Image by the US Army under creative commons license
Google is the 800 pound gorilla in the internet space and its always fascinating to read about their challenges and successes. After all if the number 1 player has a cold everyone else get's sick.
The annual Founders Letter (link) is a fantastic read because you get a rare insight into the hopes and wishes of Larry Page. One such "revelation" in the current version is
“[...] creating the search engine of my dreams, one that gets you just the right information at the exact moment you need it with almost no effort. That’s partly because understanding information in a deep way is a hard problem to solve.”
This is clearly the driver behind Google Now and its goal of providing frictionless information when needed without requiring anything from you. The Google Now promise of having the right information available exactly when you need it automatically is actually one of the features that is pushing me to switch from an iPhone to an Android device.
Talking about Android, he is another interesting snippet
“In less than six years, over one billion Android devices have been activated (and growing fast) [...] We’re now taking Android to wearables, like watches, and to cars, where we can make it super easy to get directions, make a call or play music.”
We have seen Google try some very crazy ideas and that's a good thing. You need a true innovator willing to through a bowl of spaghetti on the wall and see what sticks. The one that I found super interesting is project Loon. The idea is to set a dozens of high orbit balloons loose over the planet and use them to bathe the "unconnected" world to the internet.
“ That leaves five billion other people. It’s a tragedy that with so much information available today, two-thirds of the world’s population lack even the most basic Internet connection. ”
Some are worried that Google is too powerful, that they know too much and that it should be stopped. Each of us has the option to not use Google services or even to "get off the net" if we so choose, but if you do use their products, stop complaining about your belief that they lack privacy. The fact that Google is successful and has cash reserves is what allows them to pay for these crazy experiements (self driving cars, Loon, Google Fiber, etc) and hopefully make the world an easier more pleasant place.