Microsoft or google services?

[jdandison]

I have a mac for dev purposes. I use office, OneDrive, etc. Obviously you'll get more OS integration with services like OneDrive with Windows (particularly 8+), but for syncing files OneDrive on mac has been fine. Apple Mail doesn't have support for Outlook.com (besides imap/pop), but it sucks anyway. Skype for Mac is ok, I don't use it much though.

Bing is fine for me, but I'm in the US. I hear its not nearly as good elsewhere, but Bing gets me most of the way. If I'm searching for something obscure and struggle with Bing, ill head over to google, but that's infrequent.

Windows laptops, provided you don't cheap out, are mostly ok. There are obviously outliers that suck even if you pay more for them, but Lenovo and HP make excellent devices (again, they both have some models that are garbage). MBPs have excellent build quality but still suffer some issues. My daily driver is an HP EliteBook, but I have some cheaper Asus laptops as well that are fine. A word of advice, uninstall the BS that comes preloaded, only use software you trust and your laptop will most likely be fine.

 

[RavenSword]

Is the google privacy thing really worth being concerned with though. There kinda too big if a company to get away with abusing that data if they wanted to. They'd get caught in a instant.

 

[jdandison]

Personally I've moved away from Google services, mostly just because Microsoft's services work better on their devices, which is what I prefer. I never really liked Gmail, I was never a power user with lots of labels and all that, and prefer Outlook.com and Exchange.

That said, some of the privacy issues are troubling, but I see it as a secondary priority for me. Microsoft is a software company, Google is an ad company with software, but that software's purpose is to further the ad business. Perhaps it's naive, but I trust Microsoft with my data more so than Google. Not using my email to serve ads or mining my stored data to serve ads is important, so it makes my choice of ecosystem easier for me.

 

[RavenSword]

Personally I've moved away from Google services, mostly just because Microsoft's services work better on their devices, which is what I prefer. I never really liked Gmail, I was never a power user with lots of labels and all that, and prefer Outlook.com and Exchange.

That said, some of the privacy issues are troubling, but I see it as a secondary priority for me. Microsoft is a software company, Google is an ad company with software, but that software's purpose is to further the ad business. Perhaps it's naive, but I trust Microsoft with my data more so than Google. Not using my email to serve ads or mining my stored data to serve ads is important, so it makes my choice of ecosystem easier for me.

Yeah, I can see that. But I wonder how big of a deal it is if the data is anonymous and it leads to better ads. I think I'd rather have relevant ads than just random ones that serve me no purpose. Of course JD rather have no ads to begin with, but it is what it is. And to be fair we can opt out of email ads in googles settings, as far as I know.

My particular situation is different though because, outside of a possible PC for gaming one day, I'm pretty invested in apple hardware, what with my iPhone, iPad, and apple TV. And I'd maybe like a macbook one day to go with them. And right now I do use a family PC, but I don't use it daily because, well, its not very fast and recent. And I do most my computing on my phone anyway.

And I know that this bored may or may not be the best to ask what's going to be better on apple hardware, ha ha. But I really just wanted to make sure that if I did want to use Microsoft services that I wouldn't be forced into buying a WP, Surface, or PC if I didn't want to. So I want stuff that's going to be platform agnostic mostly.

 

[Cleavitt76]

And I know that this bored may or may not be the best to ask what's going to be better on apple hardware, ha ha. But I really just wanted to make sure that if I did want to use Microsoft services that I wouldn't be forced into buying a WP, Surface, or PC if I didn't want to. So I want stuff that's going to be platform agnostic mostly.

From what I have experienced myself and from helping friends with their technology stuff, you will have a good integration experience with either MS or Google services on Apple products. Both integrate with Apple products as well as can be expected for services that are not first party and built in to the OS. If I were you though, I would go with MS over Google for a few reasons...

1) I agree with you that it's important that services be as platform agnostic as possible. Google and MS services are both fairly platform agnostic. However, in recent years MS is working to make their services as open as possible (so much so that many MS fans have been upset by it) while Google has been doing the opposite in many cases. For example, dropping support for third party integration with Google Voice, refusing to make apps for WP/Windows 8, dropping support for EAS protocols for Gmail, breaking (intentionally) Google Maps and Search for WP. If I were a user of Google services, those trends would worry me a bit.

2) It doesn't sound like you have any plans to own Google devices, but you do use a Windows PC at least sometimes. MS services are obviously going to work better and require less effort on Windows devices. Even if it's only that one device. If you are planning to get some Android devices then the scales might tip towards Google.

3) I get the impression that you are young and living at home (sorry if I misunderstood). In the business world, Windows and Office are pretty much the de facto standard and that isn't going to change any time soon for a number of reasons. I'm not sure what your plans are in the future, but there are a lot of careers that require knowledge and use of MS products. If you end up in one of those careers, MS services will integrate with MS products much better than Google services will. Knowledge of MS products/services is something that you can put on a resume. Google and Apple, not so much.

Best of luck.

 

[RavenSword]

From what I have experienced myself and from helping friends with their technology stuff, you will have a good integration experience with either MS or Google services on Apple products. Both integrate with Apple products as well as can be expected for services that are not first party and built in to the OS. If I were you though, I would go with MS over Google for a few reasons...

1) I agree with you that it's important that services be as platform agnostic as possible. Google and MS services are both fairly platform agnostic. However, in recent years MS is working to make their services as open as possible (so much so that many MS fans have been upset by it) while Google has been doing the opposite in many cases. For example, dropping support for third party integration with Google Voice, refusing to make apps for WP/Windows 8, dropping support for EAS protocols for Gmail, breaking (intentionally) Google Maps and Search for WP. If I were a user of Google services, those trends would worry me a bit.

