Remember on Friday when I was talking about big-company PR? Yeah, Google went to the New York Times to leak tomorrow’s announcement of new business-focused services. Information Week got a good look too. It’s already at the top of TechMeme.
Hey, lookie here, 107 news stories about the exact same thing. On a Sunday night, even! I had no idea so many journalists were even working on a Sunday. (Hint: they aren’t, this was written Friday and held).
OK, most of that is big-company news sources. See how this works? One, or a few reporters get an exclusive, then everyone has to jump in too.
So, I figure since it’s Google that the blogs would be all over this one. Over to Google blogsearch I go (I like Technorati better, but this is a story about Google so you’d figure that they’d get at least a few bloggers to talk about it, right?)
I can’t find a single blogger who got leaked this information along with the big-city newspapers.
Surely they’ve given Mike Arrington or Om Malik an early look, right?
UPDATE: Om says he was invited to be on the beta, but turned it down because he didn’t like the privacy disclosure.
How about John Battelle, search engine expert who wrote a book on Google. Surely he has the inside track, right?
Nope. He had to learn about it from a spammy mail sent to customers.
How about Danny Sullivan, most important influential in the search industry? (According to Google’s founders). Nope.
Dan Farber? He writes for ZDNet (professional press, surely he got in on the news) and covers Silicon Valley like a glove. Nope, he’s reduced to linking to Information Week.
Damn, did we all piss off Google PR or something or are they trying to hide something?
Well, hope that PR strategy works for Google. In the experiences of other companies that have gotten lucky enough to get all that PR it really doesn’t work out all that well unless the influentials also back up the hype.
The funny thing is that at PodTech we’re actually using most of the “Google Office Suite.”
I hate it. It isn’t even in the same ballpark yet as having an Exchange server.
Maybe that’s why Google didn’t want to show it to influentials first. They’d tell the big-city press crew to take a pass on this until it at least gets close to Microsoft’s enterprise offerings.
And, yes, I am meeting with Google this week to show them just how far off the mark their offerings are in the Enterprise space.
Please note: that doesn’t mean Microsoft should sit back and celebrate. They are gonna get their ass kicked in this space because of their lack of attention to the Macintosh. That’s the #1 reason I’ll probably be using Google’s stuff over the next year instead of Microsoft Exchange, Outlook, and Entourage.
But more on that another day. For today Microsoft is safe from the Google onslaught.
When Google starts showing normal everyday bloggers (not even self-important jerks like me, but the “z list” that no one usually cares about) their stuff, then Microsoft should worry big time.
Anon: damn, and here I thought +I+ was the arrogant jerk. Sigh.
[...] 1) My reading habits online when I’m procrastinating typically start with Bloglines, then Techmeme, and finally NYTimes. I read about the Google Apps for Businesses release on this NYTimes story today, and I thought for certain that the NYTimes was reporting on some old soggy story that managed to squeak by me on the blogosphere weeks ago. There was no mention on Techmeme at the time, so I just assumed that the story had already fallen off the front page. Since when does old media get the scoop on a Google story? Never! I genuinely thought I was out of the loop, and it wasn’t until Scoble posted on this unusual leak that I realized I wasn’t just behind on the news. Why would Google go straight to old media sources with a leak and not include even Techcrunch? It completely difuses the echo chamber effect of the blogosphere buzz around their product launch if everyone has already read the news in the morning paper. It’s like Google PR is actively trying to downplay the launch on the blogosphere… so old school… so 1.0… so un-Google. [...]
Google’s Macintosh support is lagging behind too. Almost nothing works as adverized with Safari (Blogger beta, features missing on Gmail, etc). Use Firefox? Well, OK, but is that Macintosh support? What about “Windoze support” which didn’t work with IE? Use Firefox if you’re a Windoze user? I can’t see Google trying that one.
