Google: Question 3-User experience

First topic message reminder :

User experience

What do you think about Google during your experience using their services?

Have you switched from hotmail to gmail, or, from IE to Chrome, or to other Google’s applications?
Talk about your experience.

I think Google has given up its Chinese markets. We admire Google, talk about Google, but not use the search engine any more. Not only because it quit, but also that other search engines could also meet most of our needs.
Google is facing many chanllenges in South Asian markets (eg. Malaysia), many Asian search engine companies (eg. Baidu) are trying to open these markets (Since they know that they have no competatives against Google and bing in Western countries, they turn to these relatively immature markets.)

LeopoldineVivant wrote:

KEISLER Romain wrote:

Even if it seems more convenient to integrate all the services under one banner, I not really comfortable with the idea of addressing myself to the same company for everything I have to do on the wed. I would prefer to be diverse if have the possibility.

Hi Romain, is it for privacy reason that you prefer to use diversed sources?

Google is primarily a search engine company. If it has a dominant position in many Western countries (often the default search engine), what about countries where it is still facing challenges? I am especially thinking about Asian countries, could one fo you guys share your point of view if you are using another search engine (Bing for instance), if you would be ready to switch to Google, ...

Xiaowei Wen wrote:I think Google has given up its Chinese markets. We admire Google, talk about Google, but not use the search engine any more. Not only because it quit, but also that other search engines could also meet most of our needs.
Google is facing many chanllenges in South Asian markets (eg. Malaysia), many Asian search engine companies (eg. Baidu) are trying to open these markets (Since they know that they have no competatives against Google and bing in Western countries, they turn to these relatively immature markets.)

Do you think that Google should adopt a more "localized" strategy and try to fit the expectations of the Asian customers? According to you, what could be the reasons of Google's difficulties in Asian markets? What should they do next?

hi guys,
I use gmail, google search, and google docs.

E mail
Originally I was using hotmail. I still use it, but just like Pierre mentioned, I use gmail and hotmail for different purposes. But honestly speaking, I am not fully satisfied with organizing e-mails in gmail. Currently I use multiple computers regularly so I just let it use it as is, but when I had main computer and once in while I had to use different computer to check my e-mail, I imported to Mozilla Thunderbird in my main computer.

Search engine
I've been using several kind of search engines, and ended up with google. It's only because google had better search ability. If there is better search engine for me, I am fine to change it. Once in while I hear that in Taiwan, Yahoo is the most used search engine. http://www.my-life-in-china.com/online-marketing/asian-search-engine-market-shares-20092010/ Though numbers are different by sources, rank order seems to be same. So maybe Taiwanese class mate can answer LeopoldineVivand's question?

Google docs
It's convenient to work with other people. But the compatibility isn't really good, so at last minute I have to clean up to use it by Microsoft office. If their compatibility goes up I will use it more often for sure. Or I can start considering to use Microsoft products.

Others
I switched from IE to Firefox because I was not satisfied with it. The reason I stay with Firefox is so far I don't have much complaints. If chrome is faster like other people says, I can try. When I was working, I used to use google calender sharing schedule with colleagues. We were small company but employees were internationally spread. So it was quite useful.

Rio

Hi,

concerning the Asian markets, I think this argument is so true! Providing a relevant information on the search engine is key, as first it is necessary to serve the user, but also because this is the cornerstone of the online ad market: if the information provided by the search engine is not relevant, the ads on it won't either. And i think that's why some local competitors are doing way better than Google!

Xiaowei Wen wrote:I think Google has given up its Chinese markets. We admire Google, talk about Google, but not use the search engine any more. Not only because it quit, but also that other search engines could also meet most of our needs.
Google is facing many chanllenges in South Asian markets (eg. Malaysia), many Asian search engine companies (eg. Baidu) are trying to open these markets (Since they know that they have no competatives against Google and bing in Western countries, they turn to these relatively immature markets.)

LeopoldineVivant wrote:

KEISLER Romain wrote:

Even if it seems more convenient to integrate all the services under one banner, I not really comfortable with the idea of addressing myself to the same company for everything I have to do on the wed. I would prefer to be diverse if have the possibility.

Hi Romain, is it for privacy reason that you prefer to use diversed sources?

Google is primarily a search engine company. If it has a dominant position in many Western countries (often the default search engine), what about countries where it is still facing challenges? I am especially thinking about Asian countries, could one fo you guys share your point of view if you are using another search engine (Bing for instance), if you would be ready to switch to Google, ...

Hey,

I think the war on social space is only at the beginning, and it's quite interesting, indeed I was first (3-4 years ago) quite reluctant to post private stuff on the cloud, and now I wanna use every products..
The big challenge for Google for social is not to do a great free social product, but to win against facebook..and I don't believe that the two of them can really co-exist, indeed even if Google + is quite a mix between twitter and facebook (since you don't have to request someone's friendship to follow him), I don't feel like updating two different accounts to say exactly the same stuff.. I already loose a lot of time due to Facebook ( as many of you I suppose!). So How can you make people switch from facebook to Google+. Personally, I won't do that choice today.
Finally on the user experience side, I do like the idea of circles, the HTML 5 of Google + is brilliant. Still I don't think it's clear enough for the average user, Google has to make it more interactive and more user-friendly.
One key advantage: the hangout option! being able to video chat with several people on google + that's awesome!

