Somebody stop Google. Please.

Google begat the good search, and it was good. Then they rolled out more stuff, and that was pretty good. Gmail was freakin' awesome. In fact, a lot of Google's tools have a great deal of potential.

So what the hell happened? Gmail was fine, and they went and added chat. That's a cute trick, but all I can tell is that it slows things down, and has seemingly resulted in a lot more Gmail downtime. How many times have you been unable to check Gmail in the past 3 months?

Then there's this Google web page builder thing. Is it good? Who knows? After a couple of months trying to get in, repeatedly giving my email address, they still won't let me in.

Was it because I called them out on slipping half-assed, beta'd, not-yet-got-a-full-server-yet services out the door so fast they have started looking like morons? Yes, press releases are fine Larry, and it's great when you beat Microsoft to the punch (with Writely, which they didn't make)... but why not take a moment this year to refocus your efforts?

Picassa needs a revision. Most of their stuff needs to talk to each other better. That's where they could beat Microsoft. By integrating all the cool apps and web services, they could truly become a webOS. But farting around they are now just makes them look like a little kid who got accidentally drunk at the wedding and said something funny in the video. It's cool and all, but after seeing it a dozen times, it's kinda sad really...

There has to be a better way

I can understand when the old timers want a warm body in a seat in the office next to them... But I find it a little disheartening when some power-hitters I know want this.

Whatever happened to the virtual office? Fact is, there's no off-the-shelf tool for making this happen reliably. But I'm thinking of a system that would make it like you were a god, and you merely waved your hand, and mystically the employee would appear.

Seriously, it's like a little hologram ala Star Trek or Star Wars, and in an instant, your minions could be called into action. Sounds neat, doesn't it? Well there's only one guy that I'd be willing to build it for, and it would require the talents of a certain hackaday crew...

And naturally, I'd have to go full time to make it "worth my while." Heh.

Top 10 people who should do podcasts

This is worth a look. The Top 10 people who should be blogging is a list of NOT just techies, but some incredible humans who should be heard on a regular basis. But aren't. At least, not in audio form.

Woz can be heard on TWiT once in a while. Calacanis needs to hire me as his personal podcast assistant.

Kevin Rose should actually stop podcasting diggnation. It's just goofy IMO. But then, I think I should be on TWiT too... Go figure.