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Google's Next Steps 355

Posted by timothy from the hey-cool-site dept.
danimlp writes "An article at SearchEngineWatch states that Google and Yahoo have become as almost parts of the operating system, a 'layer' above Linux, Windows or Mac OS. Another article at Kottke.org says that Google is building a a huge computer with a custom operating system that everyone on earth can have an account on. Some people predicts that, after Gmail, Google could start a new instant message service or even its own electronic currency."
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Google's Next Steps More

Google's Next Steps

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  • Oh, the neins! (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    *dons tin foil hat*

  • gBucks? (Score:5, Funny)

    by lavaface ( 685630 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @07:46PM (#8833726) Homepage
    If google prints money maybe I can be a googillianaire.

  • GooOS (Score:4, Interesting)

    by supraxnet ( 567080 ) * on Sunday April 11, 2004 @07:46PM (#8833728) Homepage
    Convincing people like my wife to trust Google will be a challenge. But if Google can build that trust, then people might have faith to move their data to a Google Desktop -- and that might make Microsoft's presumed desktop power much weaker.

    The only "Google Desktop" I would consider using would be one that ran on X. And at this point windowmaker does me just fine. If google could make a window manager that was truly effective and integrated directly with their upcoming gmail/web storage, then maybe Microsoft would have to start worrying.

    • Re:GooOS (Score:4, Informative)

      by KrispyKringle ( 672903 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @08:04PM (#8833897)
      Considering that the Google Toolbar only works on IE, Google doesn't actually come across as THAT Linux-friendly (as a client; obviously, they use Linux industrially-speaking).

      • Re:GooOS (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Cassius105 ( 623098 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @08:22PM (#8833996)
        well

        tbh making google toolbar for web browsers other than IE might be a bit redundant since most of the other browsers are actualy good and already incorporate most of the stuff that the good toolbar has to offer

        its only useful on IE because IE lacks so much functionality

      • Re:GooOS (Score:4, Informative)

        by maxbang ( 598632 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @08:38PM (#8834085) Journal

        I used to love the toolbar, but that was before I 1) discovered Mozilla, and 2) switched to Linux. Mozilla already has a built-in search Google functionality in the address bar. Firefox has a separate box just for searches on Google. On Opera for a search on Google, I just type in 'g' and my search terms and it will automatically send a query to Google for me. I don't have a Mac, so I don't know about Safari. I think Konqueror and Galeon have similar functionality. All three browsers have built-in pop-up blocking technology and good autoform support. Those are the only three things I have ever used the Google toolbar for, and all three are only lacking in IE. I don't think the toolbar fixes any security holes in IE. Point is, anyone still on Windows needs to switch to something different as soon as they can. Along with built-in google toolbar functionality, they'll get a much superior web experience.

      • Re:GooOS (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Obyron ( 615547 )
        I love that in Firefox I've got address bar searching powered by google. Like a lot of old hats from the CLI days, a mouse is mostly an impediment to me, and keyboard shortcuts occupy the majority of my interaction with my OS. All I have to do in Firefox is hit "alt+d" and then type in "google" followed by a space and one or more keywords and it takes me straight to a results page.

        Toolbar shmoolbar. :)

      • Re:GooOS (Score:4, Informative)

        by vegetasaiyajin ( 701824 ) on Monday April 12, 2004 @02:17AM (#8835857)
        Nothing beats konqueror support for google and other things.

        To search, yo simply put gg: plus the search terms on the location bar.
        To search on google images, yo put ggi:
        You can make your own for whatever site you like.

        • Re:GooOS (Score:3, Informative)

          by an_mo ( 175299 )
          I can search/feel lucky google with mozilla without putting the gg

        • Re:GooOS (Score:3, Informative)

          by It'sYerMam ( 762418 )
          Firefox beats this.