EsbenSvaneKrarup wrote:So Laurent think some of Google´s services such Buzz and Google Docs are inferior to the offerings of other competitors. What about Google latest attempt to conquer social space. Have any of you guys get to play around with Google+ ? How does it compare to Facebook? Would you consider switching?

I remembered one word the CEO of Baidu once said when he created the idea of introducing a Chinese search engine into China (At that time, Google had occupied the Chinese search engine markets), "Only we Chinese know what we Chinese exactly want", maybe that's the key factor for his success. Before Google quit, it had a strong Chinese team in Great China, but the CEO and other e-staffs are still Americans, who were holding the highest decision-making rights.
So maybe it's still localization problem. Baidu has developed many products which are very suitable for Chinese, for example, Baidu ZhiDao (a Q&A outsourcing platform), Baidu BaiKe (like wiki) and Baidu WenKu(documents and books download platform). But Google never tried these kinds of service. Why? Im not sure about that.
Besides, Google should fit more about Asian's searching habit, which could be totally different from Westerns. For eg., compare Google and Baidu's frontpages, you would find out that Google's multi product links are displayed on the left-top, while Baidu's are just next to the input box...(if anyone is interesting about it, I can show you more about that in future.) Again, I dont know why Google didn't change.

LeopoldineVivant wrote:

Xiaowei Wen wrote:I think Google has given up its Chinese markets. We admire Google, talk about Google, but not use the search engine any more. Not only because it quit, but also that other search engines could also meet most of our needs.
Google is facing many chanllenges in South Asian markets (eg. Malaysia), many Asian search engine companies (eg. Baidu) are trying to open these markets (Since they know that they have no competatives against Google and bing in Western countries, they turn to these relatively immature markets.)

Do you think that Google should adopt a more "localized" strategy and try to fit the expectations of the Asian customers? According to you, what could be the reasons of Google's difficulties in Asian markets? What should they do next?

I am actually quite a fan of the Google products/services, since most of them have been very successful which makes it a reliable brand and stimulates people to try their services in the first place. Currently, I am using Google Chrome, Gmail, Google Doc, and I have been using Google as my main search engine as long as I can remember. I don’t think I have ever used Yahoo or something else as a search engine.

As for Google Docs, I do not always prefer it to Microsoft.. But I do think it is very useful, when working in a team project, because you can then share and edit the document online together.

Google Chrome is very user-friendly! Much faster and I love the search bar tool.. I am also so used to the fact that I can type my queries in the bar that I also do it with other browsers.

Gmail offers a greater storage capacity than its competitors and you can send larger files! I think that is their main advantage over Hotmail and Yahoo etc.

Concerning the privacy issues is in my opinion not really an issue, since everything is automated. Even if people could watch what you were doing, there are SO many people using Google which makes it impossible to constantly watch us ALL.

I agree with Laurent that I don't think that facebook and google+ can coexist in the long run. It is simply too much hassle to keep both updated so at some point, people will decide which one to use and which one to leave without updates. In my opinion, Google+ will have to become more attractive and promote its advantages rather sooner than later. Strangely enough, not many of my friends speak about google+ and I just know far too little about it and its offerings to find it a serious competitor at this point of time. But things change so fast in our time and maybe we will look back in some few years and laugh because we didn't want to use google+ but thought that facebook was the ultimate social media.

Laurent Corigliano wrote:Hey,

I think the war on social space is only at the beginning, and it's quite interesting, indeed I was first (3-4 years ago) quite reluctant to post private stuff on the cloud, and now I wanna use every products..
The big challenge for Google for social is not to do a great free social product, but to win against facebook..and I don't believe that the two of them can really co-exist, indeed even if Google + is quite a mix between twitter and facebook (since you don't have to request someone's friendship to follow him), I don't feel like updating two different accounts to say exactly the same stuff.. I already loose a lot of time due to Facebook ( as many of you I suppose!). So How can you make people switch from facebook to Google+. Personally, I won't do that choice today.
Finally on the user experience side, I do like the idea of circles, the HTML 5 of Google + is brilliant. Still I don't think it's clear enough for the average user, Google has to make it more interactive and more user-friendly.
One key advantage: the hangout option! being able to video chat with several people on google + that's awesome!

EsbenSvaneKrarup wrote:So Laurent think some of Google´s services such Buzz and Google Docs are inferior to the offerings of other competitors. What about Google latest attempt to conquer social space. Have any of you guys get to play around with Google+ ? How does it compare to Facebook? Would you consider switching?

