Arguments about the hacky-ness and fragility of web apps are always extremely silly.
Unix was also a hack. C was also a hack. Windows 95 was also a hack. Windows NT had better design, but with hacks bolted on to make it compatible with Win 9X. Java was a hack. Linux was a hack. The Internet itself is the biggest hack of all.
In fact I dare you to name one successful platform that wasn't a hack. Because from where I'm standing, the platforms that weren't hacks failed, in addition to being on the whole horrible.
> I don't find GMail, GDocs or GMaps the epitome of good UI and interaction models, I can point a handful of quirks
With all those quirks, GMail killed the desktop email client for me. For the last 4 years I haven't been able to use any other client. Even on my iPad, before the latest "native" GMail on iOS I was using the web version, simply because Apple's Mail app wasn't doing threaded conversations well.
For all the quirks of the web version of Google Maps, at least it is available everywhere. Just ask the poor schmucks that were in a hurry to upgrade to iOS 6.
Same argument goes for GDocs. It's available everywhere and it allows for efficient collaborative editing. You just open a browser and you're good to go. It doesn't even have to be your browser. I do value this a lot.
> I don't think these products withstand a round of user testing, people just take it for granted because they are provided for free.
I'm a Google Apps customer and I also pay for Google Drive, if it matters. And quite the contrary, people receiving stuff for free tend to be more self-entitled and critical. That people don't voice too many negative opinions on these products is kind of shocking, because either Google has a really good PR department or these products do in fact satisfy most users.
> When a better alternative shows up (Sparrow), people flock to it even if it's a paid app
Unix was also a hack. C was also a hack. Windows 95 was also a hack. Windows NT had better design, but with hacks bolted on to make it compatible with Win 9X. Java was a hack. Linux was a hack. The Internet itself is the biggest hack of all.
In fact I dare you to name one successful platform that wasn't a hack. Because from where I'm standing, the platforms that weren't hacks failed, in addition to being on the whole horrible.
> I don't find GMail, GDocs or GMaps the epitome of good UI and interaction models, I can point a handful of quirks
With all those quirks, GMail killed the desktop email client for me. For the last 4 years I haven't been able to use any other client. Even on my iPad, before the latest "native" GMail on iOS I was using the web version, simply because Apple's Mail app wasn't doing threaded conversations well.
For all the quirks of the web version of Google Maps, at least it is available everywhere. Just ask the poor schmucks that were in a hurry to upgrade to iOS 6.
Same argument goes for GDocs. It's available everywhere and it allows for efficient collaborative editing. You just open a browser and you're good to go. It doesn't even have to be your browser. I do value this a lot.
> I don't think these products withstand a round of user testing, people just take it for granted because they are provided for free.
I'm a Google Apps customer and I also pay for Google Drive, if it matters. And quite the contrary, people receiving stuff for free tend to be more self-entitled and critical. That people don't voice too many negative opinions on these products is kind of shocking, because either Google has a really good PR department or these products do in fact satisfy most users.
> When a better alternative shows up (Sparrow), people flock to it even if it's a paid app
For what is worth, I didn't.