Here’s the icon: Chat Simply icon for Fluid.

I was employee #20 at the first start-up and the first engineering lead. Over the course of two years, the team and the company exploded to close to 200 employees. This is when I discovered that growing rapidly teaches you one thing well: how communication continually finds new and interesting ways to break down. The core issue being the folks who’ve been around longer who also tend to have more responsibility. As far as they’re concerned, the ways they organically communicated before will remain as efficient and simple each time the group doubles in size.

They don’t. A growing group needs to continually invest in new ways to figure out what it is collectively thinking so anyone anywhere can answer the question: “What the hell is going on?”

That was Michael Lopp in “The Rands Test“. Communication is some non-trivial percentage of the success of any operation. When your job involves communicating on a day-to-day basis with multiple separate clients each with internal teams and expectations, it’s easy for things to get out of hand. We get along right now with Basecamp, Campfire, Skype, Gmail, bug trackers, version control, and face-to-face conversations, but it’s hardly a perfect solution. Each engagement brings its own challenges. Processes need to evolve continually. Managing the design and development of a brochure-ware site is a almost almost indistinguishable from that of a large web-based application—which itself is different in degree if not kind to designing and developing an iOS application and working as part of a larger team. Point being: invest in process and communication if you care at all about the quality of your product.

Your children have never known a world dominated by communication via digitally presented text. Sure, people still read and write, but communicating with your peers by text is now considered archaic. Video calling another individual is de rigueur; group video chats are equally common. People dive in and out of group video conversations with ease. Three-dimensional presentation of these conversations is not uncommon, though maybe still a luxury in the developing world.

Here I am, pining for the forceful, eloquent prose of the typographic age, and Alex already has us projected into a post-digital world of ubiquitous video. Sadly, I believe his vision is substantially correct. To me, this bespeaks a frightfully dystopian world.

I started messing around with the app more as an experiment than anything else, until it occurred to me that I might have in front of me a real solution for free, unlimited text messaging. Sure, apps allegedly providing that already exist, but they’re buggy, poorly designed, and don’t provide a dedicated number like Google Voice.

After a few weeks of testing the app, I’m close to pushing all-in and canceling my AT&T text plan. I may even start the unpleasant process of updating my friends and family on the new number. Consider this, then, my official pros and cons list for anyone considering running Google Voice as their primary number on an iPhone.

Why not?

Okay, to be fair, there are many reasons why Google Voice is something to fear rather than embrace. If we’re going to do it, we should at least take an objective look at the potential consequences. I see two major categories of Google Voice + iPhone issues. The first are fears about what may happen; the second issues with the current setup. Let’s take each in turn.

Fears.

Is Google going to force me (or people who call me) to listen to ads? This may be my biggest concern, so I don’t want to dismiss it lightly. ReadWriteWeb reported on this possibility a year-and-a-half ago. Given that it hasn’t happened yet, I’m inclined to believe it won’t. Still, you have to wonder how Google plans to make money from this service. It can’t be cheap to buy up all those numbers, handle the infrastructure, etc. It’s not out of the question that they keep running it at a loss, but that doesn’t sound sustainable to me. If Google begins injecting ads, I’m out. Immediately. I’d rather pay than be, at best, inconvenienced or, at worst, utterly creeped out.

Which conveniently brings us to, Will Google be listening in? Not according to their privacy policy. Still, it has to be stored / cached / archived somewhere. With great accessibility come great … privacy concerns? I really don’t know. What I do know is AT&T or any other cell phone network could just as easily store your conversations, so unless you’re ready to give up modern conveniences, you might as well get used to absolute privacy being a fleeting notion.

Or, Will Google start charging for the Google Voice features? If it was any other company, I’d say chances are yes. As an ad-based company, however, Google has shown nearly complete unwillingness to charge for their products. They give away entire operating systems on that principle. Aside from Google Apps for your domain, I can’t think of single instance of Google charging for a product. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but my prediction is targeted text ads in the Google Voice interface is ultimately what we’ll see. I’m not looking forward to it, but it could be a lot worse.

So will I ever have to deal with an outage, like Gmail had? Yes. Google Voice has been down several times. I know, none of us wants to be stranded without phone service or unable to make an important business call. It’s a real problem. One that will prevent people from taking Google Voice seriously until its resolved. Still, at this point, you have your fallback number to make calls — at least until Google VoiPce is unveiled.

What about Apple? Will they kick Google Voice out of the store or prevent new features? Until just a few weeks ago, this was not only a fear but an actuality. Thankfully, Apple has backed off their hostile position. After using Google Voice for a few weeks, though, I can understand their initial reasoning. I’ll get more into that when I discuss issues with Google’s implementation, but suffice it to say having Google Voice on the iPhone is both a usability headache and competitive concern. My gut feeling, though, is that Apple won’t try to stuff the horses back into the bag or herd the cats back into the barn. What’s done is done. Google Voice on the iPhone is here to stay. My bigger concern is that if Android begins to “win,” Google will allow the iPhone app to stagnate. If that is realistically the worst case scenario, I can live with it.

