I’ve recently written a few posts on my experience with the new Android-based phone HTC Hero, as well as its integration with Google’s Gmail/Contacts and Calendar applications.

Below is a summary of issues, from the business user perspective. I think that anybody who is seriously considering a switch to Android/Google and wants to save some time needs to consider these points. (more…)

Gmail creates contacts automatically from the e-mail addresses you send messages to. This has been an ongoing problem for a long time now. Such items are now added to the “Suggested Contacts” group, but it is still painful for anybody who syncs his phone with the Google service, since the phone will most likely pick up all contacts no matter what the group is. (On Android, there is a remedy for this - you can choose to sync only contacts that are assigned to certain groups. It’s still an issue, since you have to manually pick the groups you want to sync. Then, when you add a new group in Gmail, you have to remember to go back to the phone and check it also.)

What’s funny is how Google has been dealing with the problem. In the beginning, contacts were created automatically, driving people crazy as there was no way to disable this “feature” and no way to view the ones that were added by Gmail. Then, in July 2008, Google realized it was time to fix this, and created two default categories of contacts: My Contacts and Suggested Contacts. Those, that were added by Google would pop up under Suggested Contacts for approval.

Then, Google decided to move Suggested Contacts category so that now it’s displayed under “My Contacts” Personally, I was using Gmail Contacts for a few weeks before I discovered, that there is actually such a thing as “Suggested Contacts”. What’s also interesting is that this migration might have caused either some data loss or just a lot of confusion, since lots of people are complaining on the forums about it.

The other thing that impressed me about HTC Hero is the concept of customizable home screens. The phone comes with a number of widgets that you can choose from and add to one of 7 main screens. So you can add a quick Google lookup widget, next calendar event widget, weather widget (auto-detects your location), flip-through SMS/e-mail widget, etc. It’s a lot more powerful than just having app icons on the home screen, like on the iPhone. Moreover, you can change profiles and have different collections of widgets at work, at home, in a car, etc. The video below illustrates these features.

Time for the positive side. It turnes out, this smartphone can be impressive, even for those like me, who pay most attention to usability improvements & information management features.

And I must say I was shocked after seeing my phone book contacts linked up to Facebook automatically, profile photos downloaded, birth dates pulled down, FB updates showing up in the phonebook, incl. access to friends’ photo albums. Amazing, this all happened automatically and instantly! And what’s important, it didn’t add any new records to the phone without my permission, only extended the existing contacts by adding Facebook info.

I didn’t appreciate this half as much when I read about these things on the Internet. But it’s really hard not to like it, when you see it happen in front of your eyes. This is a an amazing feature!

The best part of it is that if some of your contacts don’t get linked automatically, all you have to do is tweak their names on the phone and next time they will pop up on the list of contacts to be linked upon your approval.

…Big Mess.

So yesterday I thought I’d give Google a try and move my calendar and contacts over the the cloud. I didn’t realize it’d turn into such a nightmare - my assumption was that Google’s online tools such as Gmail and Calendar are well tested, since they have been out there for a while, and that they are well-suited to handle personal information management. What a big surprise.

First of all, I was never enthusiastic about keeping these things online due to security and privacy concerns. BUT, there are practical advantages, too. The most important one is having the same information on a few different devices. (Provided that you use more than 2 terminals - cause if you only use 1 PC and 1 cellphone, then it’s easy to keep them both in sync.) The other advantage is that when you get robbed or when your house burns down, you can still access your data Finally, the one reason that made me pull the trigger is that I just decided to buy an Android-based phone, which in theory should work perfectly with Google services. (It doesn’t, I’ll write about it in a different post soon.)
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It’s been over one month since Google announced Google Gears (May 30th), plug-in for IE and FX browsers allowing web applications to go offline. Adobe didn’t even wait two weeks to introduce their Adobe AIR runtime environment. (June 11th) Both tools may at first appear to be similar, but they are not.

Google Gears is a platform enabling websites to operate when Internet connection is not present. It features its own web server that’s installed on user’s local computer, as well as the database. Obviously, the online app must be coded using the Google Gears tools so that it can be served from the the local drive.

Adobe AIR is a runtime environment that makes it possible to build offline apps using well-known web technologies and then launch them on PCs. The difference is significant as AIR is not made to solve the “Offline Problem”. It will rather enable the growing web developers’ community to use their existing skill set so that they tap into the area of desktop-based applications.

While AIR is definitely something to keep an eye on, GG attempts to solve some important problems that the online world is dealing with. The promise is that our applications will not only work offline, but will also run faster and be more reliable. User interface, images and other media will be instantly accessible and users will be able to open up and start using their website while it makes contact with the server to pull down updated/new content.

Yesterday (Jun 5th, 2007), Google announced global strategic alliance with Salesforce.com, the current market leader providing software in an on-demand model. Salesforce.com’s online CRM package was enriched by the integration of Google Adwords, which will now enable the CRM users to create ads and manage them from one place.

Partnership seems to make a lot of sense for a few reasons. One, it will strengthen Google’s #1 position in the SAAS area while their Microsoft is striving to rollout more live.com services. Two, it will open up new distribution channels for their partners’ core services. Finally, it may eventually lead to integration of their platforms and deployment of a common environment, allowing third-party developers to get their piece of the action in the SAAS world.