G+ And The Cloudy Future

An email comment about my Google+ post:

Don't you want to revise your impressions about Google+ now that Microsoft and Google are going toe-to-toe?

Not especially, not (at least) until Google Docs gets pagination and its spreadsheets can do reliable floating point calcuations.

The argument (made eloquently by Vincent Wong) is that G+ is not really a social network but a market-creation endeavor by Google that aims to integrate pretty much everything we do on the computer in one place: Google. The aim is a cross-platform one-stop shop that replaces the Apple App store as well as the rusting but still imposing dependence on Microsoft's Office suites and operating systems.  It also does more transparently what Facebook attempted to do, sure, but really, it's situating everything we do in the cloud that Google's servers maintain.

The trouble is that Google's got a long way to go before its all-in-one photo-email-documents-finances-presentations-social-kitchen-sink actually replaces the functionality of many specialized suites. While I can keep my documents in the Google cloud, I typically don't.  The cloud's really no more convenient than carrying my laptop. It might be, if the G-Docs suite (or Microsoft's Live Office) were more functional. Until then, carrying a laptop and onboard applications that can actually handle my documents will prevail. And that's a bit like saying that I prefer taking my car to work until the public transportation is really futuristic and amazing, I guess, but that's the way it is. I hate Microsoft, but I need it for the moment. The future is the Cloud. But the shape of the cloud isn't yet Google shaped, though Google is positioning itself to dominate the cloudy sky.

It's a nice metaphor that Google's Chrome browser doesn't even support off-line editing of Google Docs.  (Are there still people that need offline access?  Well, yes.)

(I make no apologies for my love affair with my iPhone. Android was a bitter-sweet experience.)

Not that Google can't get there and win me over, but the market isn't standing still. And the Google offerings, which I use constantly and really enjoy, have huge limitations.

Until then, G+ for me has few allures. My relationships are not yet so cloudy. Or rather, not cloudy in that way.