Google’s Macintosh support is lagging behind too. Almost nothing works as adverized with Safari (Blogger beta, features missing on Gmail, etc). Use Firefox? Well, OK, but is that Macintosh support? What about “Windoze support” which didn’t work with IE? Use Firefox if you’re a Windoze user? I can’t see Google trying that one.
“Michiel: you can get Exchange hosted now and it works great when you do that. It’s cheap per seat too. So, these kinds of complaints just don’t make sense anymore.”
Well, I haven’t seen this hosted exchange in these waters, and ‘cheap’ would require some further qualifier. Cheap to you might not be cheap to me or some startup.
Besides, just because it’s somebody else’s problem to keep it running doesn’t mean it is a good product.
“Michiel: you can get Exchange hosted now and it works great when you do that. It’s cheap per seat too. So, these kinds of complaints just don’t make sense anymore.”
Well, I haven’t seen this hosted exchange in these waters, and ‘cheap’ would require some further qualifier. Cheap to you might not be cheap to me or some startup.
Besides, just because it’s somebody else’s problem to keep it running doesn’t mean it is a good product.
For real analysis…
This is just a faux Street stock-play for the usual glib way way oversimplified “Google vs. Microsoft”, “software as a service” vs. “shrinkwrap”. The Season Opener in the long running Battle, the Opening Shot, the First Spark, the First Chop at the Mighty Microsoft Redwood, blah blah blah. Hooking all the zero-day light-analysis ‘rewrite Press Releases’ fairy-tale journalistic newbits.
Kicking the tires beforehand, blogger or otherwise, lessens the impact…page outta the Apple playbook, as opposed to the Microsoft overhype for years, spin influentials into a psychotic frenzy, hold tons of junkets, cut half features, miss deadlines, final deliver way late and charge double and then play crying wounded dog, woe is us, this is too hard.
But Google is not a real Company, it’s a Cultic Religion posing as a Company.
For real analysis…
This is just a faux Street stock-play for the usual glib way way oversimplified “Google vs. Microsoft”, “software as a service” vs. “shrinkwrap”. The Season Opener in the long running Battle, the Opening Shot, the First Spark, the First Chop at the Mighty Microsoft Redwood, blah blah blah. Hooking all the zero-day light-analysis ‘rewrite Press Releases’ fairy-tale journalistic newbits.
Kicking the tires beforehand, blogger or otherwise, lessens the impact…page outta the Apple playbook, as opposed to the Microsoft overhype for years, spin influentials into a psychotic frenzy, hold tons of junkets, cut half features, miss deadlines, final deliver way late and charge double and then play crying wounded dog, woe is us, this is too hard.
But Google is not a real Company, it’s a Cultic Religion posing as a Company.
Anon: damn, and here I thought +I+ was the arrogant jerk. Sigh.
Robert, I’m sure the product will be a failure since you’re not on the shill team. After all, products don’t stand on their own merits – they need people like you to hype them up because the masses can’t make their own decisions!
BTW, I started using Google in 97, before they even had adsense and long before I’d ever heard of you, techcrunch, or even read about it in any newspaper or magazine.
Remember, today’s “news” wraps tomorrow’s fish. Words to live by. In your case, there isn’t even any tangible asset for wrapping the fish.
Anon: damn, and here I thought +I+ was the arrogant jerk. Sigh.
Robert, I’m sure the product will be a failure since you’re not on the shill team. After all, products don’t stand on their own merits – they need people like you to hype them up because the masses can’t make their own decisions!
BTW, I started using Google in 97, before they even had adsense and long before I’d ever heard of you, techcrunch, or even read about it in any newspaper or magazine.
Remember, today’s “news” wraps tomorrow’s fish. Words to live by. In your case, there isn’t even any tangible asset for wrapping the fish.
Anon: congratulations! I was the first guy on the Internet to talk about a variety of things. Lattes still cost $3 at Starbucks.
Michiel may think Exchange server sucks (it’s actually not that bad) but does he or anyone else really think this cheeseball suite of tools is a replacement for ANY decent office suite? Seriously?
