Google to slowly replace .mac?

T

tde632

Registered
Just some food for thought: With the appointment of the Google guy to Apple's board, does anyone else think that Google's services may eventually replace .mac? You can obviously use gmail with Mail.app, and Google's picasaweb has some nice integration with iPhoto (I think I read somewhere that the next iPhoto will offer even more, such as GPS metadata for photos to integrate with Google Earth). I believe there is some degree of iCal-gCal integration, although I don't have any firsthand experience with it. Any chance that at some point, Apple says ".Mac has been a good Apple product for about 10 years, but now we've partnered with someone who has a great product. And it will be free." Although the $99 cost of .mac is probably a not insignificant revenue stream, it seems to be the one area where users are not all that satisfied with their experience.

Maybe down the road, this leads to a situation where Apple makes the desktop apps (even for things like word processing, spreadsheets) and Google makes the online version of it, and they are perfectly integrated.
 
I don't use .mac, but if I didn't care about the cost, would use it over a Google app any day. Why? Because I don't want to see advertising intruding on what I consider to be my own private space. And no matter how tasteful and discreet, I don't want anyone on my list of personal contacts to see it either.
 
i just found a hack/plug in for google using firefox that takes all the ads out do a search for customize google 0.55

noads and other fun stuff you can take off also some good security items --- you could link there dl on your page !!!

hth
 
There are two things that I see with this. One is the basis of free services vs. a paid service. Now, if .Mac like offereing was availble and run by Google sans advertising that may be ok. Personally, I have no issues with .Mac as it stands today.

Second, I am not sure if Apple would push for a Google mail tie in after announcing the Yahoo/iPhone deal.
 
Apple also started out with .Mac being free for OS 9 users, then called iTools. So will Google services partnered with Apple also cost something? Eg. Gmail is free, but special features cost. Google page Creator free, special features cost something. Then a year later even _more_ features cost something. Then in the end everything costs something, except for searches obviously.
 
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