I M Google Getting Bigger and Going Strong
Google has provided a number of interesting headlines
this week, following a week where they seemed to generally generate bad
ones. Last week ended with an announcement that Google was about to release
upwards of $4 billion in stocks. Though they neglected to elaborate on
exactly how they plan to spend the money (which is more than the $3 billion
they currently have banked), their SEC filing stated, " We may use
proceeds of this offering for acquisitions of complementary businesses,
technologies or other assets."
One way they might spend some of that money is in the development and branding of new, user-loyalty products or the acquisition of tech firms that create such products. Google is no longer primarily a search company. It is an advertising medium. The core of Google's business strategy, like those of its competitors, is founded on the number of registered users it can claim. Market share and user loyalty are the key measurements of success in the search sphere. By winning new users and retaining the loyalty of current ones, Google is free to create the world's largest advertising network displaying ads on the tools favoured by its users. Today, Google announced the release of its own Instant Messaging and VOIP (voice over IP) service, Google Talk . Integrated with the Gmail system, Google Talk is designed to offer Gmail users the functionality of other instant messaging systems merged with a convenient and free VOIP client. Currently limited to vocal communication with other Google Talk users (who must be registered Gmail users), Google watchers have long speculated Google might be moving towards providing full-scale VOIP services. While Google Talk might seem like a pre-release of what could have been a better tool, it is likely the entry point to something bigger than instant messaging. Speculation over a Google OS is ongoing. Skype-like VOIP would be a pretty cool addition to a secondary, web-based OS. On Monday, Google released Google Sidebar , an update for Google Desktop which is based around a vertical sidebar that displays email, news, rss-fed web clips, a notepad, images, a quick view of search results, a "what's hot" feed, stock information and local weather information. The tool has similar qualities as the Google Personal search interface and is a direct challenge to Microsoft Vista. The release of these new tools offsets a trend noted by the New York Times today which ran the headline, "Relax, Bill Gates; It's Google's Turn as the Villain". Google's going strong but there are many questions as to where exactly, Google is going. |