Tonight, Google’s NYC office hosted the first of its Google New York Speaker Series.

The speaker was none other than Adam Bosworth, VP of Engineering, and former BEA and Microsoft VP. His topic for the night was "Physics, Speed, and Imprecision." Bosworth is an icon in the software engineering world, so it was a pleasure being able to learn from a man who’s been involved with the development of technologies such as XML and AJAX.

Tonight’s speech focused on the physics and psychology of software development. It sounds a bit cryptic, but Bosworth’s goal was to help explain how and why certain things do and don’t work in software development. Bosworth, a self-described ‘pontificating old fart, or POF’, used examples from the tech world, as well as his own past, to show how even well built software can be a failure.

He discussed the history of AJAX, how it failed, and how changes in technology and users’ needs allowed it to come back. Like AJAX, he talked about PDA technology, wireless browsing, and natural language processing, and how all three also failed in their initial forays, but after both physical and psychological changes, both have found practical uses in today’s computing world. Bosworth discussed how various factors prevented these technologies from initially succeeding. Factors such as poor internet bandwidth, low computer processing power, poorly designed UI, or simply incorrect results caused these technologies to fail. He used a good example to describe how users expect their software to work. If you had a pencil that didn’t write, or that wrote inconsistently, you’d get rid of it. Likewise, a keyboard that typed an incorrect key 1 out of every 20 keystrokes would be trashed. When users encounter software with similar failings, they also reject it. While AJAX and the other technologies were lucky that the environmental factors changed, most others haven’t, and won’t be so lucky. 

The message of the evening was simple. When developing software, it’s essential to ask yourself how often you expect your users to actually use the app, and more importantly, how long it takes the app to actually complete the task at hand. While they’re basic questions, they can save developers hours of wasted time and more importantly, help make a product that your customers want to use more.

All in all, I thought the event was a great kickoff to the speaker series. While the free food and drink, the free Google T-Shirt, and the great venue were nice, hearing valuable advice from an experienced techie like this was priceless. Stay tuned on Google Videos for complete footage of the event.