Posted by Adam Ruth on Mon, Apr 12, 2010
Photo by jpctalbot
Google has
recently announced that they are going to start incorporating site speed as part of their search ranking. Depending on how this is handled it could be either a good or a bad thing.
As a Google user, I would be happy if there are 10 sites with similar relevance to my search that the slower sites would be listed lower on the the page. Also, the pressure this would put on many sites to improve their speed would be good for me as a user of the Web in general. But, on the other hand, if speed becomes too important in the ranking then sites with high speed could push out slower sites with more relevant information.
As a web site owner, it means one more thing to worry about as part of SEO (Search Engine Optimization.) Something that is only slightly related to content. Performance is controlled as much by the web site host as anything else, so it does make cheaper hosting less attractive and will drive up the costs of running a web site somewhat.
I believe that Google's engineers are smart enough to take into consideration factors that could unfairly penalize a site such as brief periods of high activity, web analytic scripts and ads. While this does increase the cost (in time and money) for site owners, it really is inevitable. As the web grows, search engines need to ensure that they give users the best results for their search, and that means finding new and different ways to surface sites that users want. Relevance is the best and most important metric, but with so many sites that are relevant there has to be a way to sort them. I suppose the next step is to grade sites on spelling and aesthetics. That'd push half of Myspace out of search results.
Posted by Shawn Anderson on Fri, Mar 05, 2010
I like Google Apps. Our entire office uses it. I've even written about it... a couple of times. It's great for collaboration. Better yet, it's great for those of us who don't just work on one computer in one location.
All that being said... Microsoft can win this battle. Here's why.
One thing has been very obvious to us in our use of Google Apps; we're not ready to throw out our Microsoft Office. Far from it. We all still have Office loaded on every system. While our use has certainly waned over the past six months, none of us could let it go.
That's why I like Microsoft's answer to Google Apps. They're not trying to play the game on Google's terms. They're not positioning Office Web Apps as an alternative to their well known (and still profitable) Office Suite. They're positioning it as an extension.
Bravo.
Google's answer is that you need only one solution. Microsoft's answer is that you can have both. While it's still in beta and therefore functionally broken (still can't edit word docs), it's coming along.
My gripe about Google Apps is that it's not really seamless to import a Microsoft doc or spreadsheet into Google Apps and have it ready for prime time. It's the little gotcha's that creep up and make you reluctant to completely let go of Office. (For instance, try printing Google Apps spreadsheet without the grid lines. It's possible, but not intuitive and not without modifying the URL of your spreadsheet - at least not as of a month or so ago).
Large companies have moved to Google Apps, while others have been hesitant because of the concern of needing large documents now only to have all of them being downloaded over and over again. Microsoft has answered this through their Office Web Apps over Sharepoint. It's a great idea. The benefits of hosting while still maintaining control of your docs.
Windows Administrators take note; we will still need to do software installations for Office 2010, even while taking advantage of Office Web Apps. Remember, it's extending Office, not replacing it. We'll post deployment instructions as the beta progresses.
There's promise in both Microsoft and Google offerings. It's just nice to see someone (Microsoft) playing a game but doing so on their terms.
And in true free market form, the products of both will be better and the consumers will benefit.
Take advantage of Office 2010 beta.
Posted by Shawn Anderson on Wed, Jan 13, 2010
Google has announced that their document collaboration tool (no, not Wave) will receive an upgrade. Google Docs is about to receive (and none too soon) the ability to upload files.
This honor has been limited to specific file types, usually office documents and .pdf's. As a Google Apps Premier user I've been one of those waiting for this announcement.
Google Docs users will get 1GB of storage space, with up to 250 MB per file. Additional space is available for purchase.
Google Apps Premier customers will not (at least it hasn't been announced) be receiving additional space, but rather the ability to use 3rd party apps for desktop syncing.
I'm a little surprised that the Premier customers aren't starting off with a larger bowl, but all in good time I suppose.
Here's a good take on Google's announcement from Ars Technica.