Google became a household name almost overnight. During the burgeoning early days of the tech bubble people were struggling to navigate the Internet and find real content. Google came in and changed everything. Suddenly, navigating the Internet was a breeze.
Over the past decade Google has grown into the super tech corporation that it is today, with over 20,000 employees. Their pace of innovation seems to have no end in sight as they make huge bets for the future.
The mobile world has hit an innovative wall recently. It’s really come down to finding the perfect screen size and getting more power and battery life into a device. Innovation into cellphones is losing steam; it’s less exciting. That is, it was less exciting until Google Glass came to town.
Google Glass is a device that pairs with your smartphone. It’s worn like glasses and gives you a small heads-up-display (or HUD) above your right eye. The device allows you to give voice commands that can be used to take pictures, open Google Maps in your HUD, check social network statuses, and notifications. It’s due for the market in 2014 and looks to change the way we use our smartphones.
Another project that Google has been working on is an even more complicated bet. Starting out as an experiment, Google built a fast fiber-optics network in the Kansas City area in the United States. This network isn’t just fast; it’s very fast.
It has 10gbps symmetrically, which means it can upload and download at 10 gigabytes per second (about 1 ½ Blu-Ray quality movies per second). It was speculated that the Kansas City project was started as an experiment to show other Internet distributors that fiber-optics is a good business to get involved in.
Google relies heavily on the Internet’s ability to have higher and higher bandwidth power. Most of Google’s business is dependent upon its users having a good Internet connection. It would seem that Google’s entrance into fiber-optics is an opportunity to diversify and not have as much dependence on other companies.
However, the Google executive in charge of their fiber-optics developments sees the project as a true ‘money maker’ for Google on its own. Time will tell.
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Another project, which is by far the strangest project out of Google, is the ‘Balloon-Powered Internet for Everyone’. Before you start laughing too hard, you should read on, because if this bet of Google’s pays off, it could change the world in a big way.
Here’s the simplest way to understand it: Google wants to have a network of balloons that can function similarly to the way cellphone towers interact with each other on the ground. However, the difference is that Google’s network will be hovering somewhere above 20 km in the air.
Also, it won’t matter if you’re at the bottom of the Grand Canyon; you’ll still get a signal because your receiver is essentially straight above you. It’s an amazing project with amazing potential if it works.
If you don’t think Google Glass is interesting, or you think that project Loon seems ridiculous, this might make you a believer. Many people are fast becoming aware of something that Google has been working on for several years, in conjuncture with its massive mapping project. The automated car has been something that Hollywood and sci-fi novels have been anticipating for years.
With the help of Google, it’s finally happening. By 2012, Google had driven its experimental vehicles over 300,000 miles autonomously (no human driver). The idea behind this is to create a reliable system which Google can market to vehicle manufacturers.
The creative ideas that Google come up with are sometimes unbelieveable. The even crazier part is that Google has the bravery to move forward with these radical projects. Their boldness, if successful, is putting them on the road to being the most important corporate entity in the world, if they aren’t already.
DonnaAbout the Author:
Donna loves the cross section of technology and entertainment. She writes for Edictive in Sydney Australia.
