17 replies to this topic 2 votes

[ACTIONpack]

Remember the favorite phase, "Do No Evil". Well there has been a lot of articles lately about how Google is trying to close out/limited Microsoft and other companies out of web services like Google Maps only working on webkit and not supporting DOC files on Google Doc. I know there are many more I can bring up but I don't feel searching about it now. Microsoft was more open in the 90s with other companies to make sure they can use software on their OS and but Google seem to not like this. Any thoughts about this?

[+techbeck]

ACTIONpack, on 09 January 2013 - 20:59, said:

Remember the favorite phase, "Do No Evil". Well there has been a lot of articles lately about how Google is trying to close out/limited Microsoft and other companies out of web services like Google Maps only working on webkit and not supporting DOC files on Google Doc. I know there are many more I can bring up but I don't feel searching about it now. Microsoft was more open in the 90s with other companies to make sure they can use software on their OS and but Google seem to not like this. Any thoughts about this?

A lot of companies are bad and acting the fool latey. Google, Apple, MS, Samsung.....everyone is guilty of something at some point. Just wish companies like this could work together more than fighting back and forth. Block products from being released, suing hte crap out of others...or out right dropping support for other platforms/products. I myself use a mixture of different products from different companies.

[nik louch]

I think you meant "than" not "then" in your title. Also "worse" not "worst"...

[Astra.Xtreme]

They reverted the Google Maps block.

These are free services, so people shouldn't be hurt if Google decides to set some restrictions.
Regardless, Google makes it's money from these on ads, so they don't exactly have the intention of screwing over a large population of people.

[airedwin]

Microsoft wasn't even that bad in the 90s. I think it was just a lot of negative press and public perception. I just remember they were knocked for bundling a browser with their Operating System. Lol. All Operating Systems come with a browser now.
What Google is doing now would be the equivalent of Microsoft not allowing anyone to install anything but Internet Explorer or blocking websites out of Internet Explorer.

[Jason Stillion]

No, however there's increased tension between Microsoft and Google.

[farmeunit]

Not supporting .doc shouldn't be an issue. It's only for exporting. MS has a compatibility converter for older Office versions, so export as .docx, then you can open in Office. You can still import .doc.

[brianshapiro]

airedwin, on 09 January 2013 - 21:28, said:

Microsoft wasn't even that bad in the 90s. I think it was just a lot of negative press and public perception. I just remember they were knocked for bundling a browser with their Operating System. Lol. All Operating Systems come with a browser now.
What Google is doing now would be the equivalent of Microsoft not allowing anyone to install anything but Internet Explorer or blocking websites out of Internet Explorer.

I remember Ralph Nader complaining that the shell was bundled with Windows and this created an unfair advantage against people who wanted to use alternative shells. /shakes head

[Lord Method Man]

Dropping support for exporting .doc format is due to the fact that .doc is an obsolete format that shouldn't be used anymore.

[Luis Mazza]

Well, it is a little hard to understand what you really mean, as you completely ignore basic grammar principles... But anyway, here it goes:

One of the reasons that this is different for Google is that it isn't actually selling those services. 95% of the services Google provides, are free.
Microsoft was selling it's Windows and Office software in the 90's and you couldn't actually install any other operating system in your computer. Actually you could, but that was not 1% as easy as it is today. So, it was considered for a long time, a monopoly. Monopolies do have to behave much better than other companies, or else justice grabs them with it's powerful hands.

Google is not a monopoly... Not even on search, but that is debatable. That's why many Google's critics actually attack the company due to it's search business policies. Regarding other activities, which are also provided for free and are not considered a monopoly... Well, Google does whatever it wants!
If that is evil or not, one should say why that is evil. Protecting your free products from being used when a company doesn't want them to be used is in their rights as a private company.

[aviator189]

Aside from the negative press, I don't feel that ms really did much bad in the 90s.
Just the perception.

[z0phi3l]

Neither company has done anything "evil" in any context of that word, that you may or may not quite grasp. What's going on is normal everyday competition and MS choosing to do it's own thing and not follow standards again, not sure how this is Google's fault, and I don't know anyone that uses the .doc format, so there's nothing lost in dropping it

[Growled]

From my perspective, no. Google provides a ton of free services that just work. If they are being evil it's out of sight and out of mind.

[nik louch]

It's so cool for people who know "a little bit" about IT, who talk about it with friends but don't really understand it's an industry and not here to provide 101 free services to them, who want to act like they "know the score" to label companies as "evil".

It was wrongly done to MS in the 90s. Now google...

Well done, have a cookie!

[ACTIONpack]

nik louch, on 10 January 2013 - 01:36, said:

It's so cool for people who know "a little bit" about IT, who talk about it with friends but don't really understand it's an industry and not here to provide 101 free services to them, who want to act like they "know the score" to label companies as "evil".

It was wrongly done to MS in the 90s. Now google...

Well done, have a cookie!

What type of cookie? YUM!