Doug's Mailbag: Ribbon Rage Reignited, Google's Got an Eye on You

The release of the new version of Office brings us a batch of your Ribbon-hating e-mails:

If the 2007/2010 Office Ribbon was better than the 2003 interface, great. It is, however, not better. It adds no functionality that would have better served Office customers by simply adding it to the well-established, clearly user-understood 2003 interface.
-Dave

I recently installed Office 2010 on a customer's computer and tried to export a .pst file in Outlook.  It took me 10 minutes to figure out where it was located in that ribbon configuration, which only takes 10 seconds in 2007. I don't understand the logic in moving everything around and making it hard for long time users of Office applications to find functions they've used for years.
-Anonymous

Doug wrote about two different Google security issues at the beginning of the week. Here's what you have to say:

I figure that my cell phone is traceable. I can deal with that. But Google knowing anything else about my Web surfing, passwords, etc. is unacceptable. There is no reason for any company out there (or the government) to know more than I want them to know. Then again, I never let Google, Firefox or Explorer remember anything for me. Why some people want the world to know everything about them is really shortsighted and asking for trouble and identity theft.
-Anonymous

This is exactly why I would not use Google's Chrome -- either the browser, their OS or an Android phone. I wrote you back when the Chrome browser came out that it was nice and fast but that I did not trust Google as to what Chrome might be doing in the background. Now I think we can guess.

I don't know if IE is just as bad but I'll stick with it for now.
 -Jim

You hear these fears concerning the Android system, but I would be concerned about my privacy if I had any "smart" phone -- including the iPhone. Just because programs have to pass the Apple approval doesn't mean that they review all of the code by hand -- that would be impossible. This means there may well already be programs available on the other smart devices that have nefarious blocks of code just waiting to gobble your unsuspecting bits. I find it funny that someone may have already paid $3.99 for a program that may have a worm in it (pun intended).

I don't have the Incredible, but do have an Android phone. I love it. My best one-word description is -- smooth. It just works, is seamlessly integrated and even has me questioning why I bought a Garmin. I do worry about my privacy on the Droid. Not only does it know an awful lot about me and my family (through Facebook), but it also knows where I am and where I go. Google collects a tremendous amount of information about me that I'm not sure I want anyone to have collected, but in getting the capabilities of the phone, I have put myself in this situation.

As for the Incredible issue, I believe this problem is specifically with the Sense UI from HTC, not with the base Android system and UI. I don't have that phone, but believe that Astro would make short work of the files (I use it to trim my current files).
-Joe

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Posted by Doug Barney on June 25, 2010