The reason Google FAILS & Grandcentral expectations.

When I wrote about my expectations from Google on 25th February 2009, I wrote about Grandcentral 2.0 too. Here is the post where I mentioned what I expect Google to do on 1st April. Glad Google Voice came before that, but yes I am sure it will come to others by that time.

Well I am happy with Google Voice, but 1 of the important thing that they missed out is the integration of it with Google Talk. I mean Gizmo5 is fine and it works great and is probably the only reason how I could use Grandcentral from India too for 3 years now but since some days it has stopped working on my PC, so I have the option of using web based gizmocall only since I have the Call Screening option on for unknown callers and I need to press 1 to accept the call or press other numbers to send it to voicemail and stuff. Now for that I need a software with a Dialpad and even though my Google talk rings when I receive a call on my Google Voice number I cant answer "unknown callers" because I have no dial pad in Google Talk. Now these guys have to update Google talk and bring in the dialpad to allow people to use Google Voice from Google talk too and I know this will happen sooner or later, but why not with the release of Google Voice?

Coming back to why Google fails?
Well I love Google. I mean I love Google more than any other web company and thats the reason I always want them to be the best and thus I expect too much from them on every front. Now, I remember when I had to wait for Gmail invitation. That was a wait of only some days, but still I found that approach of Google as something weird. I mean I understand the feelings of all those people who have to wait to get the feel of Google voice now that it is so much hyped all around on the web. I had the same feelings for many of Google products starting from Gmail, Orkut, Jaiku, Grandcentral (Initially yes) and some other like Zingku( yes this is 1 more site which was acquired by Google and I hope this lives on and opens up sometime soon) and I today use all of them except Zingku, but trust me Gmail has improved and has been great over the years and thus is a success today, Grandcentral has come back as Google Voice & I sure sense it to be a success but others like Orkut, Jaiku and many Google products which 1 could join by invitation only didn't make such great impact.

Now, this is the reason Google fails. I mean look at orkut. Its just used by Indians and Brazilians. Its "Nothing" & cannot be compared to Myspace, Facebook or even hi5 and other bigger social networks. Google copied everything from facebook on orkut from applications to picture comments (Yes can you believe this? Picture comments were not available on orkut earlier), mobile sites, privacy features and what not. They still don't have video uploads feature which I think should come up. Orkut has been integrated over time with many Google products like Gtalk, Google Calendar and what not but it still has failed to take up and it will never now become as big as it could have been.

The lack of innovation for some products or maybe ignoring them is something that has hurt Google and that began with limited entry. I mean look at facebook. They are everywhere and they offer you everything in just 1 site. They are bigger than Flickr when compared to photos being on facebook. In fact as per last details they were almost 5 times bigger than flickr. Youtube videos cant be compared to facebook videos but heck at least you can upload your videos on facebook directly. They offer you share on facebook, facebook connect is available to sign in to any possible site and they are now on Iphone and desktop too.

Orkut had the lead and they were early starters, but are far away from being the leader today. Similarly, twitter is growing like hell and Jaiku is nothing compared to it. Google also entered Picture storage but with 1 GB free space, Picasa Web Albums is not that great. I hope its storage is bumped up to at least 10 GB or maybe more because MSN Skydrive offers 25 GB already. Will Google learn from its mistakes and do better in future? Or does it have plans to relaunch some products with additional features & same fun fare like Google Voice? Whatever Google does with Orkut, Jaiku and other products, it has to make sure they become more useful & come with extra features to make sure even more people use them.

Hope people at Google are reading this & most of the things get implemented. I am seriously waiting for more changes some time sooner.

H@rdeep.

A Day of Awesome updates

Finally Google has actually done what I wanted it to do. I thought they might do it on April 1st, but it came today. Grandcentral updates to Google Voice and yes the web is full of that updates. So I wont write more about that.

