Why Google?

In Jonathan Grudin's essay, "Eight Challenges for Developers," he traces the origins of groupware and tackles some of the main stumbling blocks that have prevented certain computer-supported collaborative work applications from living up to their promise. Grudin identifies reaching an appropriate critical mass for CSCW applications to be effective, so we thought it appropriate to address the successes and shortcomings of groupware applications created and supported by the internet's most powerful player. By building on the success and popularity of its proprietary search engine, Google has incrementally added additional web-based applications that anticipate and address a broad spectrum of user needs.

By integrating additional applications and features with existing applications when appropriate, Google has managed to address a number of the primary hurdles that groupware applications often encounter. For example, Gmail is integrated with Google Maps to identify addresses in emails and ask users if they want directions to a particular address that appears. Similarly, Google Calendar identifies dates in emails and asks users if the want them added to their calendar -- in addition to offering email reminders for calendar events.

We mentioned the issue of critical mass, but Google has also cornered the market on intuitive, stripped-down design. Rather than bogging their applications down with unnecessary features "just because," Google groupware features operate effectively on the 80/20 principle. In other words, Google applications provide the basic 20% of computing tools to perform 80% of their computing tasks, and they dispense with the remaining 80% of available tools for the sake of speed and clarity.

Google has also made great use of the beta launch to try out innovative applications and either tweak as users discover bugs or discard when it seems that they are not addressing any critical need in the appropriate efficient "Google Way." Gmail, soon to be one of the most popular web-based email providers, is still in beta testing mode despite the fact that it has been around for a little more than 3 years.

Heaps of praise aside, Google hasn't gotten where it is right now without screwing a few things up along the way. It's part-and-parcel of taking risks to be innovators, and we've done our best here to document our (positive and negative) experiences collaborating through Google's most popular groupware applications. We've also included some experiences we had with supporting applications like MediaFire and Desire2Learn, as they were equally integral to our collaborative work.