Google's first rule "Don't be evil" (never manipulate search results) means that it cannot be available in mainland China due to the restrictions and the censorship by the Chinese government. So I think that the expression "Google has given up its Chinese markets" is not too well-formulated. I would though like to ask Xiaowei: did you use google when it was still available or was it not as good as other local search engines?

Leo's question about whether Google should adopt a more localised strategy is therefore a little tricky. If they adapt their strategy in order to re-enter China, then they will have to give up their first (and most important) value. This will disappoint very many users outside China (at least this is my guess). On the other hand, losing users in the biggest country is tough as well. However, Google has already made its decision and I remember that when they withdraw from China, my German class mates and I thought it was a great signal. Google really earned some credit in our eyes!

LeopoldineVivant wrote:

Xiaowei Wen wrote:I think Google has given up its Chinese markets. We admire Google, talk about Google, but not use the search engine any more. Not only because it quit, but also that other search engines could also meet most of our needs.
Google is facing many chanllenges in South Asian markets (eg. Malaysia), many Asian search engine companies (eg. Baidu) are trying to open these markets (Since they know that they have no competatives against Google and bing in Western countries, they turn to these relatively immature markets.)

Do you think that Google should adopt a more "localized" strategy and try to fit the expectations of the Asian customers? According to you, what could be the reasons of Google's difficulties in Asian markets? What should they do next?

LeeAnn wrote:Google's first rule "Don't be evil" (never manipulate search results) means that it cannot be available in mainland China due to the restrictions and the censorship by the Chinese government. So I think that the expression "Google has given up its Chinese markets" is not too well-formulated. I would though like to ask Xiaowei: did you use google when it was still available or was it not as good as other local search engines?

Leo's question about whether Google should adopt a more localised strategy is therefore a little tricky. If they adapt their strategy in order to re-enter China, then they will have to give up their first (and most important) value. This will disappoint very many users outside China (at least this is my guess). On the other hand, losing users in the biggest country is tough as well. However, Google has already made its decision and I remember that when they withdraw from China, my German class mates and I thought it was a great signal. Google really earned some credit in our eyes!

I totally agree with LeeAnn, I think like we could see it in the well-prepared slides Google describes itself as "not normal" company with its own rules and values and that is why I think it is right in general to be behind self-defined values. Otherwise when you change easily your position it is not really trustworthy for your clients and I also think it will be not a good reputation.

On the other hand Google shows its power by not precipitating entering the Chinese market. I think in a few years China and Google will find a solution and Google is skilled enough to gain market shares in China as well.

I am not using the google services a lot, but I think especially google docs is awesome for collaboration purposes. I also like the translation tool in Google Chrome that translates Chinese webpages for you instantly.
I also think it was a very good move to leave the Chinese market! That was a good signal for free information and I am disappointed that Yahoo kind of cooperated with the Chinese government.

I think as long China doesn't accept freedom of information, it will be hard for google. Either giving up their values or making money.

I don't think that google + will kill facebook, but I think that it will not die. Facebook is very packed with apps and google + is keept simple. Users like that!

I haven't use Gmail for a long time but I think it's now my favorite mailbox. It's really easy to use and offers many fonctionalities. I wont speak about all the advantages of Google tools, many of you have done it already.
I just wanted to say that G+ is only 4 months old. As Laurent said previously, G+ is like a mix between Twitter and Facebook, but for the information research is better than on FB, where it's almost inexistant. You say that it's quite binding to update two different social network at the same time, but at the end, I think we wont really make the distinction between Google and Google+, it's the same thing. Google mutes, and we are a lot to use it.
Ok I agree that G+ cannot replace FB, but for people who don't like FB, it's a good alternative, and some people did it already.

LeopoldineVivant wrote:

Xiaowei Wen wrote:I think Google has given up its Chinese markets. We admire Google, talk about Google, but not use the search engine any more. Not only because it quit, but also that other search engines could also meet most of our needs.
Google is facing many chanllenges in South Asian markets (eg. Malaysia), many Asian search engine companies (eg. Baidu) are trying to open these markets (Since they know that they have no competatives against Google and bing in Western countries, they turn to these relatively immature markets.)

Do you think that Google should adopt a more "localized" strategy and try to fit the expectations of the Asian customers? According to you, what could be the reasons of Google's difficulties in Asian markets? What should they do next?

Hello Leo,
Actually localization has been discussed for a long time during our group discussion. User experience is quite different from West to East. I think most Westerns prefer the clear front page like Google, even though I always use Google as my default search engine, I still set my front page at tw.yahoo.com. For Asian, front page are more preferable to have lots of information, for example news, (for girls)some ads about cloth and cosmetic, or weather...So probably localization is one direction that Google can work on!

About user experience about Google, I am using Gmail(includes gtalk), Google search, Google scholar, Google Calendar, Google doc, and Chrome a lot.