          You can customize bookmarks to be "quick searches." Basically, you assign a keyword to the bookmark, and typing that keyword takes you to the site.
          Then, you stick %s in the URL where the search query goes, and what you put after the keyword is used as the query.
          This means you can quick-search anything - dictionary.com, thesaurus... you name it, if it uses CGI, it can be done.

  • Imagine... (Score:4, Funny)

    by FrYGuY101 ( 770432 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @07:46PM (#8833729) Journal
    Imagine a beowulf cluster of... Oh, wait...

  • Well, yeah... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by pseudochaotic ( 548897 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @07:47PM (#8833732)
    Well, from where they are now, Google could do pretty much anything and people would use it. They could easily be as pervasive as AOL or even Microsoft is to most people.

  • GooOS? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Moocowsia ( 589092 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @07:48PM (#8833742)
    Hwo do you pronounce that? Like Goose?

  • portal fever (Score:5, Insightful)

    by contrasutra ( 640313 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @07:49PM (#8833758) Journal
    Don't try to do everything Google, you can't win (well, no one else has).

    Google has stayed away from Portal Fever so far, and hasn't gotten too cluttered, but they run that risk the bigger they get. There are plenty of companies that do very well in "niche" markets. Basically ALL users will always need a search engine (even more as the web grows), you don't NEED to offer everything.

    Just stay as objective and useful as possible, and people will stay. Honestly I think they should be focusing on cleaning up search results. There is an increasing amount of spam and while it's not their fault, who wouldn't want cleaner, more accurate results?

    • Re:portal fever (Score:4, Interesting)

      by LordK3nn3th ( 715352 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @08:06PM (#8833914)
      Microsoft has come pretty damn close, in some ways.

      We have Office, the OSes, some hardware (mice, controllers, keyboards...), among many other things. With this news about the "GooOS", perhaps Google will try to overtake them?

    • Re:portal fever (Score:5, Interesting)

      by criquet ( 120814 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @08:26PM (#8834032) Homepage Journal
      I agree that Google shouldn't try to do everything but I think IM is a great idea (call it Joggle?). Google can supply their search results via IM. I love ActiveBuddy.com services. I love using my IM client, gaim, for posting to my blog. I'd like it to be the interface to many other services too. I think google would be the ideal company to host it.

    • Re:portal fever (Score:5, Insightful)

      by iabervon ( 1971 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @08:47PM (#8834132) Homepage Journal
      I don't think the Google is going to try the portal thing. After all, they're no less aware than we are that nobody else has made that work. In fact, they just made their search pages simpler.

      On the other hand, that doesn't mean they can't have other features. I think they're likely to keep adding special things you can "search" for, like UPS packages and "(the speed of light / (440 nm)) in THz", since these don't make the interface any more complicated.

      They also already have other pages available, like news.google.com (which indexes news sites in the form of a news site). As long as they keep the reputation of the brand good, and keep the search site focused and the results good, it doesn't matter how much they branch out. They seem to have the right attitude towards advertizers: provide ads primarily to people who are actually searching for products, not to people who are looking for content. They can probably extend their offerings as competently and respectfully of their audience. And they might as well; they've already got the best search engine team out there, and they've got money to expand, so new things they try will use new employee effort, and not detract from the search engine.

  • Root of Ballamers recent comments (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MrIrwin ( 761231 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @07:49PM (#8833759) Journal
    Once upon a time Netscape looked like taking over the desktop, with ideas about incorporating improved file browsing and making it the universal front end.

    Thats why MS put som much effort into Explorer..Internet Explorer.

    Ballamer recently bemoaned the MS lack of precense in the search engine and portal space.

    Do I detect a deja vu!

  • Let me be the first to say... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by NSash ( 711724 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @07:50PM (#8833762) Journal
    Are these people crazy?

    Speculation: in the next few months, Google will abolish world hunger and buy everyone a pony. Google is search engine, not the second coming of Christ.

  • More? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by cubicledrone ( 681598 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @07:50PM (#8833764)
    a huge computer with a custom operating system that everyone on earth can have an account on.

