Ludovic Copéré

The Desktop: a future stronghold for Google?

Hype has grown quickly in the blogosphere and elsewhere around Google's latest service, freshly out of its R&D labs: Google Desktop Search. Whether a brilliant idea, an attractively packaged marketing ploy or a blatant privacy infringement and security breach, only time will tell. But as the Washington Post reports today, "[Google] has acquired a different role: Microsoft's No. 1 foreign aid donor".

That may seems quite a bit far-fetched, but Google is actually just pushing long-wanted features (or even better, benefits) that are missing from Microsoft's Operating System (OS). Look back in 2000, when the company launched its Google Toolbar, which above everything else provided pop-up blocking to Internet Explorer users, something Microsoft would eventually integrate in its OS nearly 4 years afterwards (in Windows XP SP2).

Here with desktop searching, history repeats: Microsoft's much-anticipated search engine is to be included in Longhorn (Windows XP successor) in ... 2006. No wonder why Microsoft is bound to appreciate Google's tool, which (from what I have been able to test so far) seems to stand up against Apple's own Spotlight search engine, to come out in Tiger, Apple's next version of Mac OS X to be released in H1 2005.

While the jump from web search to desktop search may look like a large one at first sight, Google's continuous expansion of its searching offer - from Web pages to newsgroups, images, news, products and e-mails, has unified the searching "experience" to its users. Cloning this experience and easiness of use to individual machine is therefore a very logical step forward.

Who said search was a solved problem?

Skype eyes Video over IP

As I read on Vnunet, Skype is looking "to expand its range of free and low-cost voice over internet services with the launch of a video calling offering in the new year". Once again, perfect (and not so coincidental?) timing following Microsoft's announcement yesterday.

Of course it is PR, but the article has a point in underlining that Skype's way of going with an in-house, proprietary protocol (instead of adopting the standardized Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)) was motivated not only because of SIP's technical hurdles (which were actually substantial when Skype started in 2003 - and are still there to some extent) but also a consequence of the low consumer-demand for it. If Skype chooses to become more involved in providing B2B digital telephony, it will certainly have to find a solution to leverage on legacy and other incompatible infrastructure in the corporate world, but this (much-debated) decision of not adopting the de facto technology nevertheless stresses on the importance of consumer-focused and user-driven innovation in the ICT world.

Microsoft to integrate e-mail, IM, VoIP and Video

As reported by Yahoo News, Microsoft will be "launching a desktop application that aims to seamlessly integrate e-mail, instant messaging, video conferencing, traditional phone service and Internet-based calling", during the first half of 2005. One could say it was merely a matter before Microsoft reacted to the more and more noticed Skype on the Voice over IP (VoIP) side, Jabber open-source protocol in the Instant Messaging (IM) side and even GMail for perhaps starting to commoditize e-mail. Such announcement also arrives quite ironically in the midst of heavy speculation over possible a possible Google e-mail clients (following the internal scrutiny of their recently released Google Desktop Search that supposedly reveals that it includes hooks to a mysterious google_im:// protocol).

Integrating collaborative tools is a great idea, especially as Microsoft already has a userbase through MSN Messenger and Hotmail. Even better is the announced interoperability with other proprietary IM protocols, such as AOL and Yahoo!, as users would be able "to communicate with others regardless of which brand of instant messaging either party is using". Sounds interesting, and Microsoft always manages to surprise us (in bad and good ways). Definitely a thing to follow...

Trying out Rojo

As I am lucky enough to have been invited to Rojo (thanks to Le Danois - let's call it Scandinavian kindredness :-) ). It has been almost a fortnight trying it out, and I must say it's quite nice: as a content aggregator and RSS feed tracker, I think it does a better job in terms of interface than the other aggregators I have tried, such as the ones integrated into Outlook (NewsGator for instance).

I have actually begun realizing that while having the feeds directly coming in Outlook is nice (in that it centralizes mails, news, contacts, calendars in one single place), having a web interface (and why not, a drag 'n' drop feature à la Furl) is of course more flexible in the long run. Now, I would like to find an hybrid client / site that could combine both aspects (an analogy to what Plaxo is doing for synchronizing contacts): a new alternative concept for aggregating content on both heavy and light clients?

MySQL, a toy Database?

I was fortunate enough to listen today to Mårten Mickos, the CEO of MySQL, the biggest name in Database (DB) software for web-based and other IT applications. And, for the remaining few who don't know it, one of the most extraordinary success of open source development (alongside Linux, Apache and Mozilla).

As he explained, contributing to their success has been their ability to both give away the product freely in an open source license (GPL) and commercialize it. The twist is that non-paying customers (i.e. the 35000 persons each day who download MySQL) constitute a unique test-base for quality assurance (QA) as well as bug-tracking, with the added advantage for MySQL of costing zero to manage and organize - call it the anti-Microsoft way of dealing with QA.

Adding that MySQL totally owns the source code, as the MySQL code is entirely written in-house, it somewhat protects the company from ugly SCO vs. IBM-related law suits and several other patent disputes. Therefore, the company combines the power of open source, while still maintaining the steering control of the project, thereby limiting the risks for corporate customers (that is, to make sure it is as good as it looks and to prove that it is possible for them to sell at such low prices - 595$ for the commercial version).

No, it's not too good to be true. MySQL is a bit like the IKEA of the digital era (yet another Swedish company!): high quality, despite low prices, thanks to streamlined development processes and rational delivery models. When you shop at IKEA, not a single screw is missing nor is in excess, and the manual is just as detailed as needed. The same goes there in the DB world: MySQL aims at being practical, not bloated. It just works, as to spoof another well-known IT company's former motto. Performance, Reliability, Ease of Use are prioritized over the bell and whistles that have forcedly put the DB offers from the Big Three (Oracle, IBM, Microsoft) out of reach (who said useless?) for most SMEs and even large corporations: did you know that MySQL powers (parts of) large audience sites like Google, Yahoo, Slashdot, Craigslist, Friendster, Feedster...?

I really see it as a perfect illustration of the theories given in The Innovator's Dilemma: in the late 90s, large DB mammoths were laughing at MySQL, this scandinavian toy coming from nowhere. Yet, it found a solid niche (reliable storage for web sites) and grew through it towards being a serious contender in large DB's realms: if SAP has choosen MySQL as the back-end DB for the next version of its ERP software, it's precisely because it sees past the risks of open source and acknowledges its qualities in such strategic move.

The real question is therefore: Where will the next competition between open and closed software take place? Will it be Linux vs. Windows, JBoss vs. Websphere, PHP vs. .NET ...? Will it be waged in the desktop, mobile, home environment(s)?