More, facebook's new page layout which makes it more twitter like is live. iTunes 8.1 is available today with new features and so is Firefox 3.1 beta 3. All amazing updates. Recession or no recession, innovation is on & I am excited as always.

Downloads, transitions and updates on,
H@rdeep.

IELTS, TOEFL and English tests and My Views on them.

For me life has been always like this. All I planned never worked out & at a certain stage I even stopped planning. So I was always one of those people who saw the posters and pamphlets of IELTS (International English Language Testing System), TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) and English language tests & thought since its a HUGE business here in Ahmedabad, Gujarat these tests would be real tough.

Thats all I thought and nothing beyond that. Little did I knew then, that 1 day I will have to appear for both of them. So on 7th of March, 2009 I appeared for IELTS and on 8th December 2007 I had appeared for TOEFL.  My friends in US said TOEFL wont be that hard for me and it was actually correct. I scored 90% in the TOEFL IBT but then its been almost 1.5 years now that I was appearing for IELTS and this time also I was told that since I have a good score in TOEFL earlier, IELTS is kinda easier than TOEFL & as such I wont have any problems. People seem right again. I mean I did not prepare for it even for some minutes. I am not in a mood of self-praise but I am here writing about this just because I actually feel kind of ashamed that I have to go through such kiddish tests.

Yes, its like people outside India doubt my almost 18-20 years of studies in English medium, my teachers, my professors who taught me English and everything I have ever studied. Why the hell do I have to appear for these tests?

For me so far both of them have been damn easy. I mean come on what tests can you appear without a single minutes preparation and just look at the format of it and still score quite high at it? I have been talking to people in US and UK for almost 9 years now so I understand their accent. I watch Youtube videos of people worldwide & not just US so I even know how people in Philippines, China, France or for that matter any other country speak English. DAMN IT. I have been hearing interviews of people like Marrissa Mayer, Eric Schmidt and other people from Google which are at least an hour long and I STILL have to go through these silly tests.

I agree that most of the people who go through these tests are actually those who SHOULD appear for these tests. But there are exceptions in everything & everywhere & they should be made.I went to Hotel Sarovar portico which is here marked as "A" and Cama hotel in Khanpur area of Ahmedabad for IELTS. I am some 1 who says things as they are and as I feel & if not to any1 else at least on my blog.


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I presented my views on the tests which I think are ridiculous and its shameful that people who don't need it also have to go through them. Apart from waste of time & money it should also pinch them that they go through the same process of evaluation which others go through who are less capable and less able. I mean donkeys cant be compared to horses and if they are then the horses should not take this idiotic stuff. LOL


Ok, enough of it. But seriously, I had to get this thing out. It was inside me for a long time now.As always I love this place because it comes out here.


Relieved & Happy but a lot more to go before relaxed,
H@rdeep.

Companies Google cant afford to lose.

I love Google. Like big time. It has so much to offer and free. Now just because of that love, I want Google should get all the best sites that I use daily and it pretty much does it. Youtube was acquired because it is the largest source of online video and preferred Video search tool and Google could not miss out being the top site in Video.

Not that Google does not have things in its bouquet to offer us, Google had Google Video, but youtube was and is still a clear winner in online Video space, so Google gobbled it up. Similarly when it comes to Social networking, Google has orkut, but more than 50% of orkut's population is Brazilians and Indians. (In US, its something unheard of) while facebook is growing at an insane rate. So thats the number 1 in the list and Thats what Google cant afford to lose. The list that I have is not too big, but covers various sectors and while Google has its offering in all of them, they are not so popular because of various reasons.