    Some people predicts that, after Gmail, Google could start a new instant message service

    or even its own electronic currency.

    Gee, I don't know. I thought they had a good search engine.

  • Wow, Google IM! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by JoeBaldwin ( 727345 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @07:50PM (#8833766) Homepage Journal
    Please please please make this Google! Especially if:
    • You release the protocol as open, or at least make a Linux client (with all the features of the Windows one)
    • You manage to get my friends off MSN, the shittiest messenger service ever owned by a shitty company with a shitty record on doing things non-shittily.
    • It interfaces with Gmail (all the benefits of MSN/Hotmail, none of the drawbacks! w00t!)
    • Three/four words: Home Star Runner Alerts. Imagine: "You have a new Strongbad Email! Click here to view!"
    /me prays for this to actually happen

  • Google: the Apple of the internet (Score:5, Insightful)

    by capz loc ( 752940 ) <capzloc@gma[ ]com ['il.' in gap]> on Sunday April 11, 2004 @07:51PM (#8833774)
    Google seems to be very analagous to Apple's development in many ways: 1. Start offering one revolutionary (not neccecarily original) service or product (Apple: cheap computers, Google: search) 2. Become a household name 3. Slowly add more services/products that are somewhat related to the core product (Apple: iMovie, et al, Google: GIS, Gmail, et al) 4. Take over the world (forthcoming) Microsoft has also arguably followed this track, but has actually made it to the last step. My hypothesis is that once you reach step 4, people start hating you.
    • R&D candidates: sharks with lasers, giant death-ray on Moon, secret nuclear-powered carribean island laboratory...?

      Sorry. Something about

      So. They have this huge map of the Web and are aware of how people move around in the virtual space it represents. They have the perfect place to store this map (one of the world's largest computers that's all but incapable of crashing). And they are clever at reading this map. Google knows what people write about, what they search for, what they shop for, they kno

  • Narrow (Score:5, Funny)

    by CGP314 ( 672613 ) <CGP@ColinGregor y P a lmer.net> on Sunday April 11, 2004 @07:51PM (#8833778) Homepage
    In case the server goes down, I can show you what the article looks like:

    AD AD AD AD text AD AD AD AD
    AD AD AD AD text AD AD AD AD
    AD AD AD AD text AD AD AD AD
    AD AD AD AD text AD AD AD AD
    AD AD AD AD text AD AD AD AD
    AD AD AD AD text AD AD AD AD
    AD AD AD AD text AD AD AD AD
    AD AD AD AD text text AD AD AD
    AD AD AD AD text text AD AD AD
    AD AD AD AD text text AD AD AD



    -Colin [colingregorypalmer.net]

  • This just IN! (Score:5, Funny)

    by phita23 ( 667236 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @07:52PM (#8833781)
    This just in: "Google to define a new universal standard of internet measurement, called a G-Unit."

    • Re:This just IN! (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 11, 2004 @09:26PM (#8834402)
      In other news, Google has started up a new, popular hangout in many states. Called the G-Spot, it appears to be immensly popular with women, yet many men seem to have trouble finding it, even with directions.

  • Hmm (Score:5, Funny)

    by ghettoboy22 ( 723339 ) * <scott.a.johnson@gmail.com> on Sunday April 11, 2004 @07:52PM (#8833782) Homepage
    From http://www.kottke.org/04/04/google-operating-syste m [kottke.org] "So. They have this huge map of the Web and are aware of how people move around in the virtual space it represents. They have the perfect place to store this map (one of the world's largest computers that's all but incapable of crashing)."

    SkyNet? Is that you?

  • Google + open protocols = awesome. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by newdamage ( 753043 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @07:52PM (#8833783) Homepage Journal
    Google mail would be nice, especially if it had quality POP3/IMAP access that only cost $5-10/month. But that's nothing terribly special, there are some good services out there that already do that. Now if they made Google chat available, and based made it a Jabber based service and just put the Google name it on, that'd be awesome. It'd have the name recognition to get popular, and programs like gaim wouldn't have to constantly fight for access like they do with the AIM, Yahoo, and MSN protocols.

