I often rant that Google’s “search only” view of the world doesn’t work for most people, and that folks need visible structure to understand where things go. We want folders and to know where stuff is. Techies tend to object and say, “Just search — it’s all there. Why put it in a folder?”
The latest Google Drive upgrade has clear folder-style breadcrumbs, indicating a move to traditional hierarchy.
There are some bigger lessons here:
- Just because Silicon Valley does something, it doesn’t make it right for the rest of the world. They are a peculiar group of non-standard techies who don’t work or think the way the rest of us do.
- Google (and other companies) fail often, on purpose, as experiments. Just because they do something, or even do it big, doesn’t mean it’s a winning idea. They can drop $100 million on an experiment.