I love Gmail so much that I open the page whenever I turn on my laptop. Gtalk with launch within Gmail is really convenient when you are using different computers, which might have no MSN. Also Gmail provide the concept of "Tags" that each mail are able to have several tags instead of putting into only one folder. I collect all my e-mail account by Gmail regrading it is from school, friends, or work. Gmail's filters allows me to separate them easily! The priority folder really saves my time, you actually can train your gmail account to distinguish what kind of mail are more important to you!

About Google search, I don't know how many people had known it's special function. It can be calculator(just simply type 1+3=), unit converter, filetype finder(just put "filetype:pdf" after your keyword), translator(use"fy xxxxx" to translator English into Chinese/or your default language). you can also find out the stock by typing its number(try 2330). For me it's not only a search engine, it also a helper during daily life.

I really love Google product very much, but i think there's no need to choose only one provider and use all of it's product. We can always switch between different provider/platform depends on what we are going to do. For planning a party, I would love to use Google Doc so that everyone can see the progress; For making a presentation, I prefer using office 2010 since it provide more functions. The best part is that Google is free, so that we can always have the flexibility to use it or leave it!

Dear aiko,
i totally agree with you that localization for search engine is important. But here is some different ideas about the preference you mentioned that "For Asian, front page are more preferable to have lots of information". Because in Mainland China, we really prefer a more simple front page for search engine, like Google and Baidu. This is really interesting that regarding to search engine, we want a simple frontpage but you prefer the kind of portal one; While regarding to e-commerce websites, we hold just the opposite views.

aiko wrote:

LeopoldineVivant wrote:

Xiaowei Wen wrote:I think Google has given up its Chinese markets. We admire Google, talk about Google, but not use the search engine any more. Not only because it quit, but also that other search engines could also meet most of our needs.
Google is facing many chanllenges in South Asian markets (eg. Malaysia), many Asian search engine companies (eg. Baidu) are trying to open these markets (Since they know that they have no competatives against Google and bing in Western countries, they turn to these relatively immature markets.)

Do you think that Google should adopt a more "localized" strategy and try to fit the expectations of the Asian customers? According to you, what could be the reasons of Google's difficulties in Asian markets? What should they do next?

Hello Leo,
Actually localization has been discussed for a long time during our group discussion. User experience is quite different from West to East. I think most Westerns prefer the clear front page like Google, even though I always use Google as my default search engine, I still set my front page at tw.yahoo.com. For Asian, front page are more preferable to have lots of information, for example news, (for girls)some ads about cloth and cosmetic, or weather...So probably localization is one direction that Google can work on!

About user experience about Google, I am using Gmail(includes gtalk), Google search, Google scholar, Google Calendar, Google doc, and Chrome a lot.

I love Gmail so much that I open the page whenever I turn on my laptop. Gtalk with launch within Gmail is really convenient when you are using different computers, which might have no MSN. Also Gmail provide the concept of "Tags" that each mail are able to have several tags instead of putting into only one folder. I collect all my e-mail account by Gmail regrading it is from school, friends, or work. Gmail's filters allows me to separate them easily! The priority folder really saves my time, you actually can train your gmail account to distinguish what kind of mail are more important to you!

About Google search, I don't know how many people had known it's special function. It can be calculator(just simply type 1+3=), unit converter, filetype finder(just put "filetype:pdf" after your keyword), translator(use"fy xxxxx" to translator English into Chinese/or your default language). you can also find out the stock by typing its number(try 2330). For me it's not only a search engine, it also a helper during daily life.

I really love Google product very much, but i think there's no need to choose only one provider and use all of it's product. We can always switch between different provider/platform depends on what we are going to do. For planning a party, I would love to use Google Doc so that everyone can see the progress; For making a presentation, I prefer using office 2010 since it provide more functions. The best part is that Google is free, so that we can always have the flexibility to use it or leave it!

Greetings,

In the beginning I only used Microsoft's products and they worked pretty fine. I really didnt want to switch to any other competitor, even though it was the trend switching to Google. Due to the Microsoft's constantly changing appearance of its products and the increasing number of ads sent by mail, my annoyment gave no choice other then changing the service provider. Opposite to Romain's point of view about diversifying the use of providers, now I am utilising most of the service provided by google which I am actually happy with them. For me MS had obviously failed in following the market trend and was late with its strategic reaction.

Concerning the social media, the idea of switching to G+ is quite tempting as it gathers a lot services in one place which is very practical and time saving. Although I think it will take some time before it becomes actual. From google's side, it would only be beneficial if it gains market share of the this part as it will give google access to many habitual users.

Cheers,

For those of you who are still awake this early Tuesday Morning HELLOOOOOO =)

Preferences:

Search Engine: Google by a long shot. It's simple interface, fast sub-second response times and outstanding relevance make Google the clear choice for any user (business or consumer). As a long-time shareholder I could just be biased......