  • Yahoo what? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @07:53PM (#8833784)
    how prominent Google and Yahoo have become as almost parts of the operating system

    Ok, so Google is a really good search engine (although you should also look at Vivissimo [vivissimo.com], it's quite excellent too) and I use it all the time, and everybody I know uses it all the time, and my dog would become depressed if he didn't use it regularly too. But Yahoo?

    I don't remember the last time I used Yahoo. Or rather, I know I have an Egroups^H^H^H^H^H^HYahoo Groups account that I've given up on using since Yahoo decided to dump a million metric ton worth of advertisement on me in each page, and I think I went to yahoo.com to check it out with a glazed eye when I read somewhere that it stopped using the Google search engine not so long ago, like it mattered to anybody since I fail to remember anybody I ever met who uses Yahoo for anything whatsoever.

    • Re:Yahoo what? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by System.out.println() ( 755533 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @08:46PM (#8834124) Journal
      I second that, although you'll probably get an unfair sample here as the Yahoo! and Slashdot communities don't have a lot of overlap. Personally, my "over-the-operating-system site" of choice is Spymac [spymac.com]... it's dethroned Slashdot as my homepage, a feat unto itself, and it's leeching its way into the rest of my computing life as well: I used it to host MP3's I wanted some friends to identify for my iTunes library; it's hosting some pictures from iPhoto; and Spymac Backup is going to back up all my important stuff to it, whenever they iron out the bugs.

  • Long term plan (Score:5, Funny)

    by product byproduct ( 628318 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @07:53PM (#8833788)
    Today Google is an operating system layer.
    Tomorrow they're a utility, like gas and electricity.
    Next week they're a small government.
    Next month they take over the world.
    Maybe also the galaxy.
    • You forget when the become a religion.
    • Today Google is an operating system layer.

      Why not, it's a matter of semantic really

      Tomorrow they're a utility, like gas and electricity.

      They already are. Do you recall a day without using Google on the net recently?

      Next week they're a small government.

      They may not be a small government, but their page ranking system can certainly decide which companies gets better exposure on the web. That's an awful lot of economic power in a sense.

      Next month they take over the world.
      Maybe also the galaxy.

    • Re:Long term plan (Score:5, Insightful)

      by mpcooke3 ( 306161 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @08:01PM (#8833861) Homepage
      Unless a better search engine comes along, in which case we ditch google and forget about them in the space of about 3 hours.

      Matt.

  • Google + Sun = Amazing (Score:3, Interesting)

    by joelparker ( 586428 ) <joel@school.net> on Sunday April 11, 2004 @07:54PM (#8833796) Homepage
    Imagine the amazing teamup of Google and Sun:

    Google search, email, and file storage

    Sun Java Linux desktops for home users

    Sun Ray thin X clients for corporations

    Sun enterprise servers running it all

    How superb this could be...
    and what would Microsoft do?

    Cheers, Joel

  • The Sky's the Limit (Score:5, Interesting)

    by william_lorenz ( 703263 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @07:55PM (#8833801) Homepage
    Google now has all sorts of information on hand. They have the Google search engine to index web pages, various offshoots to index news, images, and similar, Orkut to index people, and Gmail to index peoples' communications. With all this information at their fingertips, the sky is the limit (and it is good to know they seem responsible in the way they use their information, separating advertisements from search results, for example). I know that Google has some exceptionally brilliant researchers on staff, and I expect to see even more excellent services from their camp in the future. Does anyone else think that Google is on the cutting edge of Computer Science research?
  • "The young lion [google] shall overcome the old [microsoft]/On the field of battle in single combat; [desktop]/In a cage of gold [computer] he shall pierce his eyes: [gates' breaks his glasses]/Two knells one, then to die, a cruel death [bankruptcy]"

  • What they need ar auctions (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Unregistered ( 584479 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @07:59PM (#8833832)
    Ebay is full of scammers and the feedback system is horribly broken since scammers can pad their own feedback, but if you leave them negative, they will leave you negative feedback as well as revenge. Somebody needs to come up with a better system and google has the ability to actually make a better system popular.

    just the $.02 of someone sick of browsing pages of scams to find a dvd.

