Google Fatigue Sets In

Users are reacting to Google's new online spreadsheet with a big yawn. Is the company searching for a strategy?...

Can there be too much of a good thing? Some Google watchers are beginning to think so.

Leading technology bloggers' reactions to Google Spreadsheets, which allows users to build and share simple Excel-like spreadsheets on line, have ranged from lukewarm to hostile.

Critics are assailing Google's latest offering for having several technical weaknesses.

And, more significantly, they're beginning to question whether Google's long-term strategy in the arena of Web-based software applications is good for the company, for users, and for the Web.

"When is the last time Google released a product that really changed our lives?" asked Michael Arrington...

unlike Microsoft Excel, Google Spreadsheets can't create charts and graphs, and it lacks some of Excel's mathematical capabilities, such as array multiplication.

"It's not an Excel killer," writes Computerworld columnist Richard Ericson. "If you're a financial analyst responsible for consolidating large budget spreadsheets, you're not going to adopt Google Spreadsheets.

Need a chart? Stick with Excel. Ditto for graphics (such as WordArt) or PivotTables."

"Yahoo Maps existed well before Google Maps, and Google Earth is a retread of a similar NASA program."

Yahoo Maps, while very useful in showing directions, was low in coolness factor. Not to mention, page needed to reload if you wanted to go beyond the screen. Google Maps incorporated Ajax and satellite images to change web maps forever. Now, Yahoo Maps is struggling to keep up with Google Maps.

Regarding Nasa, it isn't in the Internet business and has a space program of its own(!), so they obviously would have pioneered the satellite imaging. But Google put together almost real time maps with satellite imaging and Ajax technologies to make web maps easy and fun.

Yahoo Maps, while very useful in showing directions, was low in coolness factor. Not to mention, page needed to reload if you wanted to go beyond the screen. Google Maps incorporated Ajax and satellite images to change web maps forever. Now, Yahoo Maps is struggling to keep up with Google Maps.

Yahoo used to have satellite images also. That was pre-9/11. I am not sure if they took them off because of post-9/11 government pressure or because of licensing issues. Immediately after 9/11 they censored some areas such as Washington DC so I suspect the government has something to do with it.

I see, Firefox is now the univeral desktop with all the web-based applications.

Well I wouldn't call it a "desktop", but then neither is Google, is it??

As for "all" the web-based applications, Firefox has (at present) 1,491 extensions, or "add-ons" that can be run from within the browser..

You can even research the Torah .. In Hebrew..
Firefox also has a very nice Google tool-bar, a massive group of themes or "skins" in a variety of styles and colors..

But let's get down to the meat of your snide response..
Like I said in my original post, Netscape has not focused as much on it's browser..
A browser which is based, like Firefox, on MOZILLA..

Mozilla itself has "evolved" and uses many of the add-ons, themes, features that have been developed for Firefox..
Netscape has decided to focus more on internet based services than on it's browser..
Those are just the facts...

Netscape could have all the features, add-ons, etc. that Mozilla has, if they wished to update their software and compatibility...
But even then, Netscape would still be a "suite", combining browser and e-mail in one package..
That's what Mozilla is, so that's pretty much what Netscape is..

Firefox is "just a browser"...
Thunderbird, it's adjunct for e-mail, is a separate program..
Thus, Firefox can concentrate on browsing, and browsing features, without having to concern itself with all of the additional source code of an e-mail program slowing it's operations down..
There are very few browsers available that can match Firefox.. (which is FREE..)

Maybe it Should Be the "universal desktop"...

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