Comments on: Google, Meet Glass Ceiling

By: Mundi

Mundi — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 13:55:40 +0000

I have been working with WSS and MOSS quite a bit - mainly customizing and writing addins, so I was very curious when Google Sites came out and naturally started testing it right away. It looks like a good start, but is still far far away from what Sharepoint has to offer, and no way I could recommend it to customers.

Hopefully Google will put a massive effort into developing this further and listen to the comments made in google groups, then we would have a real alternative to MS Sharepoint.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:54:02 +0000

Frankensuite…LOL!

You make some good points here. (And I love your images, too!)

By: sam

sam — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:09:47 +0000

@paisano A Sharepoint admin, eh? You’ll bring a lot of good insight to all this shakeup, then. Look forward to learning more.

@Gary For sure the future isn’t governed by the past. Thats why no tech company has ever been #1 forever (though 20 years for MS is a long time).

@Gordon I should have used Dino graphics. Next time.

By: Gordon Taylor

Gordon Taylor — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 15:53:23 +0000

When you have a lot of momentum, (and a lot of mass), it’s _crazy_ hard to change direction - no matter where you’re going.

So, let the dinosaurs fight it out! I don’t see either of them getting it right anytime soon…Who wants to be the new sharepoint? ew…

By: Gary Walter

Gary Walter — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 15:48:08 +0000

Interesting thoughts Sam. I find it fascinating to listen and process the insights you have. Though I’m not in IT, I easily extrapolate lessons into the the real world. I completely see your logic here; however, one thing I tell my clients is “the future is not governed by the past.” If it was, then women should not try to break through the glass ceiling and ethnic minorities should just resign themselves to their present caste.

One good thing about Google Sites, and other Google products, it lets small start-up users like myself break into the arena of advanced tools that allow us to advance our prospects.

By: paisano

paisano — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 15:24:33 +0000

I agree. I am so thrilled that the g-men have jumped into this pool (however ill-prepared they might be) because it will bring a great deal of much needed attention to the enterprise collaboration arena. I’ve been a SharePoint admin for a long time and I’ve blogged a great deal about it (WSS and MOSS) but I am always looking for evolutionary (and revolutionary) technology so you can imagine my constant disappointment with Microsoft regarding this incredible opportunity that they’ve squandered for many years. Products like Jive Software’s ClearSpace should’ve been Microsoft’s wakeup call but I guess Google’s presence (however weak and insufficient it is) in this space MIGHT just awaken the sleeping giant in Redmond. They’re trying to steal vmware’s thunder with their hypervisor but they will lose an incredible golden egg if (when) they lose the market that SharePoint has dominated for so many years. What a shame for them, but all this is great for businesses and for us IT admins.

Pai