Joel on Google

Joel Spolsky of Joel on Software talks about Google in an interview on Microsoft Watch:

I think Google is orthogonal to Microsoft. Microsoft will be chasing their tail lights ... Google is saying the Internet is the computer — it's the Internet computer in the sky. And Microsoft's not getting it.

But one of the mistakes Google is making is applications like Gmail are great on the Google platform. But if Google was really paying attention, they'd say we have to have outside developers writing applications for Google. There should be 27 different e-mail systems using the Google infrastructure. And then they can become Microsoft. It will be interesting to see if Google will wake up and open themselves to developers. The (current) Google API is incredibly narrow and not open.

Great point on the Google API. If Google doesn't expand its API more soon, there's an opportunity here for Yahoo. But Amazon seems to get it. They've recently opened their API further and released an Alexa API.

Joel also speculates a bit on a Google browser:

I quoted a Microsoft guy (and Longhorn Avalon team member) named Joe Beda. I quoted him saying "Microsoft is making a big bet on the rich client." And now he works at Google with Adam Bosworth. I'm sure what they're doing is a new browser. It's the IE (Internet Explorer) team reconstructed inside Google.

[Thanks, Robert Scoble, for pointing out the interview]

Update: Hate to contradict Joel, but Eric Schmidt (CEO of Google) just said, "We are not building a browser."