Watson bids Sherlock farewell
Watson bids Sherlock farewell:
When Apple took the wraps off Jaguar in 2001, one of the features that garnered the most amount of criticism was the new and improved Sherlock, which Steve toted as "Internet services for the rest of us." Sherlock 3 incorporated mini browsers into OS X, which brought commonly-used, customizable information to a user’s fingertips:
Sherlock is dramatically better than standard Web browsers at retrieving and displaying some of the most practical and useful information available on the Internet, like stock news, general headlines, movie previews, locations and show times, yellow pages listings, eBay auction activity and much, much more. Sherlock displays each of these 'channels' in its own arrangement of columns and panes.
The only problem was, it already existed.
Of course, arguments can be made for both sides, and a case can certainly be made for a logical evolution of Sherlock, but the fact remains that Watson and Sherlock 3 accomplish the same tasks with similar interfaces. Over the last three years, Watson and Sherlock have coexisted in the same space — like Google and Yahoo, or Vienna Fingers and Oreo Uh-Ohs!, users were left to choose between brand recognition, color, taste, size, shape and speed.
And as of next Tuesday, it'll be all gone. Watson support will be dropped (and it looks like its buyer, Sun, won't be releasing its own port anytime soon). Its tools will be left to fester and whither while Sherlock quietly rests on the top of the heap.
It seems that Apple has won and can now focus on its upcoming fight with the Konfabulator crew. Perhaps things could’ve been different if Apple had approached Watson’s creator Dan Wood and offered him some compensation — or a job.
For many of you, Oct. 5 will come and go without a second glance. Sherlock will still be there when you’re looking for a bite to eat or are in the mood for a late-night movie. For the rest of us, who have seen the dust accumulate on Sherlock since it stopped searching our hard drive, the decline and demise of Watson will be a fond memory that will always hold place in our computing history, marking one of the few who refused to back down in the face of a corporate shadow, and showed third-party developers everywhere that just because someone else can do it, doesn't mean they can do it better.
On behalf of Watson users everywhere, Mr. Wood, we await your next creation.
