Using Google

I attended a Windows 7 launch a few days ago. Unfortunately, the Microsoft presenter had been called back to Sydney, so we made do with the local guy who “had seen the presentation a couple of times”. Hmm,  a bad start -obviously we are less important than Sydney folk. I was less then blown away. I was initially, and still am I suppose, curious as to Microsoft’s choice of name for this system update. Mac System 7 (specifically 7.1) was a ground-breaking and excitiong piece of software released 18 years ago. Sitting , as I was at a breakfast table, along with invited others from various industries, we decided to amuse ourselves by counting the references to Vista (two, and neither were positive, in a half-hour. Many references to XP, however). But what we should have counted were what appeared to be Microsoft’s catch-ups.

At the risk of sounding a little bit pathetic, Windows 7 appeared to be more about catching up to the Macintosh system 10.x and, of all things, Google.

And that got me thinking about (a) just what was available through Google, and (b) why a software megalith would be concerned about competing with a free website.

Question (b) is probably easier to answer. My guess is that it’s about power and control. ‘You have paid for our package, so why go anywhere else? Stay with us. We’ll look after you [imagine a big warm smile]’.

The first question is answered at Online Colleges. I don’t know how complete this list is, but why would you go anywhere else (please don’t take that literally – my point is that there is much to make use of at Google)

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