  • Privacy monster (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jabbadabbadoo ( 599681 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @08:00PM (#8833839)
    Google is becoming a potential privacy monster; if you concider GMail and cross indexing with the terabytes of data they've gonna get theire hands on... You see, it includes never-to-be-deleted mail archives, all newsgroup postings since the 80's, mailing list archives, blogs, *cached* snapshots of personal web pages... the list goes on.

  • Google e-currency? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by JoeBaldwin ( 727345 )
    One word:

    BEENZ.

    It would follow the same model as Beenz's:

    1) Launch currency
    2) ?
    3) Crash and burn like a plane made of pentane coated magnesium bricks!!!

  • I'm waiting for Google goggles... (Score:5, Funny)

    by SmackCrackandPot ( 641205 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @08:03PM (#8833875)
    I'd like a pair of virtual stereo glasses that could project a screen in front of my eyes, and which would activate keyword searches using silent pre-vocal muscle movements. Then google would be an integral part of my being.
  • Google and Yahoo have become as almost parts of the operating system, a "layer" as John Battelle puts it, above Windows, Mac OS or Linux

    ...and everyone starts gushing about it. Are your text editor, web browser, desktop background, or MP3 player "layers" on top of your OS, or just software applications? Will Google take over disk I/O, thread management, or the loading of executables into memory? This is bullshit. I am quickly losing the esteem I have always had for Google with this out of control shitfest

    • Re:The Philosopher's Google Box (Score:4, Insightful)

      by timeOday ( 582209 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @08:44PM (#8834117)
      Will Google take over disk I/O, thread management, or the loading of executables into memory? This is bullshit.
      That wouldn't be a layer on top of the OS at all, it would be a replacement OS.

      As for the hype, most of it isn't coming from google. All that goodwill is beneficial to google so long as they don't start believing it themselves.

      As for not wanting to turn managment of your data over to some third party, I agree completely.

    • Re:The Philosopher's Google Box (Score:5, Insightful)

      by 4minus0 ( 325645 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @08:49PM (#8834140)

      Easy...take a breath.

      I am quickly losing the esteem I have always had for Google with this out of control shitfest of sappy, foaming-at-the-mouth hype.

      If you didn't notice, nobody from Google wrote any of these articles. They aren't hosted by Google. I'll recap for you:

      • An article at SearchEngineWatch states...

      • Another article at Kottke.org says...
        Some people predicts(sic) that...

      I'm no apologist for any company, but your post blasts Google for no good reason. You now dislike Google because of a few articles not written by Google??? Google is one of the few usable search engines available and I'll not jump the gun on hating a company with such a good track record.

      Frankly, I would feel uncomfortable giving my data to any company, especially if they are not obligated to destroy it after I terminate my account.

      You've never bought a car? A house? Used a credit card? A debit card? You posted that comment through an anonymous proxy that you connected to using someone else's computer or a wireless account you sniffed? Google is right now one of the few companies I would feel comfortable with my information. Again, they have done nothing to make me feel differently.

