Google Apps vs Lotus Notes

As a platform for customized workflow automation, Google Apps is still far from where Lotus Notes was,way back 20 years ago, even with it's then-still immature v3.

Yet, now Google Apps is just starting to rapidly gain some of the magic of that early Lotus Notes

-- and it is exciting now, to watch the fast progress of Google Apps

-- with the new GUI Builder, the expanding Google Apps Script and all the APIs, and with it's cross-platform access to online centralized data

(all parts of the early Lotus Notes).

Here is what is missing still, from Google Apps as it approaches the worthy path well-trod by Lotus Notes...

• • customizable "document forms" to easily specify unstructured data models, with data-fields and automation for data-flow -- and for easy user-creation of numerous data "documents", as the basic collection of data-entities;

  • an unstructured back-end "object store", able to automatically persist any number of unplanned and unstructured data-entities, each holding unstructured data-items -- with no "nuts and bolts" programming needed,  and all relying solely on "labels" to indicate all data attributes (Note: Google's "Big Table" seems primed to easily handle this same unstructured data-base approach, with expected improvements in performance -- see: goo.gl/J4C5q );

  • a easy and powerful "view" mechanism, to show easily-customized and flexible tables of common data from across multiple collections of specified "data entities", with drill-down and sorting capabilities all built-in -- all with no "nuts and bolts" programming needed. 

In case you are curious now, about Lotus Notes

-- here's a great introduction...

http://www.nsftools.com/misc/WhatIsNotes.htm

So, it's easy to expect, that Google Apps will rapidly progress, to include and provide all the above "missing" elements -- by 2013, maybe, if Google aims for that -- and then Google Apps will have the wings needed, to fly with rapid development of high-quality customized workflow automation applications!

Go Google!