Those are two companies that are chained to the desktop, which for better or worse Google is trying to subplant. Since they already have video and voice chat/online storage solutions, they just be buying users which seems like a poor businees move.
Considering the crooks that run Skype, Google got real lucky on that one. Just ask eBay.
I blame eBay for that one. Not actually acquiring the underlying technology to Skype was pure idiocy on their part.
I don't blame Skype one bit for taking advantage. My point was that apparently Craig Walker having kids in school and lawyers saying it would take months for the deal to go through was enough to kill a deal that had a high chance of success. I understand Chan was protecting his territory but shame on Google management for going along with it.
As Gannes notes, the timeframe of some of these discussions is left unclear by Levy's book. Are we sure this wasn't a discussion to buy Skype from eBay, or very recently since its spin-out?
They're responsible for two of the company's hottest products, that's how.
Maybe, but being right once doesn't mean they're never wrong again. It's hard for me to see how Google wouldn't have been better off buying Skype and integrating it into GMail. Easier said than done for sure but a hell of a lot easier than getting Skype users to switch to Google Voice. Also, last I checked Google Docs still wants to save things as files. I guess Pichai never had to at least prove his idea correct and justify his decision. Maybe these guys are good product managers but they seem to be pretty bad at strategy. The point I'm making is that they don't seem to have been held accountable.
Just checked. Google docs does not work with files.
Really? Then why is there a big list of files starring at me when I open Google Docs? There's also a "File" menu with the typical options. Perhaps internally they don't represent these data as files but that seems to be how they're presented to the user. Am I missing something?
I think the "File" menu is there because since everyone is used to it, it is expected. Other then that, I don't see a list of files, but I do see a list of documents. Subtle difference, big impact. A document is a file (however, I doubt even that at gdocs), but a file is not necessarily a document. Personally I want to work with documents, not so much with files. Lowlevel stuff is keeping me from doing my actual work.