Summary: Microsoft and Google might be
archrivals in business, but you don't have to get caught in the
crossfire. Google is making excellent progress in its quest to add
Windows 8 (Metro) support to Chrome. And Microsoft's flagship Windows 8
apps connect well with Gmail and other Google services. Here's how to
get everything to work together.
Microsoft and Google might be archrivals on the business front, but
they share a lot of customers. That means both companies have to grit
their teeth and ensure that there’s at least some level of cooperation
between the products that those shared customers use.
Google matters an enormous number of Microsoft windows customers among its set up base for the Firefox online browser and for solutions like Google email and Google Applications. It can’t afford to neglect Microsoft windows 8.
Likewise, Microsoft would love to win those Firefox and Google email customers over to Internet Traveler, Office 365, and Perspective.com, but it has to accept the reality that many of those customers have gone Google and aren’t returning. So for Microsoft windows 8, Microsoft has to ensure that Google solutions work well out of the box.
It’s a traditional example of co-opetition.
Over the past few days, I’ve been looking at the state of that relationship. Here is a explanation of what Google customers can anticipate from Microsoft windows 8.
Gallery: Google and Microsoft windows 8, working together
Let's begin with Google Firefox for City.
I know, I know. Officially, it's now Microsoft windows 8 method, not City.
Likewise, Microsoft would love to win those Firefox and Google email customers over to Internet Traveler, Office 365, and Perspective.com, but it has to accept the reality that many of those customers have gone Google and aren’t returning. So for Microsoft windows 8, Microsoft has to ensure that Google solutions work well out of the box.
It’s a traditional example of co-opetition.
Over the past few days, I’ve been looking at the state of that relationship. Here is a explanation of what Google customers can anticipate from Microsoft windows 8.
Gallery: Google and Microsoft windows 8, working together
Let's begin with Google Firefox for City.
I know, I know. Officially, it's now Microsoft windows 8 method, not City.
Microsoft has cleared the City name from most of its designer certification, but it lives on in the formal guide for online browser designers (including Google and Mozilla) who are developing Metro-style allowed pc internet explorer. These are curious compounds that will run both on the conventional pc and as Microsoft windows 8 full-screen apps. Here is a small or two from that certification, last modified Aug 16, 2012:
In Microsoft windows 8, the world wide web browser that the user sets as the standard for handling web pages and associated methods may be designed to access both the City design encounter as well as the conventional pc encounter. This type of online browser is called a City design allowed pc online browser.
Chrome 21, the present shipping edition of Google’s online browser, already facilitates City method. With this edition, establishing Firefox as the standard online browser changes its Start display symbol to the Microsoft windows 8 design. Simply clicking that symbol requires you to the Metro-style browser; to change to the pc online browser, you have to go to the pc and click the Firefox symbol there.
But Firefox edition 23 (currently available via the Dev channel) changes this behavior significantly. Setting Firefox as the standard online browser changes its floor to City design. New options on the Firefox selection let you change returning and forth between City and pc variations, reopening all present an eye in the other atmosphere. The Start display floor recalls your option, so clicking it requires you to the surroundings you were last using.
I was able to install additions in the City edition of Firefox 21, but they lived in a separate user profile from the pc edition. By contrast, additions I set up in either edition of Firefox 23 (Metro or desktop) revealed up when changing online browser ways. That’s a popular differentiator between Google’s City online browser and Microsoft’s plugin-free Internet Traveler 10 for City.
Changing the standard online browser to Firefox was more complicated than it should be. See the collection for details of how this process works.
A lot of individuals use Google solutions for their e-mail, schedule, connections, texting, and more.
If you are a Google email devoted, you will be pleased to know that three of the four local Microsoft windows 8 devices apps have local assistance for your Google consideration, using Return Active Sync to tie things together.
You only need hook up your Google consideration once to include your e-mail with the built-in Microsoft windows 8 Email app. At the same time, you can hook up your Google schedule and connections to the Microsoft windows 8 Calendar and People apps.
The missing piece of the challenge, you might have noticed, is the Microsoft windows 8 Messaging app, which doesn’t assistance Google’s Chat features (it’s compatible with Microsoft windows Courier and Facebook messaging).
So why bother? I mean, most Google email customers are accustomed to opening Firefox and checking their mail, so why use a local app? In the case of the Microsoft windows 8 apps, there are two very good reasons:
After linking your Google consideration to Microsoft windows 8, new messages and future schedule events show up in the live flooring on the Start display. (You can get there with a tap of the Microsoft windows key.) That allows you to both check for new mail and see your schedule without having to start an app or a web page.
In addition, you can use the designed in Share appeal to send content from the Metro-style Firefox online browser (or any Microsoft windows 8 app) to Email, with no duplicating and sticking or perspective changing required. There’s a key pad quick way to create it easier: Microsoft windows key + H.
Because the Google Account connection uses Return Active Sync, any changes you create in the web-based user interface are shown instantly in the Microsoft windows 8 apps. I added a contact in Google email using Firefox and viewed as it showed up almost instantly in the People app. In the same way, an consultation I joined in the Microsoft windows 8 Calendar was shown in the Google Calendar on the web within seconds.
As for other Google solutions, assistance is hit or miss. If you use Google Audience for RSS for, for example, you can take your option of several Microsoft windows 8 apps that allow you to download and synchronize your RSS for. (I use Supply Audience, a $2.99 app that has been very effective.)
On the other hand, you will not find any Google+ apps in the Microsoft windows Store yet. That should not be surprising, considering that Google has yet to start up the API for its online community. Eventually, one can anticipate several clients—maybe even one from Google itself.
