I agree that Google is an extreme example, that’s hard for many software designers to replicate. However, for *entrepreneurs* looking for new opportunities, it’s a great model to strive for. If you can pull it off, it’s the closest thing to magic there is.

My current favorite “practical” example is Time Machine in Leopard. Getting it running was pretty much (a) plug in a USB drive, and (b) answer “yes” to the dialog box question asking “use this drive as your Time Machine backup”.

However, I think the Google Search example is a bit misleading. Few software products have the luxury of being able to have such a simple interface to a very powerful underlying technology. Sure, Google does a lot of work based on a simple search query — but some of the advanced features have a much steeper learning curve. There are few Command Line Interfaces that have a great value to visible-features ratio.

It would interesting to try and think of other software examples where the value of the product for its users far exceeds the “visible features”.

By the way, I liked that you labeled your need “simple power” (and not just simple). I think too many product developers focus a lot on simplicity — to the *detriment* of the users because the product lacks sufficient richness and power. It’s easy to create power. It’s harder to create simplicity. It’s much, much harder to create “simple power”.