base.google.​com

Everyone else is talking about, funny that I didn't see something here already (or maybe I missed it).  But at what do you say to Google, enough is enough?  I don't need another service from you.  To me Google will always be a search company and I will visit www.google.com for searching and finding information I can't.  I have visited the other portions of their portal, froogle, groups, images, blog, gmail, etc.  I stopped going to Yahoo! when it became to cluter w/ portal stuff and haven't been back.  search.msn.com I visit and www.hotmail.com but no other portions of that portal.

At what point does Google "do no  evil" become Microsoft "the borg?"  Is there a vision at google?  What do they want to do?  Are they a search company?  An email company? A VoIP provider or ??

But at what point does the google bubble burts.  it has been interesting watching the google does no evil crowd at /. slowly change some of their tunes.  Even those people have started to complain about things.

Replace Microsoft w/ Google and imagine the outrage.  I did enjoy the discussion about Blogger and splogs that have been happening this week.  Let's see how people react to this

Google über alles

Beer28 wrote:

dahat, seeing what google, microsoft, and yahoo does with man hours, I would NEVER guess that they give a damn about spending company money.

Yeah they do Beer, this is where the Linux mindset of "You can't rush perfection" comes into play. Yes they are anal retentive about man hours, they are anal retentive about salary, and yes they do care about spending company money.

Google is one of the services however though kinda like linux where if the beta breaks the machine they come out with the whole "Well we have a beta agreement." and your stuck, have I personally had this happen? No but then again why is there no beta support?

Google churns out betas really fast (I hate to say that). So I can imagine they probably have 1000's of developers working on individual projects not just a few here and there.

Beer28 wrote:

Additionally, they are competing in free services. Ad dollars on the internet are not as stable as print and tv. Look at what happened to bcentral.

You're insane. If Google JUST had to live off of the ad revenue from AOL you're still talking $386 Million a year. And it keeps going up.

I get the sense they're just doing stuff so their stock price doesn't tank before their stock vests.

Just to save anyone else from searching:

http://news.com.com/Google+wants+your+car+listings%2C+events%2C+etc./2100-1038_3-5914039.html?tag=nefd.top

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dirson/55908013/

http://google-blog.dirson.com/post.new/0292/

http://www.seweso.com/blog/google-base2.png

and no, http://base.google.com doesn't work anymore, they took it down for now...

I think this is kind of interesting, it sounds like they want people to be able to Google "1 bedroom apartment rental in manhattan with washer dryer for less than $3000," and instead of giving you just the regular Google matches of web pages containing those words, you get the Google Base matches where someone has already uploaded the METADATA specifically describing Housing - Type Apartment - Location New York, NY - Number of Bedrooms = 1, etc. etc.

Likewise if you want to upload your recipes, you can tag them with metadata about the ingredients, prep time, instructions etc. and then someone can just Google "how do i make duck a l'orange," or even "what can i make for dinner if the only thing i have is a duck and some oranges?"

They're basically asking people to take the trouble to tag their "content" with metadata in exchange for hosting it.  Enter the so-called "deep web," semantic web, etc.

This will allow them to support more natural-language type queries that return accurate answers.

Tying that in with Google Payments is a natural.  Hey, since you've found EXACTLY what you're looking for, why don't you just click right here and buy it?  (maybe they will cut themselves a piece of the action?)

It's an interesting strategy... I'm just not completely sure people want to spend the rest of their lives adding metadata to their documents, tagging each item in 27 different categories...  But if you want to SELL something I suppose you will be motivated to do that...

Also interesting in that this shuts out pretty much everyone else; it's not like Google is going to share their metadata with Microsoft or Yahoo....

You would be suprised at what people would do all day long on the internet

But at what point will the anti-trust people gang up on google for running the small guy out of business with thier local website.  Does this mean w/ google base its an end to craigslist?
My central point is that if this was Microsoft doing it everyone would be up in arms

Just because you dont want to use more of their services does not mean others feel the same way, please dont try to say your opinion is representing everyone on the internet.

I use google maps, searchs, toolbars, emails, etc. I like them expanding their services not because im a google fanatic, but because they seem to do a great job with any product they put out. I would LOVE for them to add better blogging services and things like calendars into their suite.

Karim wrote:

Likewise if you want to upload your recipes, you can tag them with metadata about the ingredients, prep time, instructions etc. and then someone can just Google "how do i make duck a l'orange," or even "what can i make for dinner if the only thing i have is a duck and some oranges?"to do that...