Email: Gmail. Having grown up on AOL, 56-k dial-up (thumbs up for old school), and Microsoft's Hotmail, I was instantly drawn into Google's revolutionary 1 GB of free space. With little/no switching costs (FREE), I made the change to Gmail and haven't looked back. Other perks that I enjoy on the regular include instant messaging and Video Chat that all seamlessly blend in together quite nicely.

Social Media: FACEBOOK. After reading most of your comments, I do concur to a certain degree that we are all "creatures of habit". I've used Facebook since 2002 when the platform was first introduced to just US college students bearing blahblahblah.edu email accounts and have been continuing to use it ever since. However I have tried other sites like Friendster, MySpace, and recently Google + but unfortunately none of them even come close to matching its services and functionality. Other than Google+'s 10-person group video chat, Facebook dominates in all categories.
Communication: Having lived abroad for the past 4 years, it was a great way for me to stay in touch with loved ones whether it was taking advantage of the instant messaging sidebar or personal inbox.
Business: Creating Events and mass marketing it to friends and friends of friends saved HUGE Costs on advertisement for the family business
Photo Sharing Application: A GREAT WAY of remembering those lost "hazy" nights.

BEST Google Product: GOOGLE MAPS - Coming home from work on the 5 and 405 freeway during rush hour traffic in LA, it was essential to know all the short-cuts, small alley ways, and random side streets enabling me to get back home in ample time. Definitely saved years off my life.

albertcotraviwat wrote:For those of you who are still awake this early Tuesday Morning HELLOOOOOO =)

[...]

Hello there

I mostly agree with that Google's user experience is very good. I still use the Google search engine every single day and hate when some other search engine pops up instead. As some of you might know, the standard search engine on the computers in the computer lab in CoM Bldg 1, floor 3 is Microsoft Bing. It annoys me every single time. For some reason it just seems that the search results from Bing are not as good as those from Google. I think I am just too much used to the look and feel of Google to switch. In addition, I have been using Gmail since early 2005 as my main email account and I use Google Calendar because it synchronizes well with my Android device.

Google has had user experience as one of its major topics, but I think that it has started to lack in a few areas that are not so well known and somewhat less public. One thing is that Gmail's IMAP implementation is still not up to snuff. Even four years after first implementing it, Google's IMAP implementation is still nonstandard and very annoying to use. Link to Google's documentation. The inventor of IMAP has suggested this could be because IMAP will allow users to bypass the Gmail web interface, at the same time bypassing all opportunities for Google to show directed advertisement. So, while understandable from Google's standpoint, this is not very user friendly.

Another annoyance is that Google seems to hinder users of my favorite browser, Opera (~2% market share), when using some of its web based applications. To name a few, Google Wave, Google Analytics, Google Adwords, Google Adsense and Google Docs Spreadsheet cannot be used to a satisfactory level in the Opera browser. For some of these, Google blocks Opera users downright, while for the others the page will display with errors. Things like drag and drop in Gmail also do not work. Google engineers even seem to have started ignoring Opera users. All of this makes me strongly believe that Google is trying to push Operas browser market share down.

Side note: I do absolutely love Google maps. Here in Taipei it is really useful to plan public transport trips. It has all the buses and metros, while I have not found any other website that can combine the two. It will also not present you with a Chinese interface, but one in everyone's own language.

I switched from yahoo's search engine to Google's search engine,
I switched from yahoo's mail to Gmail,
I switched from KKman(IE) to Chrome,
and I love their product.

But what I'm more interested in is, has anyone ever switched from Google to others?

At least as I know, there are problems with Chrome(it's a monster of your CPU, and crash without reason sometimes),
and some of my friends switched from Chrome to other browsers again.
(Or from facebook to Google+, and swear they don't use facebook anymore, but switched back again.)

I personally use very rarely any Google Service. Even that I have Gmail, Google+, YouTube-Profile etc., I try to avoid putting any relevant information about me online. But on the other hand I also think that you can not use online services for free without paying anything. So if you use google services than you have to accept being monitored by Google, that's just a simple give-and-take.

And considering privacy issues. I have no problems that google is observing me during a chat on Google+, but I have a real problem when google starts to spy me outside of its area and try to get inside my "sensitive data". There is simply no reason, why Google should get access to my private stuff, especially not without asking me.

I had been used Google+ before, and found that only few of my friends use Google+.
Therefore, I switched back to Facebook finally.
I think social network website is very different from the other website!
The switch costs for users are very high because users don't have their friend on social network website when website was founded.
But with other tools, like browsers, the switch costs are very low.
if we don't like the browser, we just download the other browser.
With such high switch cost, it's very difficult for Facebook users switch to Google+.

Glen Yang wrote:I switched from yahoo's search engine to Google's search engine,
I switched from yahoo's mail to Gmail,
I switched from KKman(IE) to Chrome,
and I love their product.

But what I'm more interested in is, has anyone ever switched from Google to others?

At least as I know, there are problems with Chrome(it's a monster of your CPU, and crash without reason sometimes),
and some of my friends switched from Chrome to other browsers again.
(Or from facebook to Google+, and swear they don't use facebook anymore, but switched back again.)

