bradwall
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Registered: 02-12-2003
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I have come to the conclusion that I really like what google is coming doing now days. They have a lot of great tools (in my opinion) and one that I just found, I really like. It is Picasa2. It is a photo editing program that is very simple to use. You can clean up photos, order prints, create videos, create slide shows (and turn them into screen savers), send pictures to your own personal blog, and much more. You can even have it connect to your digital camera and download the photos from it.

I do have a photo editing tool that came with my digital camera, but it this is much easier to use. They have an "I'm feeling lucky" button that does a one-click clean up that really looks good (in about 90% of cases).

Don't know why I am sharing this with everyone, but it is pretty cool. And, of course, free.
http://picasa.google.com/index.html

I am also a fan of google desktop, gmail, and other tools that they have. I kind of wonder why they have not come out with their own web browser, but I could see them doing that in the future.

Mattcrampy
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Registered: 05-29-2003
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I think that Google is somewhat behind Firefox at the moment - if Google did come out with a browser, there's a good chance it'd be based off Firefox.

What you really should be asking is when there'll be a Google Office or a Google space shuttle - they've announced partnerships with Sun and NASA recently.

(The NASA one was particularly funny to read - Google was practically wetting their pants.)

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b0rsuk
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Registered: 11-23-2003
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I keep thinking what would happen to Google should it replace Microsoft.

Yes, it is possible. While MS is far from dying and has mountains of money, Google has a lot of momentum - and innovates *gasp*. Why can't there be two big companies ? Competition is good for product quality and consumers, after all ?
Because MS has long tradition of trampling inconvenient companies into the ground. And it's easy to assume they will keep trying as long as they can. It may be easier to cripple MS than live in its shadow.

There are some controversial things about it, like possible invasion of privacy (they scan mails in your inbox, right?), but so far they are insignificant when compared to Microsoft's. Does Google "behave" relatively well to shine when compared to MS ? Are they really diffrerent, or just trying to look different as long as it pays off ?

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Mattcrampy
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While Google has a mantra of 'don't be evil', I've noticed they don't seem to be very good with innovations that could be useful but also could be very evil. Most of the truly awful things in the world usually come with a benefit, and little is inherantly evil.

But Microsoft is definitely in trouble, especially if they can't continue to find convincing reasons for people to develop for the Windows API. As more and more platform-independant products are made, the compulsion to stick to Windows will be less and less. If Apple decides to use their iPod warchest to steal people off Windows, then you'll see Microsoft in trouble.

(While Linux may play into this, I think Apple is much closer to challenging Microsoft than Linux is. Linux's big problem is that it's cobbled together by nerds, so while it's ideal for their needs and works just like they expect, it's not exactly intuitive to use for the common man. Apple has much more money and experience at intuitive interfaces than the Linux Foundation can easily muster, and Apple has a strictly adhered-to set of standards and one operating system they can push.)

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jamie
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But don't forget that most of the OS underneath Mac OS X is actually from [plug]FreeBSD[/plug]

And whilst I'm not disagreeing with what you are saying, isn't it telling that so far, all the utilities that Google has released have been for Windows only ?


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#f3i2g# Disclaimer: I'm Welsh, left-handed, and stupid. #f3i2g#