Tuesday, November 04, 2008
The Google Revolution
So the Google revolution continues!!! Google who paired up with T-mobile has come out with a new phone called the G1. This android-powered phones (Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications.) are set to compete with the iPhone, Nokia Symbian, Windows Mobile, and all the rest -- and the way I see it, it'll be in much the same way Google itself competed with AltaVista, Yahoo Search, and so on: quietly, but decisively.
When Google was still just a thought from a couple of guys in garage experiment, the very concept of guys in a garage creating a hit Web site was still hugely surreal.The infrastructure for doing such things was nothing like what we have now. Plus, there seemed to be no end of search systems, with little overriding reason to quit using them. But once people started trying Google, it quickly became clear that the Google way of doing things was just plain better. Keep the start page simple and easy; give people a good spread of relevant search results, quick on the first page; and so on. Before Google, many people may have used a search engine called Dogpile. After Google, everything else just seems redundant.
In the lifetime that is lived now, everything is accessed at a touch of a button or the press of a certain"keyword. When before, someone would have to go to an expert if they wanted knowledge of certain topics. In the year 2008, Google's secrecy about everything causes every small action to reverberate more than a press release, and causes Bill Gates and Microsoft to hold "secret" meetings they've entitled "The Google Challenge."By Google offering up for free what industry leaders have been squeezing consumer information about, the suppliers have every right to be nervous.
Business Week's Ben Elgin and Arik Hesseldahl have outlined a line-up of major players that Google appears to be a threat against. The list is a roster of companies about to have their own major issues if they don't play their cards right; this roster includes Microsoft, Verizon, Motorola, and eBay."In years past, Microsoft Corp. could freeze competitors and send investors scurrying just by uttering the name of a market it fancied. Today, Google Inc. is the 800-pound octopus that is filling potential rivals with dread and envy."
Everything anyone can possiblty ask for Google, seems to provide.Google offers email, instant messaging, telephony service, maps, Google Desktop, and soon, maybe horoscopes and chat services, as it makes its way to portal status. As Yahoo! strikes deals with Verizon and SBC to provide high-speed Internet service, Google is investing in Current Communications Group that offers broadband over power lines, sponsoring WiFi hotspots in the west coast, and quietly buying up "dark," or unused fiber-optic cable.
According to Sun Microsystem's Om Malik-"To some extent, Google is bringing back the architecture of the mainframe to render Microsoft obsolete. In the future, all computing devices, whether it be the PC, mobile phone, TV, etc., will simply be terminals that "plug-in" to Google's massive server grid and application services."
