The Interface is the Software

Veteran Microsoft hacker Raymond Chen is chafed because of all the attention surrounding Google Maps:

Let’s see, Google Maps adds the world outside the United States, Canada and the UK, and people go ga-ga. Nevermind that Google’s new “maps” have nothing beyond country boundaries. “Aww, look at Google, she’s so cute and adorable!”

I’m sure the people at the existing online map services like MapQuest and MSN MapPoint are sitting there like older siblings, wondering when exactly they turned into chopped liver. MSN MapPoint has actual maps of most of Europe, and MapQuest’s library of maps is larger still. (Kathmandu anyone?)

I’m surprised that a person of Raymond’s calibre would miss the whole point. For a user, the interface is the software. It’s hard to argue that any of the interfaces Raymond pointed to are better than Google’s endlessly draggable, window-wide maps and unbounded input boxes. Perhaps the other software has clever datastructures, awesome algorithms, lots of information sitting there in the database. Who cares? I guarantee that your satisfaction level with a tool will be far more affected by whether it behaved well than by its other, more subtle capabilities.

Tellingly, Raymond’s next post harps on the fact that the Date/Time control panel is not a calendar.

Unaware of its design, people have been using the Date/Time control panel as if it were a calendar, not realizing that it was doing all sorts of scary things behind the scenes. It’s like using a cash register as an adding machine. Sure, it does a great job of adding numbers together, but you’re also messing up the accounting back at the main office!

Way to miss the point. I need to check a calendar far more often than I need to adjust my system clock.

The Community is the Product
Summary: The passion surrounding Firefox is a testament of the...

http://lascribe.net/ Chris

Well, he’s certainly not an impartial commenter on this. But personally I have found it hard to get excited about Google maps, since it’s only potentially useful — if and when I get the occasion to travel. The other mapping services I use every few days (mostly mappy) are sure more cluttered and much slower, but at least they are useful to me.
http://firasd.org Firas

Chris: good point. For people outside of the area Google Maps covers, the software is hardly useful. I understand Raymond’s point about the ridiculousness of a Slashdot post just for the addition of country boundaries—I was more focused on describing the reason that there’s a lustre surrounding it from the experiences of people who do use it, apart from that of being a Google product.

(Also, where’ve you been?!)
http://lascribe.net/ Chris

OK, OK, I take it back. I live here.

As for where I’ve been, the less I say, the better it is. I cherish being alive, that’s something.
http://www.firasd.org/?p=74 firasd.org » The Community is the Product

[...] None of this incredible volunteering occurs around proprietary products—nor should it. And this will be the ace up open source’s sleeve. Last month I wrote that the interface is the software—to go further down the tangent of unqualified punditry, I’d say that Firefox’s widespread success demonstrates another rule: The Community is the Product. [...]

Firas Durri