Paul Maddox

Google is making a pretty good progress getting business customers on to its mail platform, at a rate of 1000 per day.  However Rishi Chandra, product manager for Google Apps, is perhaps being a bit optimistic in terms of product development, which in the case of GMail we have seen relatively little of since its beta inception.

"At the end of the day, Google Apps is about innovation," said Chandra. "You don't have to wait for a major release to get these features. It happens in real time. ... It's taking the speed and innovation of the consumer world and applying it to the business world."

The problem is, it seems we do have to wait.  Whilst Windows Live Mail and Yahoo Mail have seen dramatic improvements in the user interface, Google can be seen lagging behind with what cynics might even call a dated user experience.

As Information Week identifies:

"Such relentless change has the potential to leave users lost, but Chandra insists Google's focus on the user experience means that new features are easy to understand and don't require new training."

Unfortunately to produce a high level of innovation along with consistency of user experience is not an easy task, despite Chandra's insistence, but only time will tell what emphasis Google chooses, or whether they will attempt the impossible.

Google Apps Opens Door To Migrating E-Mail Users -- Google Apps -- InformationWeek

# posted by Paul Maddox @ 7:40 AM