With the release of Google's first phone, the Nexus One, today, and Google's recent purchase of mobile advertising paltform AdMob, a clearer picture of Google's ultimate plan begins to emerge.
Google has always been about the content. Google favors software over hardware. Google prefers users to be in the cloud versus stand alone applications. Google doesn't have to own the content consumers want, as long as it controls access to it.
Food for thought:
- Google controls 85% of the U.S. search engine market
- Google's AdWords and AdSense programs are the industry leader in online-advertising. Google has purchased other online advertising platforms, including Doubleclick.
- Google recently purchased AdMob, a leader in the brand new world of mobile-device advertising
- Google may soon be purchasing Trulia, a leader in real estate searches and listings
- Google's Android operating system was released on several new mobile phones recently, providing users with better integration into the plethora of Google apps and services.
- Google just released its first phone, the Nexus One. The phone is unlocked and can be purchased online.
- Google has a great online apps package. Many have questioned the viability of Microsoft's Office suite in the coming years, when a free and online alternative is available from Google.
It seems as thought Google is attempting to be everything to everyone. Or, put differently, Google wants to ensure that whatever you do, from online searching, communicating, business, emailing, shopping and buying a new home, you use Google.
And why wouldn't you? It's free! You can do nearly everything you need on a day to day basis using a Google product. And, besides the Nexus One phone, their products are free.
How does Google provide these services for free? By being the king of online and mobile advertising.
As mobile devices become smaller and integrate more and more functions, it is only a matter of time until your next mobile device attains a semi-permanent place on...or in... your body. It is unclear if it will be a wristwatch type device offering all of the smartphone features available today with a 3D holographic display, or an ear-bud type device with wrap around, Heads Up Display (HUD), but the one thing you can be sure of is that in the next decade, the big leap forward will be a mobile communications and computing device (MCCD) that takes up residence on your person. And yes, I mean even more so than the "joined at the hips" Blackberry addicts. Maybe they will call it a PED (Personal Everything Device). Maybe MED is better (Mobile Everything Device)
Since Google now has its own cell phone, when the time comes to transition to an attached MCCD, you better believe Google will be one of the first to offer such a device.
From making a phone call, to watching an episode of The Office on your subway ride home from your office, to browsing the web, to buying your spouse a birthday gift and searching for a new home, you can do it all through Google, and it will not just be at your fingertips, but on your body and in your face all day long.
In just a few short years, Google has gone from simply a search engine, to positioning itself as the #1 market that advertisers simply must get into if they want to have a chance of selling their products and services.
Now we at BionicMe.com aren't taking this so far as some who claim the future will include brain implants that will allow us to communicate, opening the door for abuse by governments and marketing agencies (although it's possible), but if the past 20 years of cell phone and computer evolution can teach us anything, it's that devices are getting smaller, more powerful, are on our bodies all day and are tracking our every move, purchase and status.
And if 10 years of search engine evolution teaches us anything it's that the tendancy is toward one company will rule the roost as others fight over marginal market share. That one company which will offer nearly every service under the sun is Google. Conspiracy theorists have long known that the holy grail of marketing is knowing who wants what, why they want it and, most importantly, when they will want it. Google is halfway there by tracking internet usage and sifting through the results to serve up targeted ads. Now, if they could just get at ALL of our activity, and find a way to serve up ads to us all day long, whether we're in front of a computer or near a cell phone....The future is here, people!
Don't believe us? Ask yourself one question: Do you Bing it, or do you Google it?
What we want to know is: is Google going to use this new-found clout for good, in accordance with their mantra "Do no harm"? Will Google usher in a new era of productivity and communications, or is this another sign that Google's sticky web will become ever-tighter as we get stuck in an infinite loop of data collection and advertising messages?
Great article!
Actually I don't think you focused enough on the possibility of brain implants being used to monitoring our thoughts and activities... maybe you tried staying impartial, but it's a very real threat!
Google is going to own the world! And you know, the thing is, unlike Microsoft, most of Google's stuff is free, and they aren't forcing anyone to use it... so there won't be any anti-trust issues like Microsoft had. That's the difference in Microsoft and Google. Microsoft evolved at a time when individually packaged software units were the norm. Microsoft didn't adjust when the market shifted towards online delivery and they aren't shifting quick enough to cloud computing.
It's Mike!
A couple years ago, didn't Google make an agreement with the government to share information on what people were searching for on the internet?
Imagine if we let Google into our lives even more!
Saw this on a craigslist post.. gotta agree with what the OP is saying... even if you don't believe in conspiracies, the sheer amount of information Google is tracking and storing is shocking!
And if they ever do come up with a cell phone that's permanently on your body then they'll have even more access to what you do and say.
I think of Google as a sort of necessary evil. It's pretty hard to do stuff online without using Google in some fashion.
I don't like the way their new phone looks versus the iPhone--it's not as sleek.
People call me crazy for being a conspiracy theorist, but they just don't realize how real it is getting out there.
Look back 100 years, we had just started flying airplanes and had just started telecommunications with the telegraph and telephone. That was basically it. No computers at all.
Now they have supercomputers and nanoprobes and 3D displays, holographic displays, projector screens on a cell phone (LG cell phone)... do you really think I am crazy for imagining 100 years from now when we will all have personal implants allowing us to access information?
It doesn't even have to be for a deep dark secret reason! It could be just another way to communicate and go about our day to day lives. The fact is, such technology is coming.
Yes, such technology is coming and who would have ever thought a little search engine named Google would ever come to control so much information and advertising? It's unreal.
An implanted or embedded communication device wouldn't be such a bad thing! Think of how awesome it would be to simply have to think something and it happens!
I don't think your prediction is too far off actually. One day they will make implants to allow us to communicate and access databases of information. Hopefully they would be external and not internal... I would not let them put something like that inside of my brain.
OH come on, it's not Google's fault! If Google wasn't combining tracking and mobile devices with advertising, some other company would. And no one is forcing you to use Google's products!
Sure no one is forcing us to use Google's products, but as the article states, Google has so many products and services that it's getting harder and harder to NOT use Google in some way each day. Google started out as a search engine only, and they do so much more these days. They are gaining momentum and will be one of the world's biggest companies in the next decade.
Interesting theory. google does have a lot of power and money. You know the old saying "knowledge is power"? well, nowadays it's "information is power" and even though no one "owns" the internet, google pretty much is the way everybody get their information. What a great business to be in.
I enjoyed reading this post on my laptop running Chrome. Oh, hold on a second, I'm getting a call on my Droid!
lol @ tofly!
Exactly... Google pretty much owns the world. Do you think China is going to back down and let Google run searches without censorship?
Actually, there is a possibility that they might abuse their knowledge and power. It is just common for greedy people to do that. Since they are trying to venture to uncharted territory then I could say that they are greedy.
I want to become a bionic man with super strength and other bionic powers.
I wouldn't necessarily say Google is greedy.. as much as I would say the world expects so much from them, from investors, to internet users, to advertisers and technology consumers, that Google has to continually innovate and expand their products and services offerings.
Google is a slave to its own success.
That Google is all for best of services and innovation is undeniable. Google has allowed sharing which Microsofts does not have in its lexicon. Microsofts is the pioneer, but its day will be numbered if it fails to accommodate and share with its users.
Google as rightly been pointed out in the article concentrates on the content part of advertising and is doing a commendable job over the years. They have a meaning when they say they give preference to software.
Thanks.
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