Gmail – not bad for web mail, sure as hell wouldn’t want it as my only email all day every day, especially since everything that goes through it gets catalogued and recorded by Google. An online calendar, chat, and web page maker are suddenly what makes up the rest of an office suite for REAL businesses?! C’mon, people, quit smoking the rope and open your eyes.
I personally don’t even use Microsoft Office anymore, I have the NeoOffice Aqua Beta on my Mac instead, so I’m not saying this as a fan of office. I’m saying it as a fan of FUNCTIONALITY. Why would I want Google to have all my data, and after I schedule a meeting on the calendar, forward the dumb joke of the day to my co-workers, and IM a buddy about who got laid off today, then what? Use some cheeseball editor to make a beginner web page?
I’m surprised this is even a topic at all. Maybe I’ll have to blog about it, considering it’s so unimportant and therefore is a great match for my blog.
Anon: congratulations! I was the first guy on the Internet to talk about a variety of things. Lattes still cost $3 at Starbucks.
Michiel may think Exchange server sucks (it’s actually not that bad) but does he or anyone else really think this cheeseball suite of tools is a replacement for ANY decent office suite? Seriously?
Gmail – not bad for web mail, sure as hell wouldn’t want it as my only email all day every day, especially since everything that goes through it gets catalogued and recorded by Google. An online calendar, chat, and web page maker are suddenly what makes up the rest of an office suite for REAL businesses?! C’mon, people, quit smoking the rope and open your eyes.
I personally don’t even use Microsoft Office anymore, I have the NeoOffice Aqua Beta on my Mac instead, so I’m not saying this as a fan of office. I’m saying it as a fan of FUNCTIONALITY. Why would I want Google to have all my data, and after I schedule a meeting on the calendar, forward the dumb joke of the day to my co-workers, and IM a buddy about who got laid off today, then what? Use some cheeseball editor to make a beginner web page?
I’m surprised this is even a topic at all. Maybe I’ll have to blog about it, considering it’s so unimportant and therefore is a great match for my blog.
just to clarify robert, i was invited to their beta (calendar and email) and not what is now being offered as any one else would have … signed up and got an invite. it was not as a blogger or a media person. thanks!
just to clarify robert, i was invited to their beta (calendar and email) and not what is now being offered as any one else would have … signed up and got an invite. it was not as a blogger or a media person. thanks!
[...] Some have suggested Google is either a religion or a cult as well, and sometimes I think they are right. I saw two different blogs tonight talking about the wonderful new online services for businesses. What’s funny is that while both blogs called Google on the actual usefulness of the product(s) in question, the comments on these blogs are pretty amazing, IMO. Take Robert Scoble’s article on it – he got slammed by those who thought it was sour grapes on his part (read the comments). So let’s analyze this thing and see just what it offers business anyway. [...]
“Remember, today’s “news” wraps tomorrow’s fish. Words to live by.”
People seriously need dorky sayings like this to live by?
“Remember, today’s “news” wraps tomorrow’s fish. Words to live by.”
People seriously need dorky sayings like this to live by?
Robert, since this new google app is a Office Live follower, it makes sense to compare it with Office Live. Do not compare Apples with Banana. Of couse we know desktop products are miles ahead of web products, so comparing google app with exchange does not enlighten anybody. Comapring google app with Office Live might be more useful. As it is now, I do not see why a business should choose google app over Office Live?
Disclaimer: The commentator is a Microsoft employee though the opinion is his personal opinion.
Robert, since this new google app is a Office Live follower, it makes sense to compare it with Office Live. Do not compare Apples with Banana. Of couse we know desktop products are miles ahead of web products, so comparing google app with exchange does not enlighten anybody. Comapring google app with Office Live might be more useful. As it is now, I do not see why a business should choose google app over Office Live?
Disclaimer: The commentator is a Microsoft employee though the opinion is his personal opinion.
