> I've found sound to be critical in software usability
Very little is worse than web pages that use sound. It's no accident that most sites don't use sound, your tastes are just way outside the mainstream on this.
> Interjecting them in the design process too soon and giving their opinion overriding power is a mistake.
The success of Google clearly shows it's not a mistake, numbers don't lie, but designers are full of bullshit they can't justify.
Desktop apps are used by more people on a more regular basis than any web app to date. Web apps are getting there, but there not there yet. Sound, when used appropriately, is a very critical component to user experience and more importantly, usability — hence why most operating systems use sound feedback. Apple's new Nano uses sound to extend its usability tremendously, and other examples are endless. (By no means do I assume sound should be forced, always a user-defined option).
Agree or Disagree: Twitter clients are an example of sound feedback hooking users attention (among other things), where the web was failing to do so.
Success of Google and 'design sensibilities' is not really an argument worth correlating; there are companies like Apple that master both engineering and design... tremendously successful. Furthermore, one could argue that Google Calendar is a near exact rip off of iCal, no credit to Google except putting it on the cloud and syncing it with their own software suite. I think influence is great, but goog engineers are not necessarily to credit for design and usability in this and other products.
You're moving the goal post. No one's talking about desktop apps, you said web apps. Web apps are a different space and sound is just not appropriate there, and it likely won't ever be.
There are many cases that justify when to use and when not use sound on the web...
I would say it's the goal of most web-app builders to mimic desktop apps b/c the result is a familiar environment for the end user. Software/UI design is an established practice, with many studied and proven methodologies for handling complex user interaction that has been unfamiliar to the web in former years.
That said, I believe it's inevitable that web-apps will mirror their desktop counter-parts in time (many are doing so already)... the exception being, highly-specialized web apps.
Very little is worse than web pages that use sound. It's no accident that most sites don't use sound, your tastes are just way outside the mainstream on this.
> Interjecting them in the design process too soon and giving their opinion overriding power is a mistake.
The success of Google clearly shows it's not a mistake, numbers don't lie, but designers are full of bullshit they can't justify.