  • Danger, Will Robinson.... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by vyrus128 ( 747164 ) <gwillen@nerdnet.org> on Sunday April 11, 2004 @08:05PM (#8833907) Homepage
    Just remember, the reason Micro$osft was able to become our evil overlord is because we let them. We bought their software, we gave them our money, and we said "Here Bill, we trust you not to abuse us." Just because we all love Google doesn't mean we should allow power to be concentrated like that... we've already made that mistake once. "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." -- attributed to Lord Acton, 1887

  • Oblig Plan (Score:3, Funny)

    by Meneudo ( 661337 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @08:09PM (#8833926)
    1) Custom OS, G-mail 2) ? 3) Profit (of course, all of it in Google e-currency)

  • They Said Same thing About Netscape (Score:3, Insightful)

    by tealover ( 187148 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @08:10PM (#8833933)
    Let's be real. Google will not be selling PCs anytime soon with a "Goog" OS. Applications determine the success of any OS. And right now, Microsoft can run millions of apps.

    Let's take it easy with the Google Is Taking Over the World stuff. Let them perfect search first. And they certainly have not won that battle yet.

  • History repeats itself (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Black Art ( 3335 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @08:12PM (#8833939)
    This sounds so familiar...

    Remember when Netscape was going to "replace the OS" back in the 20th century?

    It never happened and I doubt if this will either.

    Seems every time there is a company with lots of hype potential, predictions like this surely follow. (Usually right before Microsoft breaks their kneecaps.)

  • Summary (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Slashdot Hivemind ( 763065 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @08:13PM (#8833943)
    Google aims for monopoly share, Slashdot prints neutral article.

    Any guesses on the tone if this was Microsoft?

  • Some of these things would be good... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Cyno01 ( 573917 ) <Cyno01@hotmail.com> on Sunday April 11, 2004 @08:16PM (#8833960) Homepage
    Google IM, with alerts from Gmail would be great, they could possibly build on the jabber protocol, a big player behind standardization is always good. This might be going a little far, but online currency would also be good, but maybe not for google... We need something to replace paypal, something that could actually be regulated. One of the problems with paypal is that they're not accountable for their actions, because they're not a bank. I dont if google would want to enter this, or if they should, but somebody needs to replace paypal...

  • Argh! (Score:4, Informative)

    by dbarclay10 ( 70443 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @08:17PM (#8833969)
    Google is a company that has built a single very large, custom computer. It's running their own cluster operating system.

    ARGH! LINUX!?!?

    Not that Google's magic isn't in their own software, but the least they could do is mention that it's running on Linux.

  • Does anyone here HAVE a Gmail account? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by mcknation ( 217793 ) <nocarrier.gmail@com> on Sunday April 11, 2004 @08:30PM (#8834050) Homepage


    I just want to know from a slashdotter if the beta is all it's cracked up to be. I've seen a few screenshots and some blathering about the GUI...but is it really that cool? Is there a NDC so you can't talk about it? So they are going to target ads based on e-mail content...what if you encrypt? Is this against the user agreemnet?
    I just hope they can keep this together without becoming EVIL (read shareholder value centered)
    Inquiring minds want to know.

    McK

  • Brin and Page over Ballmer and Gates (Score:3)

    by rixstep ( 611236 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @08:53PM (#8834166) Homepage
    If we have to, I think we can take Brin and Page over Ballmer and Gates any day.

    At least Brin and Page can really program.

  • All of this... (Score:4, Informative)

    by No. 24601 ( 657888 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @08:53PM (#8834168)
    is just pure speculation. I think it's foolish to think that Google can translate their "limitless" (ya sure) computing power into actual revenue. This essentially boils down to whether people are willing to give up the freedom they have storing and managing their data on their PC. Remember .NET ;)

    There is limited demand for web services today and I don't see this demand growing in the near future. There's only so much one can do in a web browser before you're better off working locally. Things like client-side ActiveX and Java, while supposedly making web services a reality, are slow, bulky, ugly and difficult to use.

    Besides their foray into email (essentially nothing new), Google will find little potential for growth in their product line. I think the company should stick to improving their search technology by getting access to more data sources and making their results more relevant (there is still much work to be done!)... that's if they want to be dominant player 5 years from now.