Rise and shine ladies and gentlemen!

Imaging a life without Google would be near impossible after being exposed to the greatness that is Android (a free OS), Google Maps (indispensable for foreigners navigating Taiwanese streets) and Gmail and GoogleDocs.

Android: For many cell phone makers including Taiwan's HTC, Android OS has been a godsend since they do not need to waste resources producing their own software, which would be a monumental task considering how complete Apple OS is. It also gives consumers a huge reason to purchase a non iPhone handset. This is crucial especially in Taiwan where Apple releases are slow compared to American release dates and often times pricier (Apple exacts a 15%-20% premium for devices sold in Taiwan).

Google maps: For foreigners in the GMBA program, Google maps allows us to find tasty Taiwanese snacks and cozy shops that are located off the main roads. Often the alley, lane, street system of Taiwan is not organized by a precise grid ala Manhattan, New York. Left to our devices would double the travel time as we would have to get lost then find a helpful stranger to find our correct destination. Often times the bus system is cheaper and faster than the MRT system, and google maps assists with finding the correct bus number and stop.

Gmail: I find this email client to be absolutely brilliant. Not only is it free, but the space is growing infinitely (7gbs and counting) so there is never a fear of overcapacity. Its easy to understand why. Google wants to mine our personal data so there is no reason for them to delete our precious emails because of memory constraints, our data is far too valuable. GMAIL is also one of the few mail clients that can look "professional" as a standalone, whereas other accounts such as hotmail.com may appear to be too personal.

Gmail of course weaves directly into Google documents, which is an amazing software suite for students that do not have a legal copy of Microsoft office which is quite expensive. Google documents is perfect for group projects and collaboration. No USB thumb drives are required as everything is stored directly onto the cloud.

Chrome: I'm actually typing this on Chrome right now and I find it zippier than other browsers and it is highly customizable.

A lot has been discussed about the localization of Google, but my experience with the company is that it is entirely flexible to use in tandem with your favorite programs and Google does not force you to convert. For many foreigners such as myself, navigating a Taiwanese website can be quite vexing at times, and I become grateful towards google for keeping a low key minimalist approach. I can easily google search for news and or hop to Yahoo's portal if I need local news. I do not feel it is a zero sum game and portal sites and search sites can coexist, though the latter proves to be the model going forward.

I used Google+ before and I think it is not user-friendly enough.
When I saw my friend posted a message, I was really interested in and I wanted to share my opinion to her by sending her a instant message.
But I can't find her in my instant message list since I hadn't contact her via email!!

Problems of Google Chrome:
Many company website and company operation can not be supported by Google. It can only be opened via IE / Fire Fox.
It is a large problem for the Chrome growth.

chaohungchen wrote:I had been used Google+ before, and found that only few of my friends use Google+.
Therefore, I switched back to Facebook finally.
I think social network website is very different from the other website!
The switch costs for users are very high because users don't have their friend on social network website when website was founded.
But with other tools, like browsers, the switch costs are very low.
if we don't like the browser, we just download the other browser.
With such high switch cost, it's very difficult for Facebook users switch to Google+.

Glen Yang wrote:I switched from yahoo's search engine to Google's search engine,
I switched from yahoo's mail to Gmail,
I switched from KKman(IE) to Chrome,
and I love their product.

But what I'm more interested in is, has anyone ever switched from Google to others?

At least as I know, there are problems with Chrome(it's a monster of your CPU, and crash without reason sometimes),
and some of my friends switched from Chrome to other browsers again.
(Or from facebook to Google+, and swear they don't use facebook anymore, but switched back again.)

I think the reason Facebook becomes famous in Taiwan is because of the application, like FarmVille,Restaurant City.
People like to play those applications because you can interact with your friends in applications.
Maybe Google could develop much more interesting interactive applications to attract users to use Google+.

Josephine wrote:I used Google+ before and I think it is not user-friendly enough.
When I saw my friend posted a message, I was really interested in and I wanted to share my opinion to her by sending her a instant message.
But I can't find her in my instant message list since I hadn't contact her via email!!

Problems of Google Chrome:
Many company website and company operation can not be supported by Google. It can only be opened via IE / Fire Fox.
It is a large problem for the Chrome growth.

chaohungchen wrote:I had been used Google+ before, and found that only few of my friends use Google+.
Therefore, I switched back to Facebook finally.
I think social network website is very different from the other website!
The switch costs for users are very high because users don't have their friend on social network website when website was founded.
But with other tools, like browsers, the switch costs are very low.
if we don't like the browser, we just download the other browser.
With such high switch cost, it's very difficult for Facebook users switch to Google+.

Glen Yang wrote:I switched from yahoo's search engine to Google's search engine,
I switched from yahoo's mail to Gmail,
I switched from KKman(IE) to Chrome,
and I love their product.

But what I'm more interested in is, has anyone ever switched from Google to others?

