Dear Google… 2016 wish list!


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Dear Google

If it is not already apparent to you, I live and breathe your tools. I own a beautiful Google Nexus 6P phone, whose battery life continues to amaze me. I use GMail, Inbox, Drive, Calendar, Keep, Google+, YouTube, Photos, Maps, you name them, and I use them. It is moot to point out that I use Google search, because, how else does one live anymore? I marvel at all the things you have done and you continue to do, manage to give so much of it away for free, yet manage to make boat loads of money. But, please, can you take care of a few very simple, but very important things first?

Marry the consumer and Google Apps for Education

I totally get it as to why you continue to keep two different versions, but, it is so inconvenient for those of us (which turns out to be a lot of people) who keep both versions for one of many reasons. The divergence in the features has grown over time and it is killing me. For example, I love the Inbox feature of Reminders as well as how I can schedule a follow up for an email etc. and whereas it is great that I have it on my personal email, you see, it is most useful in my work email! Add to that the beautiful ways in which you automatically post certain events from the emails to my calendar as well as my travel itineraries.

It would also be nice to be able to specify which calendars should receive these automatic postings, not just your default calendar.

Contacts

I simply cannot believe that you still do not support the use of my contact groups on the mobile phones. Do you have any idea how inconvenient this is? Sometimes, unconsciously I search for some of the most often used groups on my phone only to see matches that are not what I am looking for. And a couple of times I have ended up sending the emails to the wrong emails. I know that this is a user error, but, you know exactly what I am talking about, because this is a constant feature request from hundreds of people. In the same vein, the contact groups are NOT available in Inbox. What’s up with that?

Maps and Waze

I know that you took over waze, which is a brilliant move. I know that you have integrated the realtime traffic information into Google Maps, but, please, tell me how I can input the realtime traffic information right in Google Maps, so I can retire one of my all time favorite app, waze? I believe in contributing to such social apps so that all users collectively benefit. Yup, I only report when traffic is slow, so I am not driving fast while typing.

Security

From the technology angle, I get it that Single Sign On and Two factor authentication do not play well. However, I would like to think that the great minds at Google can find a way to make this work, no? Why not introduce the second step after the SSAML exchange step between the SSO provider is complete? This will hugely reduce the phishing nightmare we face.

I have a few minor additions, but if you can take care of these for us in 2016, I, along with literally thousands of others, will be immensely thankful.

 

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