> ahh, so professionals don’t have agendas?
Professional journalists that work for an organization that relies on having a non-biased reputation have to worry about getting fired if they don’t get the story right.
Influentials are typically work for themselves and are not likely to fire themselves if their agenda gets exposed. They will continue to attract those readers that share or benefit from their agenda.
> ahh, so professionals don’t have agendas?
Professional journalists that work for an organization that relies on having a non-biased reputation have to worry about getting fired if they don’t get the story right.
Influentials are typically work for themselves and are not likely to fire themselves if their agenda gets exposed. They will continue to attract those readers that share or benefit from their agenda.
Robert, you are such an arrogant ass!
Sorry, I just got into the spirit of things there for a second. heh.
Anyone that has met Robert knows that he is one of the smartest and nicest people in the world. I’ve seen him talk to his readers for hours at parties, cornered, and just kept talking as long as they liked. Every ounce of Robert is good.
On the comment right above regarding the bias of journalists v. bloggers…it just isn’t true that journalists don’t have bias. They hide their bias, lack of product knowledge and research behind balanced stories that are hard to find fault with, but equally hard to become passionate about. Bloggers have their commenters to keep them honest. It’s a much better method.
Robert, you are such an arrogant ass!
Sorry, I just got into the spirit of things there for a second. heh.
Anyone that has met Robert knows that he is one of the smartest and nicest people in the world. I’ve seen him talk to his readers for hours at parties, cornered, and just kept talking as long as they liked. Every ounce of Robert is good.
On the comment right above regarding the bias of journalists v. bloggers…it just isn’t true that journalists don’t have bias. They hide their bias, lack of product knowledge and research behind balanced stories that are hard to find fault with, but equally hard to become passionate about. Bloggers have their commenters to keep them honest. It’s a much better method.
I have to agree with Michael, anyone who does any serious, critical reading of what’s written by journalists on any topic will see bias, ignorance, deceit, and other unprofessional characteristics on a routine basis. Obviously some journalists are very good and do a professional job. But we all bring something to the table when we sit down to write. Some like myself, who are just bloggers, don’t hide the fact we write opinion, but sometimes journalists write opinion and do try to hide it.
I have to agree with Michael, anyone who does any serious, critical reading of what’s written by journalists on any topic will see bias, ignorance, deceit, and other unprofessional characteristics on a routine basis. Obviously some journalists are very good and do a professional job. But we all bring something to the table when we sit down to write. Some like myself, who are just bloggers, don’t hide the fact we write opinion, but sometimes journalists write opinion and do try to hide it.
[...] the enterprise away from Microsoft. Scott Karp – August 27th, 2006 | Email | Print | Link | Del.icio.us Bookmark | Submit to Digg Categories: Online Advertising, Google, Technology,Advertising [...]
In my opinion, Google’s announcement is about spreading seeds of doubt about Microsoft supremacy in the enterprise space. It really isn’t so much about today’s deliverables as tomorrow’s promise. Google doesn’t care if corporation ABC becomes a Google Apps customer today. It deeply cares if corp. ABC decides to delay re-upping with MSFT so that it can “wait and see.” Inaction rather than action may be the goal. Disclaimer: I’m not a blogger, I don’t work in Tech., and I’ve never taken my laptop to a baseball game. Therefore I may not know what the hell I’m talking about. As the A-listers say, heheh. . .
In my opinion, Google’s announcement is about spreading seeds of doubt about Microsoft supremacy in the enterprise space. It really isn’t so much about today’s deliverables as tomorrow’s promise. Google doesn’t care if corporation ABC becomes a Google Apps customer today. It deeply cares if corp. ABC decides to delay re-upping with MSFT so that it can “wait and see.” Inaction rather than action may be the goal. Disclaimer: I’m not a blogger, I don’t work in Tech., and I’ve never taken my laptop to a baseball game. Therefore I may not know what the hell I’m talking about. As the A-listers say, heheh. . .
