Google & Apple Sitting In A Tree...

Google & Apple Sitting In A Tree...
By Ed@Smalldog.com

Google and Apple are getting awfully cozy these days. A few years
ago, Google's support for Macs and OS X was rather paltry. As Mac
users complained about this, Google added a few Apple-friendly
features. For example, you could go to google.com/mac.html to
constrain your search results to Mac sites - useful for finding
arcane Mac info. However, many of Google's services and software,
like Google Earth simply didn't work on a Mac. This despite the fact
that a huge number of Google employees reportedly use Macs every day
on the job.

In the past year, Google and Apple have moved much closer together.
Dr. Eric Schmidt, Google's influential CEO, joined Apple's board of
directors in August. He said "Apple is one of the companies in the
world that I most admire."

Google has expanded the google.com/mac.html site with six
downloadable software apps - including the powerful Google Earth and
SketchUp (we used SketchUp for the layout of our new retail store.)

Google's free web-based productivity apps, Docs & Spreadsheets work
well on a Mac, as long you're using Firefox, Camino or Mozzilla (but
not Safari.) Calendar, Gmail, and Google video all work well with
Safari, but Google Talk and Page Creator do not (again, you need
Firefox, Camino or Mozzilla.) At Small Dog, we use Google Analytics
and Adwords extensively.

Now Google is keeping an official Mac-centric blog, which you can see
here:

http://googlemac.blogspot.com

Google's Mac blog reads:

We want to provide great products and services to the tens of millions of Mac users around the world, because it's the right thing to do, and because Mac users inside and outside Google demand it. That's why we've recruited some of the
best, most passionate Mac people out there for a Mac Engineering team

There are also hints of much deeper future collaboration. iPhoto 6
appears to have code that could allow for geotagging via Google Maps.
Google and Apple are rumored to be working on making Google Video
available via iTV. That could be great for Apple and iTV users,
especially now that Google has purchased YouTube.

Both Apple and Google operate as innovative, entrepreneurial
companies. It's great for Apple to have such a powerful ally. And
it's great for Google to have a creative, differently thinking partner.