Google's comic capers: what they really meant to say Google publicised its new browser Chrome with a 38-page comic book. It's a gift to satirists, and already, our inboxes are buzzing with slightly less saintly interpretations. Here's a selection. Naturally, the altruistic nature of the operation gets a bit of a bashing: As does the, er, "end to end" nature of the …
"I appreciate the satire as much as the next man, but when something is published under a (semi) open licence it should be respected... that said this *is* funny - there is a copyright allowance for satire right? :)"
No, anything which attempts to reduce our Fair Use/Fair Dealing rights should most certainly NOT be respected. And yes, at least under Fair Use, satire is allowed, so feel free. :)
Guys/girls, go out and have a little more fun, eh? It's just sad to think that you spent your whole evening doing this.
I mean, I'm all for a critical, objective assessment of the tech industry, but you're starting to get a little obsessive. And it would have been frankly funnier if you'd just written "boobies" all over the cartoons.
AC - next time you feel the need to put the name of a website such as Scroogle into your posts, please consider the wellbeing of those who do not know what the content of that site is, and who might therefore (out of pure curiosity) visit it from their office computers.I realise that I'm probably the only person on teh Internets who didn't know what Scroogle is, but there you go. I believe "NSFW" is the correct term, yes?
All joking aside, apart from the sh*tload of rendering and other bugs* in it....
They need an Ive's figure in Google. Look at Android, angular edges, no animation to give hints, etc. Now we get googles browser, and it's all hard edges and instant heavy highlights, or *linear* expands. Design by engineer.
They need some gay guys with a sense of aesthetics come in and give their products a makeover. Actually *a* guy, design by committee doesn't work.
Example: Click new tab, the tab expands right in a linear fashion. Good, it tells you where the tab came from and where your 'new tab' button will be moved to. But it takes too long and is not natural movement.
IMHO, it should accelerate, decelerate and overshoot, springing back a little. Like a spring catch that's been released. More like a natural real world thing people can relate to better (also because it can be speeded up then, the more natural it is, the faster you can do it without it being confusing).
E.g. they made the site URL black and the rest of the URL grey, but now the type face is large and whispy as a result and needs more leading. When I type the pop down menu shows bold and green and all of these are must stronger than the whispy grey text I'm typing, drawing my eye away down from what I'm typing.
Lots of good engineering features here (like combining the URL and site warning into one), but needs a bit more design aesthetics to it.
Straight bugs:
* I am behind a proxy, I connect to any site, it asks me for the proxy login, I type it in and click ok (no button to save it), it then asks me if I want to save the passport for the site 'dilbert' - confuses the proxy password with the site password, it's trying to save the proxy password as the password for dilbert.com
* It can't cope with the .JPGs, many don't show at all, or come up as broken. They come from Photoshop and are handled by every other browser.
* tables and sizeless graphics seem to throw it... doesn't seem to know how to resize once it finds out the graphics, so graphics come up cropped.
* Like the resizeable edit fields.
scroogle.com is extremely NSFW, as it happens. I fell for the same trick that Pastamasta fell for; it might help if people referred to scroogle.org instead of just scroogle.
Fortunately for me I work from home, so the chances of my boss spotting my mistake are minimal. My wife and kids, on the other hand... Erk...
"Btw, disable the feedback box in Chrome. What a great browser."
Isn't it?! I'm no google fanboy (i updated to firefox 3 yesterday and started having problems so decided to try chrome), but I've found it really great. Wonderful clean intuitive interface, no bugs (yet), love the task manager.
Ah, so that was my mistake. Yes, scroogle.com is indeed liberally plastered with tits and other miscellaneous lady parts. I am awaiting the smite-happy wrath of the corporate IT admins as we speak. On the plus side, I believe I may have set a new world record for Fastest Closure of Browser Window.
Just because Stephen Fry loves Apple does not mean you need to be bent to enjoy good design.
Jon Ive, the Apple design GOD, is married with kids. SUre, they might be photoshopped in but I don't think so.
I love good design and I'm as straight as a fence post. I also enjoy Stephen Fry too, but not That Way.
creative commons doesn't stop your ability to use a work under any exception to copyright in your home jurisdiction. Read Clause 2 on any cc licence:
"2. Fair Dealing Rights. Nothing in this License is intended to reduce, limit, or restrict any uses free from copyright or rights arising from limitations or exceptions that are provided for in connection with the copyright protection under copyright law or other applicable laws."
http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p09_fair_use
I'm not sure, but if the Copyright Service of the UK state it.... maybe we DO have a Fair Use in the UK.
And failing that, the work is copyrighted in the US, where they definitely DO have a fair use doctrine.
"Sometime's it's better to shut up and let people think you're an idiot, than to speak up and remove all doubt!"
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