It's been 4 months since the 3rd edition of Google: The Quick, the Sick and the Dead, so this edition is about two months early. It's time though -- because Google is changing fairly quickly.
Changing quickly, but not improving. In the list below I put in parens the prior QSD rating for each item and I've added a section for the official dead. I've decided to stick with only those Google products I personally use, so I've omitted Android.
Comments below.
- Google Scholar (Q)
- Gmail (Q)
- Chrome browser (Q)
- Picasa Web Albums (Q)
- Calendar (Q)
- Maps and Earth (Q)
- News (Q)
- Google Docs (Q)
- Google Voice (S)
- Google Search (Q)
- Google Reader (Q)
- Google’s Data Liberation Front (Q)
- Translate (Q)
- Custom search engines (Q)
- Books (Q)
- YouTube (Q)
- Google Apps (Q)
- Google Profile (S)
- Google Contacts (S)
- Google Mobile Sync (S)
- Google Video Chat (S)
- Google Checkout (S)
- Orkut (S)
- iGoogle (S)
- Gmail Tasks (D)
- Chrome OS (S)
- Buzz (S)
- Blogger (D)
- Google Groups (D)
- Google Sites (D)
- Google Base (D)
- Knol (D)
- Firefox/IE toolbars (D)
- Google Talk (D)
- Google Parental Controls (D)
- Google Desktop (D)
- Google Wave (D)
Since the last edition there have been three escapes from Walking Dead. Two products are now officially dead and Gmail Tasks has been promoted to merely Sick (still uninteresting). There's been one promotion from Sick to Quick - Google Voice.
Seven products have moved from Quick to Sick - including Search. That's a big one. Google suggest is fun, but Google is losing the splog wars. Too many of the results I get back are splog noise. I love Reader, but the Notes/Comments silliness has to mark it as Sick. I also love the Data Liberation Front, but they're not getting traction any more. I suspect they've lost funding. Translate hasn't made progress on the non-Euro languages, so it's increasingly irrelevant.
Overall, this is a grim time to be a hard core Google user. Of course I don't use Android, and Android gets a lot of press. I wonder, however, given the rest of Google's recent record, how solid Android really is.
I wonder if this performance is ever going to show up in Google's share price.
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