Chrome OS - Gary Short’s Opinion
I just came across a great blog post by Gary Short of Developer Express who shares his opinion about the Google Chrome OS announcement. What I really like is the last chapter:
Can we trust Google?
The biggest issue I think that faces Google in this area, however, is one of trust. At the end of the day Google is not an operating system company, it is an advertising company. If you read the EULA that Google issues that cover anything you upload to their severs (and that includes your work in Google Apps) then you will see it gives them quite a lot of rights over it. Ever sent an email to a friend, in Google Mail, recommending a product, only to see ads for that – or competing products – show up the next time you use Google Mail? Think what it could be like once everyone is sending more and more of their data to the Google cloud. Is this what we really want? At the end of the day, it could be this fact, rather than it’s lack of functionality, that retards it’s uptake amongst netbook owners.
Ever sent an email to a friend, in Google Mail, recommending a product, only to see ads for that – or competing products – show up the next time you use Google Mail?
I remember Mario Cardinal saying that he saw that happened when he was using Google Apps. Because of that and the fact that he gets emails from Microsoft containing NDA stuff, he switched to an hosted Exchange account.
At the end of the day, it could be this fact, rather than it’s lack of functionality, that retards it’s uptake amongst netbook owners.
Nah, people are so mesmerized by Google that they simply don’t see that at all.