“Welcome to Google Talk!
xyz is online right now (online friends have a green dot). Type below and press the Enter key to send an instant message.”
Couldn’t Google just welcome me without making me feel like an idiot who doesn’t know how to send an instant message? Am glad they didn’t go on to explain what an instant message is (an instant message is something similar to instant coffee, only tastes a bit different) and how to press ‘enter’ on my keyboard…they probably have that in their help pages.
The auto-message in YM informing me, every now and then, that my friends are still using an older version of the messenger sounds a lot better than this one. Atleast it makes me feel more sophisticated and technologically advanced than my naive friends ‘cos I was capable of updating my YM successfully, all by myself, without crashing my computer and calling technical support to ask if pressing ‘enter’ will reboot my machine or send an instant message!
I thought Microsoft was the only one following the strategy, “we think for you cos we, by default, assume you can’t do it yourself”. Looks like Google has started thinking on the same lines now. I wonder if, according to the major software players, being user-friendly is to assume all users are idiots. I think user-friendly is just making things easier for the user and stopping these nagging messages would be the first step towards it.
And you guys at Google, if you’re listening, give me the damn “invisible” option in gtalk before you come up with such interesting welcome messages. I don’t feel one bit welcomed in gtalk without that one! (and you, Google tutors, please understand, to us lay-people, being “invisible” is different from “blocking” someone…I don’t want to use the latter as a workaround for the former)
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January 30, 2007 at 7:56 am
I would definitely agree with you on the invisible mode option in gtalk. Its high time someone thought about it.
May 12, 2007 at 2:14 pm
> (an instant message is something similar to instant coffee, only tastes a bit different)
:) Instant Coffee? Is it like Instant Message at a press of a button. Will the Sugar be enough? How abt the beans?? :D
> give me the damn “invisible” option
“Google isn’t evil” – I guess you are. :P
May 12, 2007 at 3:43 pm
Shriram,
Seriously, a messenger without the “invisible” option feels like no messenger at all…and yet I’ve somehow learned to live without it these days :(
Ranjhith
“Google isn’t evil” – I guess you are.
I’m honored! :P
“Instant Coffee?”
Well, you’ll have to check the google help pages for that. They’ll not only describe what instant coffee is but might also give you a youtube link for a demo (a puppet like show put up by a bored google developer) on how to make one…by the end of which you’d give up on coffee :D
While at it, check this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBbmiQhuAhU
May 14, 2007 at 10:46 am
> by the end of which you’d give up on coffee
I don’t get the humour behind! :(
The video is abt GMail. Does it have something to do with Instant Coffee? Boo Boo.
May 14, 2007 at 11:20 am
@Ranjhith
The video is indeed about Gmail but I put it up here to show what sort of demo you can expect if you were to ask Google (or any software player, for that matter) about making Instant Coffee :)
> by the end of which you’d give up on coffee
…was the way I felt about gmail at the end of that video
Btw, the ‘instant coffee’ was meant to be an analogy (a sarcastic one at that). Didn’t expect it to become the subject of discussion :)
May 14, 2007 at 12:12 pm
> put it up here to show what sort of demo you can expect if you were to ask Google
This joke is pretty sad. :P
> subject of discussion
Yep. Sarcasm with Google is very much subject to the person. :) Have a good day.
May 14, 2007 at 12:48 pm
“This joke is pretty sad”
Looks like the puppet-show demo is your kind of a joke…to me, that’s sad! :)
“Sarcasm with Google is very much subject to the person.”
well, in my blog, sarcasm runs in every post and the object of it could be anything and everything…Google just happened to get in the way :)
May 15, 2007 at 9:18 am
> puppet-show demo is your kind of a joke
Nope. I didn’t took it to be funny rather funky & unconventional. :)
Google created GMail & it revolutionized free email in terms of usability, search, feature integration & of course inbox space. Then you have POP access, with which you can pull all your email to your local storage. GTalk is based on Open Protocols which ensures interoperability. It is unique every product it releases. Please dont make parody of it for things that are unimportant. :P
Have a GoodDay!
May 15, 2007 at 3:26 pm
@Ranjhith
well, looks like someone’s advertising gmail here :D
I do admit gmail rocks in many ways but that’s no reason for me to idolize google (the way you do ;)).
“Please dont make parody of it for things that are unimportant”
Well, I didn’t see anything in the WordPress terms and conditions forbidding me from making a parody of what I think is funny,silly or outrightly stupid! :P
July 1, 2007 at 8:30 am
Though I like Google for many reasons, nice post!
April 26, 2008 at 11:58 am
I think that invisible option is patented, else google would have added this long ago
April 26, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Amit,
Thanks for the comment. If Yahoo has indeed patented the invisible option, then this could be the patent:
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20050114783.html
Anyways, even in that case, am sure those (awfully high-paid) Google engineers and the legal people there can find a way to get around the patent and still implement the invisible option in GTalk (As a matter of fact, they already have in the GMail chat. Beats me why they haven’t done it in GTalk yet )
October 28, 2008 at 1:39 am
Hello! Are you trying to play with my learning implication Do you want a joke? :) What do you need to split an atom? A fission License.