Topic: Google

Google to make mobile apps because users do not want web apps

Summary: Google has started a campaign to hire mobile app developers for its own applications. It is likely Google has realized that mobile apps are better than web-based portals into online activities.

By James Kendrick for Mobile News | January 31, 2011 -- 05:04 GMT (21:04 PST)

Follow @jkendrick

The WSJ has reported that Google has started a campaign to hire mobile app developers for its own applications, and some third party apps. This move is a change from the company's previous position of building web apps for everything. It is likely Google has realized what mobile users have come to understand, that mobile apps are better than web-based portals into online activities.

According to the WSJ sources, Google is looking to hire "software engineers, product managers, user-interface experts and others who have ideas for mobile apps". This in-house development effort will span multiple Google offices and push to produce solid apps for Google's mobile customers. It is not clear if the focus will be solely on Android smartphone apps, or also include tablet apps as this segment is heating up this year.

Mobile users have voted with their downloads that mobile apps are a preferable way to interact with online services. For most mobile platforms you check, a Facebook app is one of the top apps installed by users. The Facebook service is accessible via mobile web browsers, but users appreciate the enhanced (and simpler) experience obtained through using the mobile apps.

Even Google's own Gmail web site, which has been optimized for access through mobile browsers, is usually accessed through mobile apps on the major platforms. The user interface for working with email is tailored for use on the mobile platform, resulting in a user experience that is easier and more pleasurable to use. This is obviously not lost on Google, who now looks to build its own apps.

There is no timeframe stated to indicate when to expect Google's mobile apps, but the company tends to move at light speed with efforts such as this once committed. The beneficiaries of such development will be Google's mobile user base, but third party app developers must be getting nervous with this news.

Topics: Google, Mobility

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37 comments

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So I guess...

...that means fat clients win--again. :)

Well, reasonably fat. Today's smart phones are as powerful as computers were a decade ago, so they can definitely run applications, right? Fat and getting fatter!

wolf_z
31 January, 2011 05:45

Reply Vote
- That can't be right. I keep reading from one of the users here that
  
  @wolf_z <br>people are in love with web based solutions that apps are a dying breed only M$ will be creating apps that nobody will use.<br>I don't know who to believe anymore!!! google says one thing and donnieboy something different!!
  
  Ron Bergundy
  31 January, 2011 06:17
  
  Reply Vote
  - RE: Google to make mobile apps because users do not want web apps
    
    @Ron Bergundy
    http://talkback.zdnet.com/5208-17924-0.html?forumID=1&threadID=74085&messageID=1434029
    Interesting this was posted in "Linux All The Way"...and it comes back to you....Donnie
    
    ItsTheBottomLine
    31 January, 2011 09:19
    
    Reply Vote
  - ItsTheBottomLine, I don't believe that's DonnieBoy
    
    as the responses are "way too over the top" to be anything other then fake. IMHO, I think "Ron Bergundy" is just making the people he "agrees with" look as foolish as he?
    
    That's just how [b]I[/b] read into him/her, I could be wrong.
    
    John Zern
    31 January, 2011 12:08
    
    Reply Vote
  - So much for HTML5 domination
    
    What does it tell you about the future of H5 when its biggest promoter is blinking now?
    
    LBiege
    31 January, 2011 13:27
    
    Reply Vote
- Well, the local app is still a thin layer to access the website. This does
  
  not mean that it will always be this way. As we get HTML5 fully implemented, there will be less reason for local apps. Of course Google will enjoy the same kind of lock that MS did with Win32.
  
  DonnieBoy
  31 January, 2011 06:29
  
  Reply Vote
- makes sense
  
  @wolf_z
  It's easier to program on the client if you need a nicer UI and experience at low memory and CPU usage.
  
  Linux Geek
  31 January, 2011 06:32
  
  Reply Vote
- Web apps are fatter than the equivalent native app
  
  @wolf_z
  Echoing Linux Geek, web apps are much more bloated than the equivalent native app. Take Gmail for example, it's pretty simple appearing but is doing tons behind the scenes (compiling 1/2 a MB of JavaScript for example). The equivalent native app would be much simpler to write. Computers/browsers of 10 years ago would struggle to run the Gmail of today, but the equivalent native app would run great.
  
