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Google's new Dashboard sure would tie in nicely to Android, Chrome OS
When a few blog sites yesterday happened upon Google's YouTube video of the new Dashboard, they moved quickly to pull it down. Though the original video is still MIA, Google made an official announcement of the new feature on their own blog last night and the video above is now ready for public consumption.
While Dashboard is now live -- you can check yours out at
https://www.google.com/dashboard -- what's being talked about by most sites is how this move is all about transparency and privacy controls. Heck, even the official post hits on those points: "In an effort to provide you with greater transparency and control over their own data, we've built the Google Dashboard."
The post continues, "Designed to be simple and useful, the Dashboard summarizes data for each product that you use (when signed in to your account) and provides you direct links to control your personal settings."
That's fantastic, and I'm sure it's a big part of the story, but I can't help thinking that there's a tie-in to other Google projects. Perhaps Chrome OS and Android, for example?
If Chrome OS is really going to enable location-independent computing across all your PCs, you're going to need easy access to something in Google's cloud which provides a heads-up display of your vitals.
Chrome OS and Android users are likely heavy users of Google's services, right? So why not give them a "My Computer" or "Control Panel"-type web page which provides easy access to settings and usage stats for Google Docs, Calendar, Tasks, Contacts,GDrive (coming soon?), Google Voice, and the rest of your Big G-cloud-powered apps?
But hey, if they were planning on making this play nicely with their OSes, shouldn't there be some kind of reference to Chrome somewhere? There is, of course - tucked away in the "other products" block:
It makes sense to me that Dashboard would be a perfect fit for Android and Chrome OS users - but what do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments!
While Dashboard is now live -- you can check yours out at
https://www.google.com/dashboard -- what's being talked about by most sites is how this move is all about transparency and privacy controls. Heck, even the official post hits on those points: "In an effort to provide you with greater transparency and control over their own data, we've built the Google Dashboard."The post continues, "Designed to be simple and useful, the Dashboard summarizes data for each product that you use (when signed in to your account) and provides you direct links to control your personal settings."
That's fantastic, and I'm sure it's a big part of the story, but I can't help thinking that there's a tie-in to other Google projects. Perhaps Chrome OS and Android, for example?
If Chrome OS is really going to enable location-independent computing across all your PCs, you're going to need easy access to something in Google's cloud which provides a heads-up display of your vitals.
Chrome OS and Android users are likely heavy users of Google's services, right? So why not give them a "My Computer" or "Control Panel"-type web page which provides easy access to settings and usage stats for Google Docs, Calendar, Tasks, Contacts,
But hey, if they were planning on making this play nicely with their OSes, shouldn't there be some kind of reference to Chrome somewhere? There is, of course - tucked away in the "other products" block:
Comments
3
Subscribe to commentsPC-VIPNov 5th 2009 9:41AM
So I look at google.com/dashboard and check out my account. And I like having all my "stuff" in one place. I even see that my address is wrong on one item, reflecting a home I moved out of several years ago.
It's neat!
And it does nothing except aggregate my google stuff. It does NOT tell me "what they know about me". It does NOT help manage my security settings; reality: my user name and email address get me in, just as they always did.
IN FACT, from a security standpoint, Google Dashboard is a huge step BACKWARD, as anyone who knows my name and password can now alter all my stuff from one, nice, convenient page!
What were they thinking?
Jeff Yablon
President & CEO
Answer Guy and Virtual VIP Computer Support, Business Change Coaching and Virtual Assistant Services
MysteriusNov 5th 2009 4:39PM
Well, really, how else are they to verify that you are who you say you are? Someone who knows your username and password can already wreak havoc with your account. The extra sign-in at least prevents issues with accidentally leaving your account signed in on public computers and such.
adam.planteNov 7th 2009 12:38AM
This doesent seem all that great. They dident really add any functionality. Iam not really sure what the point is.