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=parakeet+mint+jelly

Still needs some work.  Perhaps it would work better with Bordelaise sauce, or maybe some Hollandaise. Although I've heard fillet of Loon with freshly cracked black pepper and lemon zest is quite tasty.  With a sprig of parsley, of course.

The sponsored links are still accurate, though:

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dahat wrote:

j0217995 wrote: My central point is that if this was Microsoft doing it everyone would be up in arms

True... but at the same time I don’t think Microsoft has ever come out and said that they will do no evil and have that be part of their core business... and unfortunately no matter what they say today, there is a popular history that they are nothing but evil and can do nothing good.

I do always find it entertaining on places like /. where when Microsoft announces they are going to help police track down child pornographers or other noble deeds, they are blasted, but when Google announces it’s new legion of sales aliens... people cheer... just because they are not MSFT.

Amen,
     Microsoft had base.microsoft.com Beer would be running around "All your base..." like the rest of the Internet is right now with Google. Google hasn't hit that "tenured" point (20 years in business) like AOL and Microsoft have. This I think contributes to the whole evil/not-evil scenario. People will say Google does no evil until they come up with the "Google Browser" or another technology that steps all over what they love...

Google vs. Mozilla vs. Flock trolls on /. can't you see it now?

I think once Google develops enough programs (Not web services) and these programs fail (After all you can't program for all situations) the the peoples who's computers won't or can't accept it will start the Google is evil campain. Once google starts their 5-10-15 years and other startups show up on the market I think things will change.

I wonder what the legal ramifications would be if Microsoft started a hostile takeover bid for Google...

Karim wrote:

and no, http://base.google.com doesn't work anymore, they took it down for now...

Actually, they didn't "take it down for now", it was never supposed to be up in the first place. Probably a few job openings at google right now....hehe

Harlequin wrote:

I wonder what the legal ramifications would be if Microsoft started a hostile takeover bid for Google...

Imagine all the work they would have to do.

Moving all those servers from BSD to Windows (which may not be possible as they may not be high spec enough - as Google uses many cheap servers so when one goes down no one really notices).

Porting the Python, Java, PHP (i.e. not written using Microsoft languages) code to C# or VB.NET. Apache (or GWS, whatever they use for web) to IIS. MySql to SQL Server.

Stopping all the open source projects from working on other platforms. No more Firefox toolbar (can't keep on producing a toolbar for a competing browser) or Google talk (uses open standards for IM, not something Microsoft is likely to do).

With the technologies that Google use (i.e. open source), they have practically guaranteed that they will not be taken over by Microsoft. The same is true for Yahoo and eBay. The best weapon against Microsoft is open source. Some licenses (especially the GPL license) prevent Microsoft from integrating the code into its proprietary products. Proprietary software vendors can simple be bought and the code kept secret and made part of something else.

sbc wrote:

Harlequin wrote: I wonder what the legal ramifications would be if Microsoft started a hostile takeover bid for Google...

Imagine all the work they would have to do.

Moving all those servers from BSD to Windows (which may not be possible as they may not be high spec enough - as Google uses many cheap servers so when one goes down no one really notices).

Porting the Python, Java, PHP (i.e. not written using Microsoft languages) code to C# or VB.NET. Apache (or GWS, whatever they use for web) to IIS. MySql to SQL Server.

Stopping all the open source projects from working on other platforms. No more Firefox toolbar (can't keep on producing a toolbar for a competing browser) or Google talk (uses open standards for IM, not something Microsoft is likely to do).

With the technologies that Google use (i.e. open source), they have practically guaranteed that they will not be taken over by Microsoft. The same is true for Yahoo and eBay. The best weapon against Microsoft is open source. Some licenses (especially the GPL license) prevent Microsoft from integrating the code into its proprietary products. Proprietary software vendors can simple be bought and the code kept secret and made part of something else.

Wow, that was the lamest bit of "MS is Anti-Open Source" I have ever heard. MS Could buy Google and then let Google run on their own and ride out the revenue. Never say never...

I wonder if:

a) One of the attributes you can give a custom item is a relationship to another custom item.

b) One could tag or otherwise organize existing created by others items according to one's own needs.

c) If there will be an API so that one could write a WinFS sync adapter for Google Base.