Sidewiki: Over the past few years, we’ve seen extraordinary innovation in terms of making the web collaborative. So we’ve decided to discontinue Sidewiki and focus instead on our broader social initiatives. Sidewiki authors will be given more details about this closure in the weeks ahead, and they’ll have a number of months to download their content.

Do you remember the fear and outrage about Google Sidewiki? It was all just FUD in the end... the technology was completely misunderstood by most people. Now, if the Sidewiki concept was incorporated into Google+, that could be interesting.

In the last few weeks a lot has been written about whether Google Plus is the ultimate killer social networking site of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or several others, you name it. Perhaps we have seen far too many articles and blog posts on the topic and while I do think it’s just a bit too early to make such kind of statements, even if Google Plus has just reached over 25 million users already. I still think it’s a bit too early to be announcing the painful death of each of those social networking environments. Let’s not forget how long it took both Facebook and Twitter to become mainstream and reach that tipping point of no return, of rampant progress, of gaining enough relevance and importance to stick around for a while, in short, of having enough global impact that almost everyone has heard, or knows about them. G+ still needs to reach that level. I do know though it will reach it eventually, perhaps even sooner than anyone else!, but what I am rather surprised about is the fact that hardly anyone has talked or blogged about the fact that Plus does present a real threat to the king of communications, collaboration and knowledge sharing: email!

For me, one the interesting things I've found about the Google+ experience to date is how much it resonated with my experience of enterprise microblogging platforms.

Now, Google got things right with Gmail (right now, it still is IMHO the best email app available and I love my ninjas), but stumbled with Wave. Google+ may well end up being the evolution of Gmail into email being re-imagined, perhaps later combined with the elements of Wave that did work (and also Open Social). But for that happen, Google+ will need to support a seamless, minimum level of compatibility with current email systems and other social tools.

Being open could be a recipe for success over the longer term, rather than trying to make Google+ the single social network. The unstated goal should also be to retire Gmail in its current form (although I'd like to keep the ninjas!). And that's where I see the enterprise going too - who will be first?

For web applications to spring even farther ahead of traditional software, our teams need to make use of new capabilities available in modern browsers. For example, desktop notifications for Gmail and drag-and-drop file upload in Google Docs require advanced browsers that support HTML5. Older browsers just don’t have the chops to provide you with the same high-quality experience.

For this reason, soon Google Apps will only support modern browsers. Beginning August 1st, we’ll support the current and prior major release of Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari on a rolling basis. Each time a new version is released, we’ll begin supporting the update and stop supporting the third-oldest version.

As of August 1st, we will discontinue support for the following browsers and their predecessors: Firefox 3.5, Internet Explorer 7, and Safari 3. In these older browsers you may have trouble using certain features in Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk, Google Docs and Google Sites, and eventually these apps may stop working entirely.

+1 Google.

Hat tip Scott Vine.

Apps are the tiles of the new mosaic, our composite life on line.

And Google+ is a deft straddle, with one foot in the old world and the other in the new. Google+ is currently a browser based system, but it is relatively easy to imagine the core functionality implemented in a next generation Android, and all the tools running as apps on top. Circles and Hangouts accessed as complementary apps, along with dozens or hundreds of others, built by Google or a growing ecology of developers.

Of course, Apple will respond in kind, and is perhaps a step or two ahead with its Twitter partnership, and its plan to integrate Twitter into iOS 5. So we can expect a similar flowering of iOS 5 apps that build on a core of social capabilities, and that will allow app developers to leverage profiles, following, streams, and other foundational social componentry at the OS level.

By lowering the core elements of sociality into the infrastructure, Google and Apple will be setting the stage for a new generation of app development, and therefore, user experience. Which will mean an acceleration of the transition for us, as users, from monolith to mosaic.

I find myself agreeing a lot with Boyd's impressions of Google+, particularly as I wrote a few days ago about resisting the desire to create what he describes as monolithic platforms.

When we initially heard that enterprise users (read: companies) would be able to purchase Chromebooks for $28 per user as part of a monthly subscription scheme, we simultaneously heard the walls shake over at IBM and other solutions providers that charge two arms and part of a leg to provide provisioned machines to employees. Granted, a Chromebook isn't a full-scale Windows or OS X-based machine -- far from it -- but given just how often our work is shifting to the web, Chrome OS is becoming dangerously close to "good enough" for most. Chalk it up to serendipity if you must, but Chrome OS is becoming more and more relevant with each passing day, as we're dealt far fewer offline-only apps and far more cloud-reliant ones.

If you are one of those people still shaking their heads about the Google's Chromebook concept, perhaps a comparable technologies to think about is desktop virtualisation and thin client computing. These approaches are already popular in some companies, despite the risk of a single point of failure.

For example, I once worked in a large organisation running this kind of environment where a server room failure also disabled the computers and IP telephone system - everyone went home for the day. In another example - many years ago, I also ran a tender process for an organisation that implemented a thin-client environment with some of its staff using thin-client only laptops, while working offsite (they had the ability to plug into the LAN at those sites or via dial-up).

So, in a way Chromebooks aren't such an alien concept.

I don't use Google Apps much, but I do use Atlassian's Confluence as my main workplace desktop environment and I work with clients using this and other similar solutions - so I could see myself working entirely online (although I would miss Mac Keynote for presentations!). The reason I mention Confluence in particular is that it already supports special plugins for online versions of tools, such as Balsamiq mockups (a lo-fi wireframing tool), that I already use.

Actually my main reaction to the enterprise Chromebook plans was the low bundled MBs with the 3G versions (or rather, in the US at least the data plans look expensive). This might not be an issue if you are working within a Wifi enabled work environment or are even using a "Chromebox" (a desktop version), connected primarily to a corporate intranet.