  • A Google "killer" (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Fulg0re- ( 119573 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @09:17PM (#8834346)
    Funny, I had just completed a research paper on Google for my corporate finance class. Anyhow, here's an excerpt from my paper.

    To construct a "Google-killer" is intuitively rather simple, though logistically, quite difficult. Only companies as large as Microsoft or Yahoo may have the financial resources and manpower to carry out such a task. Nonetheless, one of the first steps would be to crawl every single page on the Internet. While Google has an index of 4,285,199,774 pages, it has been suggested that the Internet consists of over 1 trillion webpage's, most of which cannot be reached through the current PageRank algorithm that Google employs (Wired 12.03, 2004). Going through all these pages with a natural language search, and without sponsored advertisements would also be of significant benefit. Furthermore, an archive every single copy of every single webpage would be another "killer" feature. Finally, keeping track of up-to-the moment changes on every webpage through RSS feeds would also be considered another "killer" feature.

    Hence, Google has to keep up with the progressing landscape of search technologies if it is to remain profitable. It was not too long ago that Netscape was thought to be unstoppable and considered to be the next Microsoft. An IPO, whether bookbuilding or Dutch Auction, will give Google some leverage to carry on its tremendous pace of innovation, and should allow it to possibly fend off the competition, at least in the short term. It may simply have to compromise between transparency and loyalty, and offer a combination of the Dutch Auction and bookbuilding to price its shares.

  • Most illogical (Score:3, Insightful)

    by danharan ( 714822 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @09:38PM (#8834482) Journal
    From Google could start a new instant message service [webword.com]:

    I predict that in 2004 Google will announce a major move into instant messaging. As far as I know, Google isn't overtly doing anything with IM right now. Paradoxically, that means that they are probably doing something with IM while people are looking the other way.


    They also have not announced that they were going to take over the UN and boot the US out of Iraq. Or that they're going to Mars, or the fact they're going to build a new internet backbone with solar powered UAVs. Or that they have found the cure for AIDS.

    Not so paradoxically, that means that analyst is a moron.

  • Google is a search engine. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by manticor24 ( 643590 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @09:43PM (#8834496)
    Every day I hear another hairbrained scheme about what Google is supposedly doing next. Start IM platform? Take over the desktop market? Make their own currency? People, please use your head here!

    First off, Google hasn't done anything so far that they can't immediately see the return on investment. Look at their aquisitions:

    • Deja.com: IMHO they bought this to 1) Remove Usenet from search results to improve quality and, 2) show applicable ads later.
    • Applied Symantecs: The underlying technology for AdSense, which greatly expanded their contextual marketing market share.
    • Pyra Labs: IMHO same basic principle as the Deja aquisition.
    All of them directly affected their major revenue generator, search marketing, in a positive way. (Though blogger might have more untapped potential.)

    Now, in comparison, these other theories have no basis on reality. The fact that Google is in a position to have these wild rumors about their Godlike Power is a direct result of the highly profitable search advertising market.

    So what is Google going to do with their money? Not piss it away on the logistical nightmares of "GooOS", or "Google Bucks." In fact, they will be effectively printing money by expanding in their core market with the likes of Froogle, GMail, Orkut, and other future innovations.

  • Concentrate (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Jesus IS the Devil ( 317662 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @09:59PM (#8834590)
    Google is what it is today because it concentrated on what it does best, SEARCHING. All this talk about Google adding auctions, IM, chat, etc etc is just gonna distract Google.

    Remember all of those other search engines turned "portal" (buzzword of the dot com days)? What happened to them? They all took a turn for the worst and got sideswiped by a little unknown company named Google. Let's stop it with trying to add "sticky" features. Stickiness and portals went out with the dot bombs.

    Or has our memory faded so quickly?

  • Don't Panic (Score:3, Interesting)

    by $exyNerdie ( 683214 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @10:28PM (#8834811) Homepage Journal
    Here's how I see it:

    If Google starts offering a free 1000 MB of email account, what is stopping Yahoo/Hotmail etc from offering a 50 or 100 or even 1000 MB of free email account by making money in a similar way as google ?