If all else fails, Google offers the ability to port your number away from Google Voice for no charge. You can always run sheepishly back into a traditional carrier’s welcoming arms.

Implementation Concerns.

A combination of Apple policies and Google user interface and programming errors make running Google Voice on the iPhone less than perfect. To be clear, the Google Voice app is far from bad, but you know with greater leniency on Apple’s part or more attention and taste on Google’s part, it could be something amazing.¹ That said, here’s where the Google Voice app doesn’t quite stack up:

Two places for everything. Somebody sent you a text message? A missed phone call? A voicemail? You’ll need to hit both the Google Voice app and the native Phone and Messages apps to be sure you have all your bases covered. From what I hear, Google Voice can hook into the native Android calling and texting applications. I can’t see Apple ever taking that tack. If you want to avoid doubling up, you’ll need to convert to Google Voice full-time, which means …

Worse everything. Running Google Voice exclusively is like living in a tiny Android bubble in an iPhone world. Text messages can take multiple taps to be marked as read, the app launches slowly and occasionally will hang or crash completely, and, as a rule, things are just less pretty, responsive, and well thought out. Again, it’s not bad, it’s just … less good.

Yep, you’re still using minutes from AT&T. If you thought you could get away with some kind of data + wi-fi only VoIP experience, we’re not there yet. Google Voice uses your cell phone provider’s minutes. It’s not so much a bug as it is a missing feature. As far as I know, you still need a voice plan from AT&T just to get data, so there are problems with that approach on both ends of the spectrum.

The voice menu dark ages. Call screening is a nice feature, but activating it with a voice menu is a frustrating step backwards. First, when you receive a call, you either you get a real number (but don’t know they’re calling your Google Voice number) or you get your Google Voice number (and don’t know who’s calling). Next, when you answer the call, you need to hit 1 to accept the call or another arbitrary number to initiate one of the remaining features. You know what would be nice? Programmable software buttons.

Outgoing calls appear in normal Phone app as strange numbers. If you’re not ready to commit to a monogamous Google Voice relationship, using the Phone app is going to leave you squinting at various Google intermediate numbers used to connect you to your eventual destination when you make calls through Google Voice. It’s an annoyance that you can either live with or switch to Google Voice completely. For my part, I might just be ready to go Google 24/7, which seems like as good a reason as any to embark on a tour of Google Voice’s advantages today and potential advantages over the next few years.

I’m ready. Tell me why I should love Google Voice.

Okay, I mentioned the unlimited free texting, right? Give your Google Voice number to your friends, and cancel that ridiculous $20 per month AT&T text plan. I expect this notion of separate charges for text, voice, and data eventually to be forgotten like a bad dream, but we’re still living it right now. Until AT&T and Co. wake up, grab a Google Voice number and enjoy a few extra apps per month or whatever it is you want to do with your newly-found discretionary income.

Enhanced call control. With Google Voice, you get a virtual secretary to filter your calls, asking each unknown caller his or her name, ability to enforce Do Not Disturb hours, and handful of ways to be notified of missed calls and voicemails. For me, these features are useful, but I’m more excited about what might be as the technology matures than I am about the current crop. The only one useful to me today is call screening for unknown numbers.

Text or call from anywhere. Wrap Google Voice in a Fluid app, and, voilà, you are now texting via a dedicated desktop client. As someone who enjoyed connecting his AIM handle to his cell phone number, I can tell you that typing a message on a computer keyboard and having it land in someone’s SMS inbox is not only magical, it’s, uh, a whole lot easier.

Potential Advantages.

The big wins today are free texting, the ability to interact with your Google Voice number and history anywhere via the browser, and a smattering of additional call filters. For me, those are enough to warrant re-structuring my phone usage to make Google Voice primary. If you’re still on the fence though, watch for these features. I can’t promise they are coming, but I wouldn’t be surprised.

• VoIP. Right now, Google Voice is no phone, no calls. Competing with Skype by allowing calls using the Internet rather than the cell tower seems a given someday. With Google Talk already in the fold, it’s presumably a business question and not a technology one.² Update: Lex reminds me you can already make Google Voice calls without using minutes, just not through the Google Voice site. You’ll need to install this plug-in and use Gmail.
• Useful call and voicemail transcripts. Advertised as a feature, transcripts are more of a joke. Getting every third word correct is a recipe for disaster. If the technology can improve, though, I see a lot of utility in archived transcriptions.
• The coup de grâce for me would be the ability to add multiple Google Voice lines per account, thereby enabling separate personal and business lines.

The iPhone and Google Voice. A Reasonably Happy Marriage.

All is not connubial bliss between Google Voice and the iPhone. There are hiccups. Application oddities, service failures, unfulfilled desires, and latent fears. Yet with a native application capable of push notifications, Google Voice is a real alternative to AT&T’s onerous texting fees. It’s a powerful tool; one which has the potential to finally crack the gouging cell phone oligopoly. For that, and a few extra bucks in my pocket each month, I’m willing to take a chance on Google Voice.³

1. This pretty much defines the Apple v. Google dynamic. It’s tempting to imagine Google’s fully-featured, cloud-first mentality with Apple’s design chops. I’m not sure we’ll ever get that exquisite combination, but both appear to be making in-roads into the other’s territory.
2. Though, one wonders, if Apple might not play games again with the approval process. One never knows.
3. Just know that I’m fickle and could switch back to an all-Apple experience just as quickly.

