Stewart Alsop, Droid Doesn’t, Google UI

This is an insider's three-fer. In this article, Stewart describes his horrible personal experience with the Verizon Droid. It's a fun read. Three angles:

(1) It's been years and years since I've seen Stewart Alsop publishing a product review. Stewart, years ago, was totally famous in the tech world as software taste maker par-excellence. Kind of like Walt Mossberg is today (whoops - you don't know who Mossberg is?)

(2) All I've seen lately is hero worship of Google Android (cell phone software) and by extension, the new Verizon Droid. Here's a review from Stewart that knocks down, slaps around, and buries the Droid. Wow! Welcome back Stewart, or haven't I been looking in the right place? From the old days, I am sure you remember getting responses like this one 🙂 By the way, here's what Mossberg thought of Droid.

(3) I've been meaning to call out Google's terrible user interfaces for a while now. And I am not talking (just) about the totally inscrutable Wave (also subject of excessive hero worship, but in fairness, it's still pre-beta) but good old stalwarts as GMail (great product with lots of UI suckitude, even though I use it every day) and even the good old www.google.com. I mean look at Bing. Simple and straightforward, and still elegant and easy on the eye. And fast loading. Even the top-secret 'redesign' or 'update' of the www.google.com search page looks amateurish with ugly icons and ugly colors.

Ok, that's my insider's three-fer. Each one could be expanded into it's own post, and, maybe I will!