Google latest ploy with CalDAV

[kishorekumar_a]

When 3 months ago, google said that they will be dropping EAS support fir new devices on January 31, it brought great many outrages among those who used Gmail in combination with EAS. Though many supported google decision to move away from Proprietary Standards to Open Standards. The alternative standards were of course the infamous IMAP in combination with CalDAV and CardDAV. But yesterday google announced dropping few of the less used google services. Amongst them was also the support for CalDAV. It was conveniently buried in the outrage against shutting down the Google Reader.

And can you guess the replacement for the CalDAV standard???.... Yes, you are right the Google proprietary Google Calendar API.

Those who supported open standards are left to wonder what the **** happened. My take on the situation is that Google has planned this all along aiming for the induction of the Google Calendar API in masses. The fact that dropping of CalDAV is buried in the announcements itself is a proof of that. The official page recommend the Google Calendar API for usage of Googke sync. Directly replacing EAS with their standard would have resulted in mass outrages against Google. But by splitting up the replacement process now they have effectively reduced the outrages. There are a lot controversial things going on at Google in the recent months. The Google I once loved seems no more. Share your thoughts on this. Let the debates begin.

 

[Mystictrust]

Seriously? The crew that's been working on getting CalDAV ready for WP are probably throwing their hands up in the air right now. I think Microsoft's best bet at this point is just to highly publicize how to easily transfer google contacts and calendars over to outlook since after July 31st it won't be possible to sync anything but email with google accounts.

Something weird/different has been going on with Google lately. I've stopped giving out my Google Voice number and switched my primary voicemail to YouMail, in case they decide Google Voice is no longer profitable and shutter that as well

 

[Jazmac]

F Google. If you want your email from those dirty, no good, low down, evil snakes in the grass, use a browser. That works. Move your mobile business to Outlook.com. Its better, accepted and it works. Even more, encourage your friends to move away from any and all google services and don't continue to feed Schmidt and company. Its senseless to have these pity parties about it. They are NOT the only game in town.

 

[spaulagain]

And this is why I don't use their services, especially Google Docs, Calendar, and other less mainstream products of theirs.

 

[ChMar]

Google is in bussiness only by selling adds and data. It's no use for them to access their services through other means so they can't serve adds and not be able to data mine your clicks and other data. This is also the reason they closed Google Reader. People were using it but not from their page and that drop in traffic meant lost bussiness for them. Couple this with loosing interest in reading news with rss and you know the reason. Google will act just as ruthless as any company if you undermine their data mining and add serving processes

 

[Jazmac]

Google is in bussiness only by selling adds and data. It's no use for them to access their services through other means so they can't serve adds and not be able to data mine your clicks and other data. This is also the reason they closed Google Reader. People were using it but not from their page and that drop in traffic meant lost bussiness for them. Couple this with loosing interest in reading news with rss and you know the reason. Google will act just as ruthless as any company if you undermine their data mining and add serving processes

I had the same suspicions about this move. I also think google isn't as flush with cash as they claim and they are possibly bleeding money. Which is why they want to get more of your personal information as they can get so they could sell it to advertisers. Google Drive is that personal data they want. Don't accept it.

 

[Laura Knotek]

I ditched my Google account at the end of January 2013. Outlook works much better anyway, and I don't have to deal with deleted emails ending up in an "all mail" folder unless I tweak the settings. What I delete actually gets deleted.

My calendar syncs great using EAS.

I already solved the RSS feed issue, as I quit Google on my own, but I still get my feeds.

 

[fardream]

Not a google user anymore.... Since they kill reader.... I don't watch many YouTube either.

 

[jhoff80]

Well, it sounds like Microsoft will be whitelisted. Still, I think that it's ridiculous that Google shuts down EAS for the web-standards CalDAV as a sign of how open standards are amazing, and now they're blocking access to it.

Google, however, confirmed this will not impact the agreement with Microsoft and that the Softies will still be able to implement CalDav support on Windows Phone.

Microsoft in the clear to add Google CalDAV support to Windows Phone | ZDNet

 

[ag1986]

I had the same suspicions about this move. I also think google isn't as flush with cash as they claim and they are possibly bleeding money. Which is why they want to get more of your personal information as they can get so they could sell it to advertisers. Google Drive is that personal data they want. Don't accept it.

I'm tired of the FUD that is spewed around, especially when MSFT is the convicted monopolist in this game, and was fined again for it by the Europeans just recently. Whereas Google passed an FTC review with no violations. All that aside, is it really so hard to see that "selling" personal data is suicide for Google? What good would it do if they sold it? Providing appropriate target audiences via Adwords is what Google does, and in a way that keeps the users' data away from the advertisers. Anyone who spends 30 minutes reading about online advertising would realise that Bing Adcenter and Google Adwords have exactly the same functionality.

Oh, and re bleeding money: GOOG market cap is 269B and MSFT is 235.