  PB_z
  31 January, 2011 07:50
  
  Reply Vote
- RE: Google to make mobile apps because users do not want web apps
  
  @wolf_z Don't know about fat clients, but I have been saying this for sometime. Web is nice, but it is limited on what it can offer from a UI and user experience (i.e. see Google Docs) when compared to a mobile/local app like OO or Office in this example.
  
  ItsTheBottomLine
  31 January, 2011 09:15
  
  Reply Vote
- RE: Google to make mobile apps because users do not want web apps
  
  @wolf_z WOW Look ALL of Donnies personalities are commenting...must be low on meds.
  
  ItsTheBottomLine
  31 January, 2011 09:15
  
  Reply Vote
  - RE: Google to make mobile apps because users do not want web apps
    
    @ItsTheBottomLine
    
    And we figured this out at Openwave almost a decade ago. But the carriers then still had a stranglehold on the market, and they would not listen. So nobody noticed when Openwave introduced the mobile version of Javascript, now known as EMAscript. Nobody took advantage of it, nobody took us up on our offer to write an OS the the mobile phone to become the standard for writing apps...
    
    Then again, if we at Openwave had pushed that forward, I doubt we would have done as good a job as Google has done with Android.
    
    mejohnsn
    1 February, 2011 12:06
    
    Reply Vote
RE: Google to make mobile apps because users do not want web apps

It didn't work for Apple so why in the world does Google think it would have worked for them? I image their developers will make the apps as minimal as possible, they wouldn't want anything to get in the way of playing with their office toys. Not to worry, you can expect the same horrible service from Google that they have always given you.

Loverock Davidson
31 January, 2011 06:46

Reply Vote
- RE: Google to make mobile apps because users do not want web apps
  
  @Loverock Davidson And the same horrible service that Microsoft has given, over the last say 25 years, is any better? Oh wait I forgot who I was responding to...
  
  Rick_K
  31 January, 2011 14:01
  
  Reply Vote
  - RE: Google to make mobile apps because users do not want web apps
    
    @Rick_K : Thanks! We are now relieved! We should feel happy for Google's crappy service, because M$ service is also crappy!. Bravo Mr. Crappy, keep living in your mediocrity
    
    nomorebs
    31 January, 2011 21:14
    
    Reply Vote
users do not want web apps

not true

james347
31 January, 2011 06:47

Reply Vote
RE: Google to make mobile apps because users do not want web apps

Native apps have better UI than browser based apps. The UI on browser apps also has to reload every time the user presses a button. How much does that suck?!

Good to see users are voting with their app downloads. :-)

jhughesy
31 January, 2011 07:15

Reply Vote
Even apps still may be parts of the web

An interesting move. But it may be temporary until HTML5 + native clients will mature. Tim Bray http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/ once said that something like - even apps can be considered as part of the web, provided they provide better interface to data available on web (i.e. - addressable by URL.)

vkelman@...
31 January, 2011 07:37

Reply Vote
No kidding

I don't see what is surprising.
The best kind of applications is the smartclient category, native applications consuming services.
This way when there is no available web connection the user is not stuck and can benefit from a fast, nice U.I.
Even html5 applications will look a lot like smart clients in some way, thus why not use smart client to begin with ?

timiteh
31 January, 2011 07:52

Reply Vote
RE: Google to make mobile apps because users do not want web apps

The web have always seem to take precedence over native apps for Google. A good example of this is their "Google Mobile App" for the iPhone, it just serves as a launcher to their web services (Docs, Talk, Buzz...), nothing native. I stopped using it a while back once I learnt this. I didn't need an app taking me to the web each time, I could do that myself. Even when native apps like YouTube and Google Maps are on the iPhone, the GMA take you to their web page instead. Horrible.

The web currently does not offer as good a UI experience as native Apps. Needs constant connection just to open when native apps can cache files. Slower. Same boring browser UI from decades past.

dave95.
31 January, 2011 08:12

Reply Vote
- RE: Google to make mobile apps because users do not want web apps
  
  @dave95. Why should Google care how you consume their search results? Whether it's through a fat client or the web browser you will still get the ads.
  
  MSFTWorshipper
  31 January, 2011 11:58
  
  Reply Vote