    Competition is good !!

  • Google builds Deep Thought (Score:3, Funny)

    by HangingChad ( 677530 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @10:37PM (#8834857) Homepage
    After Deep Thought has ingested all the knowledge on the Internet we can ask it the answer to life, the universe and everything.

  • Gmail Viewer software with 2048 bit encryption (Score:4, Interesting)

    by $exyNerdie ( 683214 ) on Sunday April 11, 2004 @10:49PM (#8834921) Homepage Journal
    I am patenting the encryption software and Gmail Viewer that will interface with Gmail with one Click. Basically, you use Gmail/GOS for storage and email delivery but your content is encrypted using 128 bit or 256 bit or 512 bit or 1024 or 2048... encryption before it goes to Gmail servers. You just upload and download encrypted files and email messages to the Gmail Viewer on your PC using 1-click feature with your gmail user name and password...
    Well, I am just kidding but what is to stop someone from creating such a viewer/encryptor if they want to keep their information private(less readiy accessible to Google bot/PhD's). If they want to read the content, they have to first break the encryption....using email viewer means that once you download attachment, the viewer decrypts it with the key and you can read the mail as if you were using it in your favorite POP mail reader....

  • Just some thoughts (Score:3, Interesting)

    by miketang16 ( 585602 ) on Monday April 12, 2004 @12:22AM (#8835424) Journal
    I just recently thought about how Google is becoming so massive and powerful that they might soon be equated to Microsoft, and how people hate MS so much but love Google to death. They both have control over their respective sectors, but I think the defining issue is what kind of business practices they keep and how open and giving they are to their "customers". If you ask me, it seems like Google is well on their way to being a monopoly that everyone loves.

  • Google: Use Jabber (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Baloo Ursidae ( 29355 ) <dead@address.com> on Monday April 12, 2004 @12:55AM (#8835551) Journal
    Google [google.com], if you decide you actually do want to do instant messaging, please just throw up a jabber server [jabber.org] and give people a Google-branded client instead of re-inventing the wheel. I know I'm not alone in wanting wider adoption of Jabber, and Google could go a long way with that step.

  • print.google.com (Score:5, Insightful)

    by xtal ( 49134 ) on Monday April 12, 2004 @02:27AM (#8835892)
    Google could also change the way the printing industry works overnight with this service - I use the internet for much of my reference needs now, and a few times a year I buy a couple hundred worth of books to add to my reference. The problem is there's a major time investment in locating what new books are actually worth buying - sometimes exceeding the value of the book, almost insignifigant to the effort spent reading and understanding what is in it.

    It's not up there any more, but it looked like google was playing around with buying large volumes of IP from publishers then offering it for instant buy in pdf format online. As someone who has a few books in the works and is wondering how to go about trying to make some money from them - a search service and sales avenue managed by google would be amazing.

    "Sold!"

  • Privacy? (Score:4, Funny)

    by stefanb ( 21140 ) * on Monday April 12, 2004 @07:59AM (#8836560) Homepage

    From the Gmail privacy policy: [google.com]

    Google will never sell, rent or share your personal information, including your Gmail address or email content, with any third parties
    for marketing purposes without your express permission.

    Ah, good! So I won't receive any spam from John Ashcroft any time soon...

    • Re:Privacy? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Noren ( 605012 )
      I can just picture it....

      Joe Spamalot: I'd like to buy a list of all your Gmail addresses.

      Google: Our licensing agreement requires me to ask you what the purpose is for your request.(winks)
      Joe Spamalot: I'm, uh, just curious. Heh heh. (winks)
      Google: All right then, here ya go!

      Or even more directly, depending on weaseliness of lawyers:

      Google PHB: I read that our list of Gmail addesses would be worth a lot if we sold it to email marketers. Let's do that.

      Google tech: But our licensing agreement...
      Go

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