Google Ain’t All That
I’ve been following various forum and blog posts regarding the Apple MobileMe announcement; and I see a trend that’s beginning to annoy me. Inevitably, at some point someone will make a comment along the lines of, “I don’t see why anyone would bother with this when there’s Google Mail, Calendar, etc.” Without going into an analysis of the MobileMe service itself (hard to do when it doesn’t exist yet), I am constantly annoyed by this sort of short-sighted thinking. Heaven forbid that Apple, or anyone for that matter, dare to attempt to compete with the mighty Google.
I hate to break it to the Googletards, but there is more to the internet and computing that Google. Some of us have compelling reasons for wanting a competing service. Here’s just a single one that is a factor for me. Seamless desktop and remote integration. I’ve been dying for a seamless way to integrate my desktop workflow (iCal, Mail, iLife) with both the web, and with the Windows machines that I have to use at work. And, before I get a slew of comments pointing out how to integrate with Google’s services, I know about them; I even am currently using some such as BusySync. But, in the end, they are, to a greater or lesser extent, kludges. I want something that, in the words of my dark lord Steve Jobs, “just works.”
But that’s the wonderful thing. If Google is working for you, by all means stay there. That’s the beauty of it. Competing services that co-exist using open and interoperable standards. It’s a win for everyone. Well, everyone but Microsoft.
Posted on June 12th, 2008 under Posts • Tags: Apple, Google, MobileMe. • 
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June 13th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
I couldn’t agree more. Frankly, Gmail sucks. I still use Yahoo! Mail for my web based email (allowing me to check my regular POP account through that) because Gmail is a joke. From what I’ve seen, MobileMe completely blows them both away by sheer virtue of the fact that it looks and acts like an application, and not a website. Not only does Gmail look and act like a website, it looks and acts like a poorly designed website. It’s both ugly and ungraceful.
I’ve written a little more about my thoughts on MobileMe here:
http://george.callitkarma.com/index.php/site/comments/wwdc_news/
And, I completely agree that, while Google calendars does allow you to connect to it (because it’s an iCal calendar), doing so is usually a pain in the ass. It’s not easy or intuitive to set up, and you usually need a third party app like BusySync two get two-way functionality. It’s pointless.
I’ll be (finally) getting an iPhone in a couple of months, and seeing the demo of MobileMe has me more excited than ever!