When you release sub-par products, you look sub-par yourself. Customers don’t care what platform it’s on, and don’t care what politics are going on behind the scenes at the company. If you release shit, you look like shit. It’s much better to release nothing at all.

THIS, right there, is wisdom anyone creating any product, software, hardware, widgets, cookies, cars, or anything else for that matter, should heed.

Google doesn't get this. That's why, to me, Google's just a steaming pile of elephant shit. They have no style. They have no taste. They have no concept of user experience. And they have no quality assurance program.

I’d say where by “anti-competitive” he means “competitive”. But I must say, I didn’t see this coming, and it’s a very clever solution to the mobile patent corner Google had painted itself into.

As is often the case, John Gruber nails the situation with just a few words that the Fandroids miss (or ignore outright).

"Don't be evil," my ass.

With around 60% of users identifying themselves as web developers or software engineers, that paints a fairly stereotypical picture of Google+’s userbase: nerdy guys who have deep understandings of technology and who don’t mind killing some time setting up Circles of friends.

It’s true that the early adopters of any new technology are usually male. But Google+ will have to appeal to a mainstream audience if it’s to reach mass adoption anytime soon. Consider the gender breakdown for Google+’s biggest competitor, Facebook. The social network is close to a 50-50 split between men and women. And some of Facebook’s most addicted, most enthusiastic users are women.

By nerds, for nerds.

It seems it's apparent that Apple's playing a wait and see.

A few issues that need attention (that Google fanbois and Apple haters seem to ignore):

1. Quality. I've read that the quality of VP8's video isn't as good as H.264.
2. Patents. Google claims they have done their due diligence, but that's no guarantee. Indemnification could address this.
3. Performance. If decoding VP8 bleeds your battery dry, that may be enough for Android users since they're used to that (Android's multitasking), however, it would ruin the user experience.