[...] TechCrunch | Robert Scoble | Om Malik | TechMeme [...]
We may be reading Scobleizer on our own computers, but the geographic Long Tail of Earth’s one billion Netizens uses cybercafés. A purely browser-based easy-to-use free collaborative office suite would be perfect for them.
We may be reading Scobleizer on our own computers, but the geographic Long Tail of Earth’s one billion Netizens uses cybercafés. A purely browser-based easy-to-use free collaborative office suite would be perfect for them.
> I hate it. It isn’t even in the same ballpark yet as having an Exchange server.
True, but remember not all of us want to be in the ballpark of an Exchange Server. Google hosted email is right now aimed at small and midsize companies, and not all of us need/want all the features, costs, and overhead of running our own MS Exchange Server.
I first read about google hosted mail on your blog (for which I am very grateful! thanks!) and after comparing its features and costs to companies hosting Exchange and other solutions, we switched our mail hosting to google and have not looked back. (Note: We switched from one hosted solution to another, not from our own management of our own mail server to hosted. We never wanted to have to manage our own mail server–having done that before and yes it was Exchange–it takes too much time to worry about uptime, connectivity, etc. Happy to let someone else manage that for us!).
If I compare google’s web email experience to, say, the outlook web access (OWA) experience, i am much happier with google’s web mail UI. I love the “search don’t sort” philosophy/capability that google has that OWA doesn’t have, google’s method for linking messags in a thread, google’s method for capturing messages sent via local mail clients to its smtp servers and placing those messages in the hosted gmail sent folder. all of that i like. plus the ability to customize google webmail experience (ever tried customizing OWA experience? fairly limited).
As for an offline experience comparison–google allows us to have 2GBs of online messages and to have POP access to it, so we both leave our mail on their servers AND download it via pop via pop3 clients for offline acccess , so get the best of both worlds.
We haven’t used the calendaring feature much yet, mostly because most of our meetings are with clients rather than with each other so our appts show up on our client’s calendars rather than our internal ones. We are able to use ical to get a copy of the gcalendar though so that we always have an offline view of dates whenever we’re not connected.
yes it’s a bummer that we can’t make edits to our gcalendar via ical but for us that’s not a deal breaker.
> Maybe that’s why Google didn’t want to show it to influentials first. They’d
> tell the big-city press crew to take a pass on this until it at least gets close
> to Microsoft’s enterprise offerings.
i can’t tell you why google didn’t include bloggers but fwiw, i’ve been telling friends and clients that i love the gmail hosted experience.
Will it replace exchange for those who want everything exchange provided? Absolutely Not.
But does it meet the needs of many small businesses even so? Yep. Not all of us need/want everything exchange provides, plus, again, in some features, google’s hosted email surpasses exchange.
As to its office-like offerings, from what i read in the information week article, it doesn’t say it’s trying to compete with creating documents; it says it’s trying to compete with sharing/collaborating on documents. don’t know how well they will do this. it would be very interesting if a word document edited online was as sharable/editable as a wiki entry–but regardless of how that turns out–for me google’s hosted domain email alone is enough of a win for me now to give this hosted solution a big thumbs up.
it’s funny that you are unhappy with the google hosted experience and yet as a key influencer it was your discussion of google’s offering several week ago that influenced me to get it! go figure!
thanks again
> I hate it. It isn’t even in the same ballpark yet as having an Exchange server.
True, but remember not all of us want to be in the ballpark of an Exchange Server. Google hosted email is right now aimed at small and midsize companies, and not all of us need/want all the features, costs, and overhead of running our own MS Exchange Server.
I first read about google hosted mail on your blog (for which I am very grateful! thanks!) and after comparing its features and costs to companies hosting Exchange and other solutions, we switched our mail hosting to google and have not looked back. (Note: We switched from one hosted solution to another, not from our own management of our own mail server to hosted. We never wanted to have to manage our own mail server–having done that before and yes it was Exchange–it takes too much time to worry about uptime, connectivity, etc. Happy to let someone else manage that for us!).
