Google aims for Web developers' hearts and minds

(continued from previous page)

July 2006 in response to privacy issues raised by a previous story.)

The Web as development platform
One company in a different industry, yet with a similar philosophy, is Salesforce.com. The company has built a hosted platform, called Sforce, which lets developers customize Salesforce's applications.

As a proof of concept, Salesforce integrated its customer resource management service with Google Maps and is toying with a few other Google services, including AdSense and Sidebar, said Adam Gross, senior director of product marketing for Sforce.

Gross said companies, such as eBay, Yahoo and Amazon.com, that treat their Web sites as customizable platforms, offer a starkly different technology vision to developers than traditional software companies do.

"We are very much competing for the hearts and minds of developers and bringing very different value propositions and ideas," Gross said. "One model says build for Windows and the Microsoft 'stack'; the other says build for the Internet."

Gross noted that some of the software industry's leading lights are working hard on making the Web a platform. Not so surprisingly, some of those high-powered engineers work at Google.

Two well-known former Microsoft development executives--Adam Bosworth and Mark Lucovsky--are now Google employees.

In his personal Web log, Bosworth articulated his belief that the future of software development is on the Web, not on an individual machine.

"The platform of this decade isn't going to be around controlling hardware resources and rich UI (user interfaces). Nor do I think you're going to be able to charge for the platform per se. Instead, it is going to be around access to community, collaboration and content," Bosworth noted in an entry from last year.

Bosworth wrote that Web pioneers such as Amazon.com, Google and eBay have for years made their services available via Web services APIs to encourage third-party applications and drive Web traffic.

Google faces formidable competition from the other Web portal companies, and financial returns from its expanded product line and developer outreach won't be totally clear for some time, said Gartner analyst Allen Weiner.

"It's a logical path," Weiner added, "but we won't know the outcome for a while."

[darkfate26]

go google

i like how google gives developers a chance to addon to their products(unlike microsoft). Just wish they would release the PageRank code:) O and just noticed at the top of the second page it says: " July 2006 in response to privacy issues raised by a previous story.)" I think July 2005.

actually, July 2006 is correct.

Google representatives have instituted a policy of not talking with News.com reporters until July 2006--a little less than a year from now. The move came, as the story notes, in response to a story published last month.

[iqula]

Todays most exciting service on the web is...

Check out the revolutionary free for life personal online desktop offered at <a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.cosmopod.com" target="_newWindow">http://www.cosmopod.com</a> I bet this is going to be the path of the connected future

[201293546946733175101343322673]

Kottke.org

Hey guys, why don't you give Jason Kottke some credit for this story (<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.kottke.org/05/08/googleos-webos" target="_newWindow">http://www.kottke.org/05/08/googleos-webos</a>) instead of just plain copying it?

[mlamonica]

Reporter's response

Kottke's post on WebOS/GoogleOS is excellent - I read through it last night after filing this story. We certainly could have linked to his post (directly) because it was one of the better posts on the subject - though that's already been done here and in the trackbacks. But we did not get the story idea from him or try to recreate his post as a news article. I wasn't a regular reader of Kottke.org but I look forward to reading and quoting from his blog more.

[Mendz]

Web Platform

Microsoft, among others, envisioned the web as a platform. Thus, the interest in web services which exactly enables that vision.

Google has the "jump on to it" advantage because they can immediately ride on the web and focus on developing web products that will enrich and enable various online experience. Come to think of it, they have no device OS to worry developing about. The web is their "OS" and it is up and running 24/7.

The future will not stick to the web browser. Web services will help shape a web connected platform for web services consuming applications. We see Konfabulator and Mac's Dashboard sampling this today.

In the future, we will see rich online applications which are not confined to the web browser. We will see them connecting, communicating, exchanging and consuming web services. And we will see Google with enough of them to offer, likely, ahead of the competition.

[Thrudheim]

Microsoft slow to the web

I wouldn't give Microsoft that much credit for envisioning the web
as a platform. They were slow to the ballgame and saw it mostly as
a threat to their dominance, hence the war against Netscape. Web-
based software, with Google at the forefront, may indeed be a
threat to Microsoft's dominance down the road. I hope it happens.

Google's OS?

I'm perplexed by this notion that Google wants to displace Microsoft, as the OS level. Every single computer has to have some operating system that controls it. This isn't "web-based". To boot the computer, there has to be an OS either in the chips or on a hard drive.

It's one thing for Google to win the portal battle, but how do they take over the actual computer?

About the only thing they could do, I think, is help desktop Linux along and build on that, displacing Microsoft. Or, buy one of the desktop Linux OS providers, and then make their own OS, based on that.

Now that would give Microsoft nightmares.

[207495111267145837975635436522]

Google Hoax - will it ever end

Yesterday we heard that Google has come out with this amazing innovation
called an Instant Messenger!
WOW: Only 10 years behind the rest of the world!!
The only positive thing that was said about Google IM was that
"it has a minimalist look....." which is code word for it has 1995
technology/features.

A while back it was that Google has introduced email (GMail), WOW.
What an amazing invention that was! A web based email! Who would
ever think of that! How do they create such amazing invention.
Oh lets not forget that they gave a 1GB allowance with their email.
So by that same Token if a Pizza store offers Pizza that is 6 feet in
diameter, then my must be a real food innovator!
I mean what a joke: anyone can offer something bigger, if they have the
capital to do so. This has nothing to do with being an innovator or cool.

And today, we are hearing this vague notion that Google is going to
create the equivalent of OS, same BS that was said about what Nestcape
was doing with their browser or SUN was doing with Java. There is no
such a thing about being "half pregnant". Only way to create an
equivalent to the OS is to create the OS, anything else is media hype
which in time disappears as nothing but Hoaxware.

What Google demonstrates is the amazing Big media Hype behind it.
Because many of these Big media organizations who are Hyping
Google to unbelievable degrees (AOL, Timewarner, CNN, Fortune,
Financial times, WallstreetJournal, etc.)
they are major share holders of Google and stand to make Billions by
creating this total Hoax about Google being some ingenious software/Internet
company, which it is NOT at all and then dumping their stock at the peak
valuations on the "schmuck" public who does not know better.

[aabcdefghij987654321]

PT Barnum was right!

I agree with you. The Google hype right now is starting to smell like the dot-com hype of the past except now it's focus on only one tech company, which makes it even worse. In order for Google to justify the irrational price of their stocks, they need many accomplices in the Media and Wall Street circle who continually make it seem that Google is doing something that has never been done before. When the price of Google has been hyped as far as it could go, insider investors will dump the stocks and pocket their profit while leaving the rest of the little investors holding the bag. This pattern has occurred before with Amazon, AOL, Yahoo, etc... I guess PT Barnum was right. There is a sucker born every minute.