THIS ONE'S A WINNER
With this post, I'm officially classifying Google's recently introduced "Browser Sync" extension as a "Thriller" product, worthy of more aggressive marketing by the company.
Long-time users may recall when I introduced the "Thriller" category last year, describing it as,
"...tech products/gadgets/software/services that thrill with a capital "T"! Make your jaw drop...make you a believer in technology..."
I was pretty enthused about Browser Sync already when Google introduced it earlier this month. As a refresher, here's how Google describes this cool piece of software:
"Google Browser Sync for Firefox is an extension that continuously synchronizes your browser settings – including bookmarks, history, persistent cookies, and saved passwords – across your computers.
It also allows you to restore open tabs and windows across different machines and browser sessions. For more info, please visit our FAQ."
So why am I so thrilled by this just a few days after it was introduced? Let me give you two of many reasons:
1. Common Computing experience across multiple computers: So far I've installed Browser Sync on over five Windows PCs/laptops and four Mac computers/laptops in multiple locations on both coasts. I know my computing environment is not typical.
But the cool thing is that with Browser Sync, I can close a browser with a whole bunch of tabs open on one computer in New York, get on a plane and fly to the west coast.
On arrival in the other location, I can then open a browser on a Mac or a PC, and have the EXACT Firefox browser session, with all my critical applications opening up as just as I left them, in New York. One can pick up right where the work was left off, without skipping a beat.
I know there have been third-party Firefox extensions with a similar feature, but the Browser Sync experience has a cleaner, easier to use interface, and the implementation feels smoother.
2. Fast ramp-up on a brand new computer. I had a hard drive crash on my Thinkpad X43 a few days ago. Luckily I had a recent back up of my data files.
After some calls with support, it was clear that I would have to send the thing in for repair, where their technicians would "lobotomize" my machine by installing a new hard drive, and installing a new copy of Windows.
I'd effectively get back a fresh, "new" machine.
So, as I sent the machine in to the Lenovo Thinkpad repair facility, I was dreading having to re-install my critical applications and get the "new" machine up and running just the way I like it.
In the past, it generally took me half a day or more to get a new machine to be just the way I like it. And this time, I didn't have half a day, since I was supposed to get the machine back only 2-3 hours before heading out of town for a conference.
As it turned out, I got the machine back literally 50 minutes before I had to head to the airport for the SuperNova conference in San Francisco. So, I had to work as quickly as possible.
First, I updated the machine with all the recent Windows Updates. Then I re-installed Microsoft Office, and copied over my data files from the back-up external drive.
But the machine still wasn't "mine"", in that it wasn't personalized the way I had it before the crash.
I downloaded Firefox, and quickly installed the Google Browser Sync extension.
A few minutes later, after signing in, Browser Sync had imported all my bookmarks, passwords, cookies etc. onto the new machine.
The "thrilling" moment came when I went to "My Yahoo!" page, and I was automatically signed in without having to put in user name and password. Same thing for all my online content subscriptions.
A few minutes of this, and I realized that the new machine was "personalized" enough to be a good enough clone of my pre-crash machine.
And the whole thing had taken a little over half an hour. I had time to make a couple of calls before the taxi arrived to take me to the airport.
Very, very cool.
Browser Sync is the closest one can come to hardware-independent shared software experience today.
Google really needs to market BrowserSync's benefits in a more mainstream, non-geeky way.
As a start, they may want to make it more accessible on their site. As it is, one has to go through almost half a dozen pages on their site, to get to the Browser Sync page.
So for now, it's only for people who know about it, and really, really, want to install it. And that's mostly geeks.
They should make it a part of the main site, and make it an integral part of the Google Toolbar. The company is getting more aggressive in marketing the toolbar, with recent distribution deals with Dell, and with Adobe yesterday.
It would really differentiate their Toolbar against all the competitor offerings, and offer a "Thriller" experience to boot.
Almost close to what one experienced when using Google for the very first time.
Very cool indeed!!! And definitely a useful tool with certain geek appeal. I hate to say this though - this does exacerbate privacy and security concerns. Now Google also knows what you do on the web, your favoorite destinations, and even your passwords. The question in my mind is less about private information being on the Internet. It is really more about trusting one company with all this private information. Any thoughts?
Posted by: Laxman | Friday, June 23, 2006 at 12:07 PM