If I compare google’s web email experience to, say, the outlook web access (OWA) experience, i am much happier with google’s web mail UI. I love the “search don’t sort” philosophy/capability that google has that OWA doesn’t have, google’s method for linking messags in a thread, google’s method for capturing messages sent via local mail clients to its smtp servers and placing those messages in the hosted gmail sent folder. all of that i like. plus the ability to customize google webmail experience (ever tried customizing OWA experience? fairly limited).
As for an offline experience comparison–google allows us to have 2GBs of online messages and to have POP access to it, so we both leave our mail on their servers AND download it via pop via pop3 clients for offline acccess , so get the best of both worlds.
We haven’t used the calendaring feature much yet, mostly because most of our meetings are with clients rather than with each other so our appts show up on our client’s calendars rather than our internal ones. We are able to use ical to get a copy of the gcalendar though so that we always have an offline view of dates whenever we’re not connected.
yes it’s a bummer that we can’t make edits to our gcalendar via ical but for us that’s not a deal breaker.
> Maybe that’s why Google didn’t want to show it to influentials first. They’d
> tell the big-city press crew to take a pass on this until it at least gets close
> to Microsoft’s enterprise offerings.
i can’t tell you why google didn’t include bloggers but fwiw, i’ve been telling friends and clients that i love the gmail hosted experience.
Will it replace exchange for those who want everything exchange provided? Absolutely Not.
But does it meet the needs of many small businesses even so? Yep. Not all of us need/want everything exchange provides, plus, again, in some features, google’s hosted email surpasses exchange.
As to its office-like offerings, from what i read in the information week article, it doesn’t say it’s trying to compete with creating documents; it says it’s trying to compete with sharing/collaborating on documents. don’t know how well they will do this. it would be very interesting if a word document edited online was as sharable/editable as a wiki entry–but regardless of how that turns out–for me google’s hosted domain email alone is enough of a win for me now to give this hosted solution a big thumbs up.
it’s funny that you are unhappy with the google hosted experience and yet as a key influencer it was your discussion of google’s offering several week ago that influenced me to get it! go figure!
thanks again
[...] I asked "Why does Google pre-release breaking news via single, favored media publications?" last June. Robert Scoble asks "Is Google hiding from bloggers?" [...]
“Please note: that doesn’t mean Microsoft should sit back and celebrate. They are gonna get their ass kicked in this space because of their lack of attention to the Macintosh. That’s the #1 reason I’ll probably be using Google’s stuff over the next year instead of Microsoft Exchange, Outlook, and Entourage.”
Dude, honestly, Microsoft gives the Mac more attention than any other enterprise company from a client POV. Have you ever USED Oracle’s stuff? Nice server, but ugh, nasty client. I wouldn’t inflict Domino on people I want to die and go to hell. Groupwise has a nice client I hear, but you can’t use it for internet email. Etc. Etc.
A lot of the disparity between WinOffice and MacOffice is because WinOffice ties so tight to windows. By the time you decouple it, you get…well, MacOffice. Sure, there’s a lot that E’rage can’t do that it should and could, but it gets *much* better every release, and I’ve no doubt that MacOffice 12, (now that there’s a choice over that morass of evil and instability that is the Office 97 file formats), will provide better compatibility on many levels, (the VBA issue aside) than I’ve seen in years.
The VBA thing sucks, but we’ve only seen half the story, i.e. that VBA is being cut. We don’t know if, or what it’s being replaced by, and while most of Microsoft hasn’t earned squat, at least in my eyes, the MacBU has earned me holding off until I find out the rest of the story.
But dude, seriously, out of all the enterprise companies, Microsoft’d Mac support is pretty damned good. Now, if the WINDOWS side of things would stop making integration with !Microsoft suck total rancid ass, things would be even better, but Ballmer will never allow it, and I don’t think Sinofsky gives a rat’s ass about it.
