Its about Accessibility, stupid

I suspect you've seen Steve Yegg's rant about Google, its been all over the web, and the usual take has been Google Doesn't Get It Nyah Nyah Nyah.  Which is partly true, but only partly.  Me, I basically got the following

1. Accessibility is King.  Accessibility is Key.  Accessibility is Job One.  All Hail Accessibility.
2. Accessibility & Security can occasionally be in opposition. If thats the case, figure out what you really want to do, and then give Security appropriate amounts of The Boot. Not accessibility.
3. If you want to be a platform, you better be Services based.  Really.  Extensively.  If you're not, someone else who is will eat your lunch for you

Frankly, I quite agree with the above, and the Accessibility bit in particular.  Its no surprise that Accessibility, Design, and Human Interface Engineering are the bedrock behind most everything that one of the most successful tech companies of the past few years (yes, Apple).  

In fact, the current trend in companies is to take this further, and make Design an integral and strategic component of tech companies.  

     While it’s really always been strategic, it’s only recently that the perception has caught up with the reality (consider Apple, IDEO, Target, Design Within Reach & Coca Cola). This new breed is whole-minded, leveraging the right brain to create experiences and the left to analyze the experiential data in order to iterate and improve.     This breed of founder is focused on weaving their new sensibilities into the strategic fabric of the startup, forging the path to the customer through user metrics, customer metrics, product flows, and conversion funnels. Last, but not least, they are sociable. They seek to understand user behavior and empathize with users, rather than constantly defending their creative output.

I couldn't state it better.  Ask yourself about your current (and next!) project - "Is this (design, service, project, app) intuitive and easy to use?  Can it be explained to others? Can it be improved upon?".  Trust me, it will not be time wasted...