Having said that, for business and consumer users who are on the move I would still be nervous about relying on a Web OS-only device unless key tools had a seamless 'offline' mode (this is based on my own experiences of mobile Internet connectivity here in Australia). These are also only netbook-sized devices too - so I'm really sure if these are seen by Google as replacements or to augment existing devices (and if so, wouldn't most exec and managers prefer an ipad?).

There are still some other gaps, but it looks like Google are evolving the product reasonably quickly to fill them, such as VPN support.

Probably the other issue is if Google (and its hardware partners) can actually support the products to keep that total cost of ownership down. But overall, I see a stronger proposition for Chromebooks/box for the enterprise market than I do for consumers.

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone jokingly adds a computer server to his company's arsenal in advance of the royal wedding.

Well, the thought did cross my mind... Google are hosting the official wedding Website and live online broadcast of the event, so I suppose we should be ok ;-)

Similar to Google's timeline search feature, the Books Ngram Viewer allows you to compare trends based on text in a selection of scanned books. The 'about' page explains the different Corpora you can search. Interesting and probably addictive.

Over night I've had a chance to sit back and review the buzz about Google's Buzz (to avoid confusion with Yahoo! Buzz or any other social apps with 'buzz' in its name).

One thing I will say first off is that we know Google has an excellent track record overall with producing fast, usable, popular Web apps and services. There is no doubt in my mind that Gmail is in fact the best email client available* (yes, even better than any desktop client I've ever used). For example, why can't all email clients deal with meeting invites like Gmail? So, on the face of it, Gmail and Buzz looks like a great combination from a user experience perspective. The mobile client, experienced through my location aware iPhone, also feels good.

However, alas, these days I spend most of my time in a desktop mail client or my iPhone mail client, because I've got multiple mail boxes to manage (and no, I don't want to route them via Gmail). Unfortunately a lot of the really good stuff appears to take place in the client provided by Google... so are all those third-party developers going to be able to replicate that experience in the mailbox you are using instead?

This is quite a contrast to Twitter, with its generally minimalist approach that has seeded a great deal of innovation both in terms of software, but also how people have invented different ways of working around and within its constraints. Twitter works better for me as it sits separately from other identities - and in fact, using a desktop Twitter client I can manage multiple identities. I also have a slick iPhone app to go with it.

Google of course is placing emphasis on the power of analytics of overcome filter failure. However, as I signed up for Buzz via Gmail I felt it failed on the first hurdle. There was no one it suggested that I either wasn't already following some other way or didn't particularly want to follow anyway. Of course, that's just my experience. An opt in suggestion or expertise location is one thing, but scanning my Gmail address book and equating that to my socialgraph is, well, a major filter failure if you ask me.

I note that Dion Hinchcliffe wrote yesterday about the same issue and said:

"for hyperpersonal, in Buzz this is driven by underlying algorithms that filter and guide the user experience. Google’s VP of Engineering, Vic Gundotra, noted that Google’s insight into the early Web with the famousPage Rank algorithm drove their initial success. He went on to hint that they believe the same algorithmic insight into the Social Web will succeed with Buzz. Either way, Google has clearly used its competency in data and computation to attempt to one-up today’s online social networking services... I do think they’re generally on the right track here but the left brain approach to the Web that dominates Google’s product strategy tends to obscure the notion that social systems are also highly self-organizing and emergent.

To me, Google Buzz makes a lot of sense for people that do spend a time in Gmail and have lots of friends using Gmail and Google Chat. It will make a lot of sense if they are aiming, as they've hinted, at providing a corporate version as part of their enterprise apps offering (so, rather than Twitter being concerned, its the likes of Yammer and Social Cast that should keep an eye on Google in this instance).

If its going to fail, its because ironically it might be because its too clever for its own good.

*Ok, I admit it - its just the Ninja theme I love.

The agreement is significant to Google as it has spent more than two years trying to court the university to adopt Gmail for staff members. But the university was hesitant to move staff members on to Gmail due to regulatory and cost factors.

They were concerned that their email messages would be subject to draconian US law.

In particular, they were worried about protecting their intellectual property under the Patriot Act and Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Mr Bailey said.

"In the end, Google agreed to store that data under EU jurisdiction, which we accepted," he said.

The university had to comply with state laws, which mandated that data had to be stored in NSW.

Google was not going to build a local data centre anytime soon so Macquarie had to maintain an offline archive of data at the university, he said. In the past, Macquarie was concerned about the cost of relaying large files to and from the US, where Google's data centre resides. But this been resolved thanks to the Australia's Academic and Research Network (AARnet), which the university is a member of. "AARNet peered with Google (and Microsoft) which means it won't cost us anything more," Mr Bailey said.

A $2 million limited liability was increased to $10m in case Gmail stopped working. "You need proper recourse if your free email service stops working."

Its important to note how Macquarie Uni resolved their concerns about moving staff mailboxes to Gmail... a combination of getting their off shored data managed under a more friendly jurisdiction, creating their own archive to comply with local law, data peering and risk management through increased financial liability provisions. A good checklist for other large Australian organisations that want to go down the same path?

When you think about it, this is a natural extension of search and augment reality techniques. Goggles is more than just landmarks and places - it can be used to find information about books, contact information, artwork, wine and logos from the images you scan.

Obviously I'm disappointed you don't actually get to wear some kind of AR 'goggles' for this, but the contact lens HUD is still under development.

Meanwhile, those of us with iPhones will need to wait a little longer until we get to play with the Goggles too.