Sam Varghese
Friday, 05 June 2009 08:10
Opinion and Analysis
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In its short existence, everything that Google has done, business-wise, has been marked by one trait: simplicity.
Not to say that the code behind Google's tools is simple; it is anything but. What I mean by simplicity is the lack of clutter on Google's public face.
Of course, the logic behind the search engine provides a huge number of possibilities. One has to only sit down and read a basic document about Google hacks in order to understand exactly how powerful its search engine can be.
Lots of companies get all starry-eyed when they look at design possibilities on the web, especially after the rise of technologies like Flash. What results in the end is a horrible mess. But this has not happened with Google.
It has stuck to the core UNIX philosophy, which is to let one application do one job and do it damn well. It has also retained the playfulness that characterises so many hard-core geeks - ever so often the graphic on the Google page changes to reflect the season or some public holiday or the other.
Some call it the KISS principle - keep it simple, stupid.
Let me provide a simple example here. I use a mail client called Mutt. Now most mail clients can send mail on their own; Mutt cannot. It does a fantastic job as a mail user agent - and then hands over the mail to a transport agent to do the SMTP part of the transaction.
I doubt whether you'd ever be able to find a mail client with the range of configuration options that Mutt offers; in fact, I'm pretty sure you won't. But it still follows the UNIX philosophy - it does one job and does it incredibly well.
Have a look at Google's website. It's spartan, to the extent of being empty. But you can't mistake it for anything other than a search page.
Any other functionality which Google offers is provided by a simple text link - no image, no clutter, no bling. No distraction for the user at all.
Even
Chrome, the browser that Google released last year, despite having a lousy name, had the same minimalist theme. There is lots of white space, very creatively used, and one could not mistake it for anything other than a browser.
In a way, I think Google learnt from the mistakes of others; Netscape Navigator was a runaway hit as a browser but then choked when it tried to become all things to all men as Netscape Communicator.
The history of software development is littered with such examples.
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