Here is my list:-
1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. Friendfeed
4. Digsby
5. Jajah
6. Skype
7. Wixi
8. Fring

Talking from No. 2 mentioned here, Google still has Jaiku and it by no means is a competition to twitter because twitter is 1 more thing which is growing at a mad pace just like faceebook & friendfeed. Google bought Jaiku & thought it can make a worthy competitor in it to twitter, but just like orkut is nothing compared to facebook, jaiku is nothing compared to twitter. Friendfeed is an amazing concept and like twitter is founded by ex-googlers. It is 1 thing which aggregates data from 59 different websites which are all leaders or good competitors in their respective categories and updates your friends about whatever you do on any 1 of them. Great idea and it has grown beyond that and today worldwide has awesome users who update stuff there every second.

Nothing matches friendfeed today and Google has to gobble this up for a wide range of audience and data. Talking about Digsby, it ain't that big yet. But BOY OH BOY what it does is awesome value and Google has to gobble this up now or else it will pay a huge price later on if this slips out of its hands or even if it acquires Digsby later when it will grow like others mentioned before (twitter, friendfeed & facebook). IM+Email+social networking updates all in just 1 thing is cool. No one does it as good as these guys.

Jajah is the current VOIP leader managing Yahoo! Voice and Gizmo5 also. So it makes sense that Google gets Jajah and gets the leadership and control of VOIP world. Not that I have any complaints with Grandcentral, but VOIP is 1 area where Google is kind of not present at all. If this happens (Which ideally should) Google can take on any damn VOIP player including Skype. Talking of Skype, there were speculations that it is a loss making thing for ebay and it might be sold off. Google was considered as the front runner to buy it, but even in these times Skype is going strong because of the "Unlimited plans" and opening up a very little. This is 1 huge user base which Google has to get anyhow, by hook or crook. And VOIP is getting bigger and better and its not restricted to PCs only but is getting on mobiles too. So Fring comes in.        

These people just don't sleep and turn out improvements and new versions and features by dozens. Google has to get this to get a monopoly in the mobile VOIP market. They are growing like crazy and adding 1,00,000 users per month according to the last post on their blog.

Last thing on my list is wixi. I have several online data storage accounts and some of them have features which wixi does not have yet. Livedrive caught my attention and I was on it. Unlimited free cloud storage, desktop access and what not, but as always economy hurt them and they went paid. There are a whole lot of online data storage sites, but Wixi gives me unlimited storage for free. Yup, you heard it "unlimited & free". And their uploads are fast, their whole web UI is great and while they had competitors earlier like Livedrive, hordit , Ziddu and more, most of them have gone paid. Every1 was talking about Gdrive and it has not come yet. I am expecting it to go live on 1st April this year and if it does not, then Google just should get Wixi and get it re branded as GDrive.

Thats pretty much it and the list is awesome because if Google gets these things, it will be 70-80% of what people do on the internet. I have high hopes on these guys and I know they can pull this off. Lets see.

Fingers crossed on this 1 and I hope Google is listening,
H@rdeep.

A comrade of 7 years.

I have grown up in a country where motor bikes are still a passion for youngsters. I was no different from most of the guys. I remember I got it 7 years back in 2002. Its been an awesome time and I have traveled a lot on it. The TVS Victor 110.

You do thank people in your lives for being there for so long, for being your support, for helping you in trying times and I have to thank this vehicle because for 7 years in spite of numerous accidents, small and big (1 where I had to spent 7000 bucks) it is still here with me. Of course what you see is a pic of a new 1, and what I have right now is not at all in a very good condition but yes its Blue in color.

I still remember the date I got it. July 6th, 2002 & while it was supposed to be a birthday gift and arrive at August 2nd, it arrived a little bit early. I just saw on the TVS site that this vehicle is not available any longer & was very sad because this has been their largest selling motor bike and this particular vehicle catapulted them to newer heights in the Indian auto market.

Times change and it sure does fly, just like I have tried to experience most of the times on this vehicle. I still drive it and these days I am a bit careful and avoid accidents. LOL :)

The TVS Victor has been a great comrade of my life and these 7 years have been wonderful. I wish I get vehicles like these or even better in my life.

A bit nostalgic & kind of emotional about this,
H@rdeep.