Linkage

This week is Google Conspiracy week, fueled in part by some suggestive Power Point notes and this recent announcement. In the spirit of keeping up with the times, and lacking the brainpower to devote time to something more useful, I’ll be posting my own theories on where Google is (or should be) going.

 

There are several directions that the Web 2.0 trends and Google’s aggressive and cunning business practices could take the future interweb:

 

1) App integration: also known as “mashup”, but in Google’s face tends to be more thought out and useful, like the recent integration between Gtalk and Gmail. There is talk that suggests Google is simply waiting until it has acquired and developed enough publishing and content managing tools (most of which are now in Beta) and will then suddenly reveal “The Master Online App” Basically you log in to one account and use virtually one online program that lets you publish to your blog, create web pages online, write emails, chat, and send pictures from the same interface.

 

2) Index everything: the other buzz is related to Google Desktop, that allows for online indexing of local files. Combine this with Writely docs, html pages created in Google Pages, the Google and Blogspot pages themselves, Blog Search, the still developing Google Video, continually new types of searches…yeah, things get out of hand quite quickly just trying to comprehend the sheer variety of data that Google servers keep track of. The ultimate fear is that Google becomes the online version of Big Brother, watching and manipulating every trickle of information millions (eventually billions) of unwitting users feed into it and take out of it.

 

3) Online Storage: This is related to the first theory, and refers to the buzz concerning some disappeared Power Point notes hinting at a possible “GDrive” that would make the nearly 3 gig storage offered in Gmail seem paltry. Oh, and all of the existing storage sites like OmniDrive, Box.net, and 30Gigs would just have to go belly up or figure out some other way to compete with the new storage giant.

 

4) Spray and Pray: I didn’t come up with this idea. To boil it down: Google has no idea what their long term plan is, they’re just throwing out new products and ideas, hoping that something will stick and be the “aha!” they need to replace the companies preponderance as an ad-broker. Google certainly has the billions to do just that, coming up with a new profit model or revolutionary tech is not an immediate concern.

 

5) My theory: Google has a plan, and it all goes back to search. Why reinvent the wheel when you have already discovered nuclear fission? Google’s search algorithm continues to be challenged without success. The formula developed by Larry and Sergey in the ’90s is still being actively developed, far more than the average user suspects. All of Google’s most promoted new services are still directly search related: News, Froogle, Video. Google also continues to develop the user experience of its main search by providing supplemental tools like definitions (just type define:word to try it out), calculations, headlines, music, and image snapshots. With Writely in tow, I think that Google’s bigger plan isn’t combining all of its various products and services, but of combining all of its search through the Personal Search mechanism. Google is just testing the waters with GD3’s indexing abilities. Their master plan is to let every user search everything that they personally control (emails, chats, documents) as easily as everything is currently searched for on “the grid” (blogs, forums, pics, sites, public documents). Google is close to having a vertical search engine for nearly every need. The final solution is having a comprehensive search personalized search engine that can swiftly search across all of these areas to determine not just “X,Y,Z is relevant” but “X is relevant, Y is more relevant to this user for this type of query, Z won’t be helpful in this case, but will be stored as a future recommendation based on data ABC this user has on file). The core product still has room to expand and grow, and if Google is the company that I think they are, their direction as a company will come back to what they are best at. Let Apple sell media and Microsoft bundle software, Google will still own search.

 

 

Tomorrow I’ll post a follow-up post on what I think Google should immediately do to improve Writely (which just happens to be my favorite online app right after meebo).

 

Technorati Tags : theory, google, writely

Playing around with Gmail’s new “Chat” menu and meebo’s Jabber/Gtalk client, I discovered something interesting (well, to some Gmail user’s at least).In three short steps you can turn Meebo into an instant notepad for Gmail:

Step 1: Change a single setting, Gmail>Settings>Chat (don’t forget to save changes)

Step 2: Sign onto meebo.com with your Gmail address and password (don’t forget the @gmail.com part)

Step 3: Add “myaddress@gmail.com” to your Gtalk buddy list and send a message to yourself or another Gmail account you control

(Don’t worry, even though meebo may say that you appear offline, your message has been sent and this is confirmed by the automatic self reply)

Unlike other forms of direct sending, the way that Gmail now interacts with Gtalk guarantees that your message will be sent almost instantaneously. You can easily add more lines to the conversation and these will be stored in the same message, until you log out. This is a great way to synthesize the storage/organization power of Gmail with the convenience of instant messaging and meebo.

Still don’t have Gmail? Need more space and less spam? Email me at the example address with “Gmail invite request” in the header.

Gmail just released a great new feature!…a delete buttonQuestion 1: why is it taking the Gmail team so long to roll out new features? Most people are not going to notice or care that Gmail adds one new tiny feature that was already available through Greasemonkey. This isn’t even a feature really, it’s simply a change in layout. Web Clips was a new feature, but one that most users had to wait months for while it was being tweaked. And Gmail Mobile, well that was useful, but like the delete button there already were third-party solutions.

Question 2: when is Gmail going to leave beta? Instead of focusing on these “new” features wouldn’t it make more sense for Google to clear up the down-time issues that so many users have complained of? Why not work harder on translation and interoperability so that Gmail can finally leave its extended stay in beta? They’ve had time to test and millions of people have used it and given reams of feedback (at least a half-dozen google-groups dedicated to Gmail). It needs to be brushed up and shown off with a nice link from the Google homepage.

Question 3: when is a pro version coming? Yahoo has one, MSN has one, why not Google? The bigger issue for Google is not competition but ad-revenue. With the rise of Firefox being avidly supported by Google, it would make sense that Eric Schmidt begin thinking about the eventual day when browsers using CustomizeGoogle start having an effect on ad-revenue. So far, the only solution has been to insert adds into the Web Clips bar atop the inbox. Considering that most anyone can figure out Gmail’s instructions to remove said bar, this is really no solution at all. Either Gmail will have to break the Firefox extension(s) and risk losing a huge bastion of support, or the team will have to come up with some other way of generating revenue from those users.

Question 4: since reopening the webmail market, can Gmail survive the competition? Of course millions (myself included) will remain loyal Googlers, but I can’t speak for everyone. When I look at services like Yahoo’s new mail beta , Inbox.com , and Webmail.us , I seriously wonder what the future market share of Gmail will be. While it definetely had an advantage over initial competition, more businesses are understanding and adapting Google’s model to their own needs.

Anyone think that they know the answers to these questions? Am I way off base? Comment here and let me know what you think.

PS: thanks for another bookmark, this one from del.icio.us user zooper