At least as I know, there are problems with Chrome(it's a monster of your CPU, and crash without reason sometimes),
and some of my friends switched from Chrome to other browsers again.
(Or from facebook to Google+, and swear they don't use facebook anymore, but switched back again.)

I don't totally agree with Google+ should keep following the steps of facebook in the part of those game applications.

Recently, the most favorite application for me on Facebook would be "check-in" mechanism...
It extends the space from virtual to reality.
Anyone can easily find the friends just nearby you and send him/her a whatsapp msg for a hangout or a visit immediately.

Basically, it's another "GoogleMap-based" killer application (or kinda location-based service, LBS). Google could attempt to do something more on it..

chaohungchen wrote:I think the reason Facebook becomes famous in Taiwan is because of the application, like FarmVille,Restaurant City.
People like to play those applications because you can interact with your friends in applications.
Maybe Google could develop much more interesting interactive applications to attract users to use Google+.

Josephine wrote:I used Google+ before and I think it is not user-friendly enough.
When I saw my friend posted a message, I was really interested in and I wanted to share my opinion to her by sending her a instant message.
But I can't find her in my instant message list since I hadn't contact her via email!!

Problems of Google Chrome:
Many company website and company operation can not be supported by Google. It can only be opened via IE / Fire Fox.
It is a large problem for the Chrome growth.

chaohungchen wrote:I had been used Google+ before, and found that only few of my friends use Google+.
Therefore, I switched back to Facebook finally.
I think social network website is very different from the other website!
The switch costs for users are very high because users don't have their friend on social network website when website was founded.
But with other tools, like browsers, the switch costs are very low.
if we don't like the browser, we just download the other browser.
With such high switch cost, it's very difficult for Facebook users switch to Google+.

Glen Yang wrote:I switched from yahoo's search engine to Google's search engine,
I switched from yahoo's mail to Gmail,
I switched from KKman(IE) to Chrome,
and I love their product.

But what I'm more interested in is, has anyone ever switched from Google to others?

At least as I know, there are problems with Chrome(it's a monster of your CPU, and crash without reason sometimes),
and some of my friends switched from Chrome to other browsers again.
(Or from facebook to Google+, and swear they don't use facebook anymore, but switched back again.)

Hello Xiaowei Wen,
I am sorry I thought that Baidu has a front page which is like yahoo but i am wrong. I am sorry for presenting Asian's preference by myself. In other hand, It's also interesting that people has different preference even in the same area. This is a good example say that localization is not easy and need to consider more!!

Xiaowei Wen wrote:Dear aiko,
i totally agree with you that localization for search engine is important. But here is some different ideas about the preference you mentioned that "For Asian, front page are more preferable to have lots of information". Because in Mainland China, we really prefer a more simple front page for search engine, like Google and Baidu. This is really interesting that regarding to search engine, we want a simple frontpage but you prefer the kind of portal one; While regarding to e-commerce websites, we hold just the opposite views.

aiko wrote:

LeopoldineVivant wrote:

Xiaowei Wen wrote:I think Google has given up its Chinese markets. We admire Google, talk about Google, but not use the search engine any more. Not only because it quit, but also that other search engines could also meet most of our needs.
Google is facing many chanllenges in South Asian markets (eg. Malaysia), many Asian search engine companies (eg. Baidu) are trying to open these markets (Since they know that they have no competatives against Google and bing in Western countries, they turn to these relatively immature markets.)

Do you think that Google should adopt a more "localized" strategy and try to fit the expectations of the Asian customers? According to you, what could be the reasons of Google's difficulties in Asian markets? What should they do next?

Hello Leo,
Actually localization has been discussed for a long time during our group discussion. User experience is quite different from West to East. I think most Westerns prefer the clear front page like Google, even though I always use Google as my default search engine, I still set my front page at tw.yahoo.com. For Asian, front page are more preferable to have lots of information, for example news, (for girls)some ads about cloth and cosmetic, or weather...So probably localization is one direction that Google can work on!

About user experience about Google, I am using Gmail(includes gtalk), Google search, Google scholar, Google Calendar, Google doc, and Chrome a lot.

I love Gmail so much that I open the page whenever I turn on my laptop. Gtalk with launch within Gmail is really convenient when you are using different computers, which might have no MSN. Also Gmail provide the concept of "Tags" that each mail are able to have several tags instead of putting into only one folder. I collect all my e-mail account by Gmail regrading it is from school, friends, or work. Gmail's filters allows me to separate them easily! The priority folder really saves my time, you actually can train your gmail account to distinguish what kind of mail are more important to you!

About Google search, I don't know how many people had known it's special function. It can be calculator(just simply type 1+3=), unit converter, filetype finder(just put "filetype:pdf" after your keyword), translator(use"fy xxxxx" to translator English into Chinese/or your default language). you can also find out the stock by typing its number(try 2330). For me it's not only a search engine, it also a helper during daily life.

