companies (3)
Google Land
Today Google has announced a new programming language (Go). They already announced a new web browser (Chrome), a new operating system (Android), cloud services (App Engine) and other well-known services. They have choosen the main pillars in the tech world and they have built their own versions.
They could create an unexisting service or even more, improve an existing project. But they decided to reinvent the wheel. For sure this is according to their interests.
So what happens with that friendly face they showed at the beginning that now it's turning to a controller face.
Google ensures they contribute to the open source and also they use it. But this is not sustainable for such a powerful company. They have the ability of reach the user through manufacturers, through internet, millions of them. The effects of using and participating in the open source world are not the same as a medium or small company.
I'm not saying this with rage and regret, they have done a lot for all. They offer good services and for free, helping to understand and define the net. But now that has turned into a dependency for the user. Microsoft did it the same. They allowed the medium user access to the technology and computers, they tried to charge for it but that was the way of doing business at that time.
Ladies and gentlemen, Google is the new Microsoft, Google is internet for the end user.
2009-11-11 17:53 by pichulines (0 comments)
Free IKEA
Today Ikea is on the papers, not because of his furniture but because of his typography. I'm a bit confused, I don't know if this is ridiculous news or a surprising fact. I'll sum up the story so that you can decide.
It happens that the Ikea catalog is one of most printed publications in the planet (183 millions of copies in 23 different languages), not yet ahead the bible. And it also happens that this catalog has been using the Futura font for a long time, created in 1926.
Now Ikea has decided to change this font for the well known Verdana font, created to be showed in screens not so many years ago. So the catalog now will be printed in Verdana instead of Futura to keep the coherence with online publications.
Many designers have energetically criticized the change, even they have created a specific group in facebook called "Stop Ikea going Verdana". They think it's an aberration to use a font designed for screen in paper.
Is this so important? Can't Ikea choose the font for his catalogs? Do people have a lot of free time? Am I contributing to this crazy story?
2009-09-18 19:39 by pichulines (0 comments)
Watch your steps
The last Google's movement is a bit surprising, or not. At least I'm not used to this kind of apparently empty actions. I'm talking about the last patent that Google has got: "his home page look".
Yes, it sounds crazy but they have been fighting for 5 years till now. And what's the meaning of this? Well, it's not clear but I guess they have strong reasons to do it.
It has no much sense, on one hand, to offer tons of books and other stuff for free, just to spread culture and on the other hand, get a patent of such a thing. It is a bad taste action.
Anyway, I'm not currently affected and I don't know the scope of this patent, but I'm sure many sites use similar search forms.
2009-09-03 20:09 by pichulines (0 comments)