 

[kishorekumar_a]

I'm tired of the FUD that is spewed around, especially when MSFT is the convicted monopolist in this game, and was fined again for it by the Europeans just recently. Whereas Google passed an FTC review with no violations. All that aside, is it really so hard to see that "selling" personal data is suicide for Google? What good would it do if they sold it? Providing appropriate target audiences via Adwords is what Google does, and in a way that keeps the users' data away from the advertisers. Anyone who spends 30 minutes reading about online advertising would realise that Bing Adcenter and Google Adwords have exactly the same functionality.

Oh, and re bleeding money: GOOG market cap is 269B and MSFT is 235.

Please stick to the topic. You have not even commented on the CalDAV spec support removal which is what we are talking about. Also I would like to hear the comments of a google supporter on this matter, so please, don't just leave. And read the original post fully before commenting. Humble request from OP. Thanks.

 

[Ordeith]

Something weird/different has been going on with Google lately. I've stopped giving out my Google Voice number and switched my primary voicemail to YouMail, in case they decide Google Voice is no longer profitable and shutter that as well

I don't think you have to worry about Google Voice. They transcode conversations and index the content. They have a record of who people talk to, what they talk about, and how often. It is information Google considers valuable for their profiling efforts.

And the government likes it too. Law Enforcement could infer a lot from just having a call log, with Google they get the whole conversation. No hiding from that.

 

[Chinocop]

I'm tired of the FUD that is spewed around, especially when MSFT is the convicted monopolist in this game, and was fined again for it by the Europeans just recently. Whereas Google passed an FTC review with no violations. All that aside, is it really so hard to see that "selling" personal data is suicide for Google? What good would it do if they sold it? Providing appropriate target audiences via Adwords is what Google does, and in a way that keeps the users' data away from the advertisers. Anyone who spends 30 minutes reading about online advertising would realise that Bing Adcenter and Google Adwords have exactly the same functionality.

Oh, and re bleeding money: GOOG market cap is 269B and MSFT is 235.

If you really believe Google is that saintly, please consider the fact that Eric Schmidt is an advisor to the Obama administration. In this age of crony capitalism, the FTC levying a verdict against Google is laughable.

 

[Ordeith]

Whereas Google passed an FTC review with no violations

But they sent their chairman to North Korea to influence that outcome, paid for Obama's inauguration parties (twice), and Lobbied more than any other tech company.
Obama also created a government position that didn't previously exist just so Eric Schmidt could fill it. You didn't think a government that has such a relationship with a company would actually punish it, did you? That laughable $7 million fine for wardriving is proof of that.

oh and there is this little quote:

?Some governments will consider it too risky to have thousands of anonymous,
untraceable, unverified citizens ? ?hidden people;? they?ll want to know who is
associated with each online account and will require verification at a state
level, in order to exert control over the virtual world.?
- Google Chairman Eric Schmidt

Oh, and re bleeding money: GOOG market cap is 269B and MSFT is 235.

Yet their quarterly profit is a fraction of Microsoft's and Apple's. If Google were valued based on their earnings statements their share price would be between $250 and $330. Their current market cap is inflated, the company is grossly overvalued right now.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Let's keep this thread on topic discussing Google and CalDAV, not US politics.

 

[Ordeith]

Let's keep this thread on topic discussing Google and CalDAV, not US politics.

Well if you want to understand Google's motives with regard to CalDAV you need to look at the bigger picture. Google doesn't make these decisions in a vacuum.

 

[Talldog]

F Google.

Well said.

After the way they screwed Lord knows how many of their own users with the EAS decision, dropping CalDAV shouldn't come as any surprise. These guys are about as subtle as a brick through your front window.

 

[dba415]

I ditched my Google account at the end of January 2013. Outlook works much better anyway, and I don't have to deal with deleted emails ending up in an "all mail" folder unless I tweak the settings. What I delete actually gets deleted.

My calendar syncs great using EAS.

I already solved the RSS feed issue, as I quit Google on my own, but I still get my feeds.

unfortunately for the few people who use Windows Phone and a Mac, switching to Outlook is not possible as Google Calendar is the only one which can sync to both Mac Mail/Calendar as well as Windows Phone mail/calendar.

I have no problems ditching Google but it's just not possible without lowering my own convenience.

 

[jhoff80]

After the way they screwed Lord knows how many of their own users with the EAS decision, dropping CalDAV shouldn't come as any surprise.

What's surprising is the timing. Literally a couple of months after telling everyone they were shutting down EAS to move to CalDAV, because CalDAV is more open, they're now closing off CalDAV to a small list of developers and moving to something that is proprietary.

If those two things had happened years apart, it wouldn't be all that extraordinary, but the fact they happened so soon after the other is just crazy.

 

[spaulagain]

unfortunately for the few people who use Windows Phone and a Mac, switching to Outlook is not possible as Google Calendar is the only one which can sync to both Mac Mail/Calendar as well as Windows Phone mail/calendar.

I have no problems ditching Google but it's just not possible without lowering my own convenience.

What are you talking about?

I have my outlook.com set up on my iPhone, work iPad, WP8, and my W8 machine. It syncs everything, email, contacts, and calendar on all devices.