“Please note: that doesn’t mean Microsoft should sit back and celebrate. They are gonna get their ass kicked in this space because of their lack of attention to the Macintosh. That’s the #1 reason I’ll probably be using Google’s stuff over the next year instead of Microsoft Exchange, Outlook, and Entourage.”
Dude, honestly, Microsoft gives the Mac more attention than any other enterprise company from a client POV. Have you ever USED Oracle’s stuff? Nice server, but ugh, nasty client. I wouldn’t inflict Domino on people I want to die and go to hell. Groupwise has a nice client I hear, but you can’t use it for internet email. Etc. Etc.
A lot of the disparity between WinOffice and MacOffice is because WinOffice ties so tight to windows. By the time you decouple it, you get…well, MacOffice. Sure, there’s a lot that E’rage can’t do that it should and could, but it gets *much* better every release, and I’ve no doubt that MacOffice 12, (now that there’s a choice over that morass of evil and instability that is the Office 97 file formats), will provide better compatibility on many levels, (the VBA issue aside) than I’ve seen in years.
The VBA thing sucks, but we’ve only seen half the story, i.e. that VBA is being cut. We don’t know if, or what it’s being replaced by, and while most of Microsoft hasn’t earned squat, at least in my eyes, the MacBU has earned me holding off until I find out the rest of the story.
But dude, seriously, out of all the enterprise companies, Microsoft’d Mac support is pretty damned good. Now, if the WINDOWS side of things would stop making integration with !Microsoft suck total rancid ass, things would be even better, but Ballmer will never allow it, and I don’t think Sinofsky gives a rat’s ass about it.
“you can get Exchange hosted now and it works great when you do that. It’s cheap per seat too.”
Google’s offering is free. This makes a big difference to a small business. And you don’t need to hire anyone to administer the thing.
As for Om’s comments: Your domain administrator can already read your email, if she so wishes. Or see anything you’re doing on the internet that goes through their part of the pipe. So that point is mute.
“you can get Exchange hosted now and it works great when you do that. It’s cheap per seat too.”
Google’s offering is free. This makes a big difference to a small business. And you don’t need to hire anyone to administer the thing.
As for Om’s comments: Your domain administrator can already read your email, if she so wishes. Or see anything you’re doing on the internet that goes through their part of the pipe. So that point is mute.
…from way up the top…
**************
Gavin: really? I’ve had quite a few people on Wall Street ask me questions on my cell phone. And, more than one investor in Microsoft has called me from time to time (some VERY LARGE investors too).
***************
That is IF they are trying to get play and get adoption or looking at making a big investment. IF you just want fluff peices, then this is what you do. You are, I think, making the assumption that they want to get people to use it. I don’t think (and have used the press this way in the recent past) that announcing things is always for the purpose of getting users.
On a seperate note, I would say that the use of influentitals hasn’t done much to drive their maps in to everything. I am in BioTech, so see geeks that don’t use computers nearly as much – and they all still use Mapquest.
Still stuck on the power of influentials – Would say there are a lot of ways to skin a cat, and the use of influentials is just another tool. Good for some things, not good for others. It is not always the right answer. If you want fluff peices in the investor press, influentials are useless.
I would agree that for hedge funds et al. making serious investment that they will call a lot of people – but – was that Googles goal?
I also think from your postings above that I missed the point where you meant google did it right – so it could be that we are agreeing with each other…
Gavin
…from way up the top…
**************
Gavin: really? I’ve had quite a few people on Wall Street ask me questions on my cell phone. And, more than one investor in Microsoft has called me from time to time (some VERY LARGE investors too).
***************
That is IF they are trying to get play and get adoption or looking at making a big investment. IF you just want fluff peices, then this is what you do. You are, I think, making the assumption that they want to get people to use it. I don’t think (and have used the press this way in the recent past) that announcing things is always for the purpose of getting users.