If building a better comment system was the goal, iterating on the progress made by dedicated comment sites like Hacker News, Slashdot, Digg, Reddit, et al seems a much savvier plan than blowing it up and starting over. While we stop short of praising comment threading, voting, and flagging as panaceas, it does seem undeniable that Twitter solves none of those issues, introducing instead a host of its own.

By replacing comments with tweets, Happy Cog twice undermines its audience, first by contributing to the general Internet noise pollution (as well as the specific article comment thread noise) and second by trivializing the resulting discussion. Artificial brevity is a flaw not a feature. It makes substantive conversation if not impossible at least heavily discouraged. Ex-communicating the indefinite length, local comment as the fundamental unit of a larger intellectual discussion is inimical to Internet culture and, most importantly, learning — which we presume is a core value of any blog post.

But perhaps we’re unfair. We tremble at the thought of standing in the way of progress and stick-in-the-mud traditionalism is hardly our philosophy. Maybe the goal was to simply make it easier for people to leave feedback on the article. In that case, Cognition has succeeded wildly. It is a bold move (though perhaps a bit shy of “brilliant” as many commenters tweeters gush)  worthy of applause. If upsetting the rotting apple cart of blog commenting is one outcome, it won’t all have been for naught.

Our metaphorical fingers are crossed that Happy Cog instituted this system not as part of a grand PR scheme but in the sincere belief that it offered at least the chance of a better model by holding commenters accountable and elevating responding blogs to first-class comment citizens. If that is the case, we humbly suggest supplementing Twitter and blogs with good, old-fashioned comments à la Disqus because, on some level, a well-considered comment system is irreducibly complex. It requires a spectrum of in situ response lengths to adequately simulate real conversation.¹ By striving for “simple” we fear Happy Cog has strayed into “simplistic.” Unless changes are made, commenting on a Cognition post is an exercise in futility, home only to well-meaning pats-on-the-back and vapid gestures.

Let us be clear: we have no objection to decentralizing, extending, or otherwise improving the conversation. We do, however, oppose its infantilization.

In Zeldman we trust.

1. And, if beggars were choosers, things like voting, threading, burying, author highlighting, comment email or RSS subscriptions, etc. There is much room for improvement.

But you know what? There’s a lot of really valuable data locked in there. OAuth to the rescue:

You may or may not be excited by the acronyms OAuth and IMAP/SMTP, but the combination of them all together is very exciting news. Google Code Labs announced this afternoon that it has just enabled 3rd party developers to securely access the contents of your email without ever asking you for your password. If you’re logged in to Gmail, you can give those apps permission with as little as one click.

Prediction: all major email providers will eventually support OAuth and serious Gmail competitors will have it within the year.

Later in the year, we will also be creating a Hardboiled interactive iPad version of the book complete with built in demos and video tutorials. This ability to publish in innovative new formats and to work with a small, focussed team on creating something that no one has done played a huge part in deciding to publish with Five Simple Steps.¹

If Andy does succeed in publishing his new book as an iPad app with demos and video tutorials, that will truly herald the future of books. Physical, typeset books have their place, but if you’re publishing something electronically, there ought to be a big, flashing sign demanding you use every advantage the medium affords. To do otherwise is no different than playing a radio broadcast on television or scanning a newspaper and calling it a website.²

1. Emphasis added.
2. I know I’m ignoring many reasons someone would intentionally choose to limit an electronic book to just words. I am suggesting only that the trend will be toward something we currently think of as an application but will ultimately be understood simply as a book published electronically.

Having proclaimed just 6 months before that we’d not participate in the swelling recession, we were severely challenged to either demonstrate our conviction or see it crumble in the face of concerns. Truly, for any not yet convinced, the next few months proved to us that uncompromising standards have a very literal monetary cost. Instead of gathering a host of new projects, we were compelled to decline most of them. Just when the waning season required that we gather a bounty in preparation for the distractions of the holidays, our scruples demanded that we turn down much of the largesse offered us. It was a bitter pill to swallow, yet we held fast and looked to our belief that we could craft our own destiny.

You tell ‘em, Andy. Full disclosure, discipline, and resolution are under-valued traits. Thanks for not sacrificing when the road got bumpy. Your example is invaluable to us. We (Full Stop Interactive) could not be more happy for you.

Unit Interactive 2009 Annual Report.

do you do PHP/MySQL development for DB driven dynamic websites?

Ignoring the industry tech gobbledygook for a moment…what ever happened to simple manners? No “hello.” No proper introduction. No foreplay or sweet talk. He just cut right to the chase. And to make matters worse, the leading “D” isn’t even capitalized. C’mon now.

You would never cold-call someone without at least identifying yourself and exchanging pleasantries. Why is email any different?