So what doesn’t Google do these days? Its all the rage, it seems, for the press to equate them with Microsoft. Its no wonder too, when you look at all the things they’ve been getting into lately. The once “search engine company” has really now transformed into a media company.
Did you ever use that cool software by Keyhole? Its now called Google Earth (and its still cool, but now free). Of course, Google also has their nifty AJAX-based Google Maps. They have their image software Picasa (was $30, now free since they bought the company, just like Keyhole). They have their desktop search tool Google Desktop — with the new GD2 release, it adds a lot more functionality too. They have their web browser Toolbar. The have their GMail Notifier. They also have their Google Talk for email/IM/calls. Finally, they also have their Google Portal. I don’t want to list every product they offer, but what I did list should show enough evidence that the days of them just being a search engine are long gone.
So what does all this mean? There’s some speculation that they might release their own browser. But even if they don’t, one could easily think back to the days when everyone was looking towards Netscape in a position of strength. That was, naturally, before the Microsoft juggernaut focused their attention on eliminating the potential threat. Google currently enjoys that same type of strength — from online influence to being flush with money from the market. In the meantime, Google keeps on playing the “nice guy” card and getting more users and information. More mainstream press (NYT, Wall Street Journal) is catching on and publishing articles shedding Google in a not so pleasant light. Don’t forget about news.com which Google decided to not talk to any reporter for a year after it published a non-flattering article about individual’s privacy (or lack of it) with Google.
Its no surprise really, that Google is getting some of the bad with the good. They’ve grown quite a bit, and their phenomenal stock rise definitely draws a lot more eyes and attention. So will Google remain the leader in their space? Microsoft Vista has been deplyed to end of 2006 which is supposed to contain a desktop search tool like the Google Desktop2 or Spotlight. That gives Google quite a while longer to be the only contender and keep the early to market edge. One would imagine the media part of Google’s current strategy would need to continue to grow rapidly to ensure that users won’t want to or its too painful to change desktop search tools once the Vista’s built-in desktop search tool is available. A tough sell, but maybe not if your contact list, email, voice mail, directions and other personal information is within the Google vault.
