Calling Google’s ‘we hit “send” a bit early’ Bullshit!
September 4th, 2008Yup, its all crap.
1. It is an old marketing trick - the foreplay before you get any! Companies do this with their product very often. Because ‘Hey! Google just announced they are launching a new browser next week.’ would generate less buzz and excitement then ‘Dude, have you checked out the leaked comic that reveals the super secret Google browser project!’.
2. We are not a market dominating, associate (Mozilla) ditching, secretive company - we make mistakes too!! It sends the message we are just like any one else - we make mistakes too, which makes complete sense in this case. They came out in the open about a project they have kept in wraps and even denied at times and they just ditched Mozilla (and borrowed their resources!). It just makes sense to come up with a ‘poor-me’ image. And it worked, how can you pull off all that and still come up with a full fledged launch of a beta without some sympathy working in your favour. We did not hear much from the Google-is-evil proponents as much as the revolutionary-new-thing fellows in this case. Sweet move.
3. Why click the ‘comic’ earlier and not the other stuff (like the video, the ‘Why we build a browser’ spiel, the default page you land at when you click ‘Learn more’ on the download page for e.g. or some other official press release kind of stuff). What was the ‘Read about the technology’ comic doing ahead of everything else in their outbox in the first place (when it is at the bottom of their official pages)? Aren’t introductions, screenshots, etc normally ahead of the detailed technology explanations for product launches? Because, that’s the only differentiating factor (to some extent at least) - Technology - whatever little information would be pre-released would form the basis of the speculation in the blogosphere - why not inject something positive for the internets to get started! No pre-release publicity (as is customary with Google) would not have been a good idea in this case. When it comes to browsers, early adoption matters, day one downloads mean a lot - install it before you hear the detractors and reviews…. once it’s on your machine, we will figure out how to get you to use it!!
P.S.: It’s all good if it’s all Google! To me Google is like a first born child, you can’t hate them whatever they do. They have learnt to wrap me around their little finger.
