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Google Exec Hints At Future Open Platform

Posted by timothy on from the all-very-vague dept.

rsmiller510 writes "At the recent Web 2.0 Summit, Dave Girouard, who is president of Google's enterprise division, stated that his company's long-term goal is to open up the Google development stack to outside developers. If this is true, then it could have some serious long-term implications for developers who could use Google services in new and interesting ways."

4 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. Well... by girlintraining · · Score: 5, Informative

    I read the entire article. Can I have my five minutes back please?

    Summary of article:

    Google Exec: We're going to open.... The box!
    People: Open what?
    Google Exec: The box! With... the wires, and blinky lights, and stuff in it!
    People: What's in the box?
    Google Exec: New and interesting things!
    People: O RLY?
    Google Exec: YA RLY!
    People: ...
    Google Exec: Oh look, pretty shiny...

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    1. Re:Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Indeed.

      My first reaction was: Does this mean that developers can run their code on Google's servers--the servers are opening up? Or does this mean that developers can run Google's code on their own servers--Google's code is opening up?

      No, it means "widgets". Yawn.

    2. Re:Well... by Smauler · · Score: 2, Informative

      Basically, Google haven't made an announcement of anything - they are not committing themselves to anything, and they never fucking said they were when they made this "hint". This is basically a non-story about a blogger with too much time on his hands who has overanalysed Google's output and managed to get himself on /.. That's just my take, others may see this as significant, but to me : nothing to see here, move along.

  2. Open Android by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 3, Informative

    Android was supposed to be an open mobile phone OS. But now it seems that it's "open" for reading, not writing or executing. That is, you can look at the source code, but you can't write any changes to your phone. The firmware locks out any OS software that doesn't match the checksum or something. That lockout gives Google control of the Android OS, which means the phones are not open, and Google can even lock out apps it doesn't like, or keep features like remote shutdown (by Google, not by you), even if you want to delete that "feature".

    How about Google just opens the Android platform, by allowing the phones to run even altered Android OS versions? Then I'll start believing Google when it claims to "open" some other platform even more likely to stay closed, because it runs on their own hardware, not mine.

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