2) It doesn't sound like you have any plans to own Google devices, but you do use a Windows PC at least sometimes. MS services are obviously going to work better and require less effort on Windows devices. Even if it's only that one device. If you are planning to get some Android devices then the scales might tip towards Google.

3) I get the impression that you are young and living at home (sorry if I misunderstood). In the business world, Windows and Office are pretty much the de facto standard and that isn't going to change any time soon for a number of reasons. I'm not sure what your plans are in the future, but there are a lot of careers that require knowledge and use of MS products. If you end up in one of those careers, MS services will integrate with MS products much better than Google services will. Knowledge of MS products/services is something that you can put on a resume. Google and Apple, not so much.

Best of luck.

Well, I do own a nexus 7. Its OK.

The thing I do like about google services is that while a lot of people do worry about google invading privacy and stuff, a lot of its pretty useful. When I had a android phone, I found google now pretty amazing. And I still find chrome, google search, and maybe even gmail to be the best in their area. Although I do like outlooks, well, look. Ha ha. But I don't know many people with one. Everyone I know uses gmail. And I do like google docs in some ways. Offering a office suite as a part of your storage solution, and doing so free of charge is rather cool. Of course some argue that your paying with your data, which is true. And now office has something similar with one drive.

The thing with Microsoft services is I do like their UIs more than googles. And I like how one drive actually organizing things in folders. And I do have 118gbs of it till March due to a bing rewards offer.

I also like how simple onenote is compared to every note. I honestly just want a app that does quick notes well. Evernote seems way to power user-ey for me.

Outlook, like I said, is very good looking UI wise. It's clean and simple. Gmail is ok in this regard, but it's slot more cluttered in comparison. But then again I don't know how often ill access the web versions of these, so UI doesn't matter to much I guess.

I guess I thought that, since Microsoft has a long, rather bitter rivalry with apple, that there services would be compromised in some way on apple hardware. But maybe I have my head stuck in the 80s and 90s.

 

[jdandison]

Microsoft's committed to their services being on as many platforms as possible, so I wouldn't worry about their services not being on Mac/Android/iOS. I think between web apps + client software, you'll see the Microsoft experience get parity on each platform. They can't survive on Windows licenses forever, they've recognized that and have started to adapt.

 

[smoledman]

For me there are a bunch of little thing that add up to big differences in the services.

Search - Google has flat out better and more relevant results and better local results. Also more "hero" results for things like restaurants, movie listings.

Maps - Google has multiple route selections, better POI database, ability to create waypoints.

Youtube - unique. The only game in town.

Mail - I like Gmail's labels-only approach. Exposing folders is 1st gen technology, the ability to multi-tag en email is the way to go. I know Outlook.com has tagging in the form "Categories" but still preserves folders which I don't like after years of getting used to Gmail's labels-only.

Calendar - I like that Google calendar has a "quick entry" that allows me to use natural language text to create a new item. Also the calendar is searchable which Outlook Calendar isn't.

Now consider that all of these experiences are best in native form which means Android.

 

[anon5997296]

Except for search and YouTube, I use all Microsoft services.



Sent by Cortana on my request from awesome red Lumia 920!

 

[WanderingTraveler]

I'm willing to concede that bar Microsoft's enterprise-focused offerings, Google trashes Microsoft.

But I use Microsoft services because they actually work with my phone.

 

[rohit111]

I use Microsoft services. All of them. And I use WordPress for blogging accounts.
I find Bing Search more useful for college students as it gives better results. Google will provide the same things again and again or Google reader or google books which are quite useless as we want research papers and excerpts. MS does better. Only Google service I use is YouTube.

 

[Sakitumi]

Microsoft has also online Office services which is far better than Google docs.

 

[smoledman]

Honestly I will use the "best of breed" of any service whether it be by Apple, Google, Microsoft or whoever. It just so happens that Google is hitting it out of the park on most of them right now. I tried using iCloud email and it's a joke.

 

[Paul Verizzo]

I remember when Windows 98 came out, everyone was so worried that MS was going to take over the world. My, how times change. Now I would hang that sobriquet on Google. I don't really have a problem with them reading my emails to make ad suggestions, that's just smart and non-intrusive. OTOH, if you read the service EULA's, you will find that Google owns anything you upload onto their servers. Yes, your life long project of translating Moby **** into Sanscrit that you uploaded to Drive is theirs to do with as they see fit. And your images. I'm sorry I can't link to proof, do know that I read an authoritative source on this matter.

(I have my own domain, so I have no concerns about gmail, hotmail, etc.)

"Do no evil," my arse.

I find the whole Hotmail/Live/Outlook.com/Skydrive/OneDrive (PLEASE PICK ONE NAME AND STICK WITH IT, MS!) pretty awesome once you get past that naming stuff. Besides a common look with my WP, having the ability to have Word, etc. online is all many people will ever need for those types of functions, even if crippled compared to the $400 big boy or even Office 365.

From OneDrive I can log into my mothership from my on the road netbook if I need to to geet files. I love the bold, easy to navigate look of Metro (ANOTHER naming convention gone, it was good,) especially as my eyes get older.

In the year of owning my WP, I've slowly grown to love the whole unified package. If I had an Android, I'd still use OneDrive for reasons mentioned.

 

[dark_raven132]

I mostly use Microsoft's services, like OneDrive, Office, Bing Search, etc. The only Google services I use are Gmail and YouTube.