On a seperate note, I would say that the use of influentitals hasn’t done much to drive their maps in to everything. I am in BioTech, so see geeks that don’t use computers nearly as much – and they all still use Mapquest.
Still stuck on the power of influentials – Would say there are a lot of ways to skin a cat, and the use of influentials is just another tool. Good for some things, not good for others. It is not always the right answer. If you want fluff peices in the investor press, influentials are useless.
I would agree that for hedge funds et al. making serious investment that they will call a lot of people – but – was that Googles goal?
I also think from your postings above that I missed the point where you meant google did it right – so it could be that we are agreeing with each other…
Gavin
[...] I just signed up for Google’s office suite that is being announced and released this week. Scoble wonders if Google is hiding information from bloggers, as they told the traditional press on Friday before sharing with bloggers. Often, Google will give a sneak peak to bloggers as a way to get the word out. This time they’ve done the opposite. [...]
Agreeing w/ Gavin. Why should there be a one-size-fit-all approach to tech and web PR? There are numerous variables to consider in formulating your tactics. Here are three of the most important: Ethos: Who are you and who’s gonna take your call and cover you?
Target: Who do you need to reach? (investors, customers, not-yet-customers, competitors?)
Objective: What do you want them to know, feel, believe, and–especially–do?
Also consider–do you really want kibbitzers evaluating and filtering your news–or would you rather have a stenographer to paraphrase your press release?
If you’re an A-list newsmaker your range of tactics is widest. Your news will not be ignored by anyone. It’s just a question of who goes first.
(BTW: If you’re an A-list newsmaker, turns out that the best way to get blog buzz is to go directly to NYT or WSJ. Then wait a nanosecond for Scoble to post that you don’t know how PR works in the modern era, and you’re off to the races.)
Agreeing w/ Gavin. Why should there be a one-size-fit-all approach to tech and web PR? There are numerous variables to consider in formulating your tactics. Here are three of the most important: Ethos: Who are you and who’s gonna take your call and cover you?
Target: Who do you need to reach? (investors, customers, not-yet-customers, competitors?)
Objective: What do you want them to know, feel, believe, and–especially–do?
Also consider–do you really want kibbitzers evaluating and filtering your news–or would you rather have a stenographer to paraphrase your press release?
If you’re an A-list newsmaker your range of tactics is widest. Your news will not be ignored by anyone. It’s just a question of who goes first.
(BTW: If you’re an A-list newsmaker, turns out that the best way to get blog buzz is to go directly to NYT or WSJ. Then wait a nanosecond for Scoble to post that you don’t know how PR works in the modern era, and you’re off to the races.)
[...] Everything with Google is a work in progress, and that work apparently never ends. To assess what Google is doing, and whether it will achieve its goals, you have to forget what you’ve learned about traditional product-release schedules, the concept of a finished product, and the huge PR-intensive product launch. [...]
To me Arrington’s comment is telling. I look forward to Google’s non-ad driven pricing for the enterprise. Then we can see if they are truly different – “not evil” et al – or just a slightly different recipe of the MISO – Microsoft, IBM, SAP Oracle – soup.
To me Arrington’s comment is telling. I look forward to Google’s non-ad driven pricing for the enterprise. Then we can see if they are truly different – “not evil” et al – or just a slightly different recipe of the MISO – Microsoft, IBM, SAP Oracle – soup.
I’ll just point out that we have a Trusted Tester program that many products at Google use. It’s got a lot of regular people in it, and pretty much 100% of those folks respect the privacy that we ask of them.
See e.g. http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-02-20-n74.html
for more info.
I’ll just point out that we have a Trusted Tester program that many products at Google use. It’s got a lot of regular people in it, and pretty much 100% of those folks respect the privacy that we ask of them.
See e.g. http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-02-20-n74.html
for more info.