We are living in a very interesting day and age. In the 21st century, every company around us seems to be striving for innovation all the time. Today’s marketplace demands for creativity and uniqueness. So what are some of the great companies that have innovated big? Google, the Internet behemoth, is an excellent example. As a matter of fact, 2009 seems to be an accelerating year for this search engine giant. Indeed, Google almost has its finger on everything. Its competition, such as Yahoo and Microsoft, has only been playing catch-up all this time. Let’s review some milestone events in 2009 where Google has excelled.
New Products/Features
Earlier this year, Google launched Google Voice. It’s a telecommunication service by Google, an upgrade from GrandCentral. The idea is to forward inbound calls to the Google Voice number to other phone numbers of the subscriber. Google Voice is currently hugely popular but it’s invite only.
In this year’s Google I/O back in May, Google announced Google Wave, a product that helps users communicate and collaborate on the web. This product is getting mixed reviews so far. At least for now, no major breakthroughs are found with this product. But personally, I think Wave deserves more credit because I believe more useful featured will be discovered as developers invest more time to develop this product.
In late October, iLike and LaLa music services were integrated into Google to stream song directly from search. In early December, Google announced real search. The real-time search enables its users to discover breaking news the moment it’s happening. The most recent Google hot topic indicates that Google will have its own phone, which has the most controversial facial recognition feature, triggered by Google Goggle. The story will get more interesting in 2010.
Acquisitions
Back in April of this year, Google was attempting to buy Twitter for $250M, but the offer didn’t come through. The most recent news has it that Google will spend half a billion or more on Yelp. Although the Yelp deal hasn’t been confirmed, but it was indicated as highly likely according to TechCrunch. During the time in between, Google has acquired the following companies in order: Omnisio, Tatter & Co, TNC, On2 Technologies, reCAPTCHA, Gizmo5, AdMob, Teracent, and AppJet.
So who is likely to be the next acquisition target for Google? Yesterday, when I was listening to TWiG (This Week in Google), somebody predicted that bit.ly is likely to be acquired by Google. I am about 50/50 on this one because Google just rolled out its own URL Shortner service. From my perspective, it just doesn’t make a lot of sense for Google to buy another URL shortner company. But we shall see as 2010 unfolds.
Issues
There is no doubt that Google has been expanding faster than usual this year. This trend is accelerating and seemingly unstoppable. What if Google empire has everything we need to the extent that we couldn’t live without Google? Are we concerned about our own data and privacy? Is it a good thing for us if Google has too much control on everything? These are some questions to leave you with. Now, let’s end this post by reviewing an interview clip about Google’s future with Melissa Mayer, the Vice President of Search Product and User Experience at Google.
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