing voice asks you for a city and state

It again asks you for what you're looking for

It tells you the results

You can have the number texted to you

You can hear more information about the place

You can have it auto-dial the number

What, in the name of Odin, is wrong with that? I have never once encountered an advertisement. I have never thought "hmm that was totally annoying and a terrible service, because for 3.5 seconds at the beginning someone said the name of what I just called". The only thing I've ever thought was "Oh, sweet. It gave me the number I wanted as the first result, and I didn't have to memorize it to call them! Thanks, Google!"

So here's my general comment to all of you: Stop Complaining. It's free. It's Google. It's much more than adequate... it's great. Until you build something of significant status, you're only allowed to complain when the service/product is not as advertised.

And in this case, it is exactly as advertised.