I really love Google product very much, but i think there's no need to choose only one provider and use all of it's product. We can always switch between different provider/platform depends on what we are going to do. For planning a party, I would love to use Google Doc so that everyone can see the progress; For making a presentation, I prefer using office 2010 since it provide more functions. The best part is that Google is free, so that we can always have the flexibility to use it or leave it!

HI @LeeAnn
Sorry that i just saw your comments. As I've said that we admire Google, to some extent it's hero. but when Google first announced that it would quit China last year, everyone knew that it was not its real intention, but to demonstrate against the government, Google never expected that the gov will really let it go. So we dont think it gains Google any credit in Chinese cyber citizens (not mention that "Google shows its power by not precipitating entering the Chinese market" @andykorn87), on the contrary many cheered up for an American company lose dominant position in China...
And Instead, our own search engines could meet most our needs (maybe you dont believe that many of those dont have a good relationship with the gov. either). when Google was still available i used it but even if it disappears someday, it wont have any influence on me.
Actually, i heard a news that Google will really give up Chinese markets in the near future, which means we can even not use Google hk any longer.

LeeAnn wrote:Google's first rule "Don't be evil" (never manipulate search results) means that it cannot be available in mainland China due to the restrictions and the censorship by the Chinese government. So I think that the expression "Google has given up its Chinese markets" is not too well-formulated. I would though like to ask Xiaowei: did you use google when it was still available or was it not as good as other local search engines?

Leo's question about whether Google should adopt a more localised strategy is therefore a little tricky. If they adapt their strategy in order to re-enter China, then they will have to give up their first (and most important) value. This will disappoint very many users outside China (at least this is my guess). On the other hand, losing users in the biggest country is tough as well. However, Google has already made its decision and I remember that when they withdraw from China, my German class mates and I thought it was a great signal. Google really earned some credit in our eyes!

LeopoldineVivant wrote:

Xiaowei Wen wrote:I think Google has given up its Chinese markets. We admire Google, talk about Google, but not use the search engine any more. Not only because it quit, but also that other search engines could also meet most of our needs.
Google is facing many chanllenges in South Asian markets (eg. Malaysia), many Asian search engine companies (eg. Baidu) are trying to open these markets (Since they know that they have no competatives against Google and bing in Western countries, they turn to these relatively immature markets.)

Do you think that Google should adopt a more "localized" strategy and try to fit the expectations of the Asian customers? According to you, what could be the reasons of Google's difficulties in Asian markets? What should they do next?

Xiaowei,

I like your "user review" about Google VS other search engines in Asia. "Google is not a must in these country" if I follow you.
The thing is that apparently other search engines now know the markets better and managed to cater for the needs of local customers. These players manage to give a better customer experience to Asian customers thanks to enhanced gaming features and better profiling when it comes to publish adds.
Google is just not as interactive as alternatives like Tencent QQ, Sogo or Baidu.

Not to mention the social network players that are just achieving remarkable performance there. For instance, Chinese Internet users already have accounts on Sino Weibo, Tencent Weibo, Kaixin and 51.com have strong market position and it's all but certain that a product like google+ will make his way in Chinese market.

I guess Google already lost the war their (well at least the company has secured shares in Baidu in order not to remain complete strangers to the gains of the market...).

Charles

I agree with Charles and I think Google is far behind others players in China.

I'm personally a huge fan of Google. I'm using Chrome, Gmail, Google maps, Google docs, Google calendar and Google photos. I think it's amazing and I always try to follow Google new products.

One lesson from this experience: even the most successful companies have to adapt to the local market.

Im really amazed that you know so much about Chinese Internet products! Btw, social network in China has already realized the "all but certain" since 2005, check the www.renren.com.

Charles Gras wrote:Xiaowei,

I like your "user review" about Google VS other search engines in Asia. "Google is not a must in these country" if I follow you.
The thing is that apparently other search engines now know the markets better and managed to cater for the needs of local customers. These players manage to give a better customer experience to Asian customers thanks to enhanced gaming features and better profiling when it comes to publish adds.
Google is just not as interactive as alternatives like Tencent QQ, Sogo or Baidu.

Not to mention the social network players that are just achieving remarkable performance there. For instance, Chinese Internet users already have accounts on Sino Weibo, Tencent Weibo, Kaixin and 51.com have strong market position and it's all but certain that a product like google+ will make his way in Chinese market.

I guess Google already lost the war their (well at least the company has secured shares in Baidu in order not to remain complete strangers to the gains of the market...).

Charles

www.renren.com

Gmail is the best web based email. Alot of companies are considering switching from a self maintinged Exchange Server, to using Gmail for company messaging. Google has got a head start and the cloud, and as uses switch from traditional application to could based versions, google stands to gain alot of ground.

Chrome and IE are both very fast browsers, however, I am sticking with IE9. Its faster than Chrome (if you dont beleive that, go and google the latest browser benchmarks) and I hate installing a lot of extra software applications on my PC... so just sticking with IE9 is fast and simple for me.