Just what in the world is Google up to?

Ah, only taking it over. That's what it seems to me. Have you ever clicked more at google? Then did you click even more? Let me show you what it looks like.

Google is no longer a small, upstart search-engine company. They've become very large and their aspirations have likewise grown. I'm not sure if a friend's observation or talk at work first prompted my wondering, but I've been a while trying to comprehend Google's aim and I'm pretty sure it's big.

In 1999 they began to dominate internet searching and shortly thereafter a new phrase was coined ("googling"). That you know. What may be missed about googling is how it has affected internet advertising revenue. You should pay attention to how many and what sort of websites have google ads on them and how many and what sort have banner ads. As I can figure it, only websites hosted by large (well-funded) companies keep banner ads, though even ESPN.com has resorted to google-style advertising at the bottom of the page.

I don't know what came next, maybe Google Mail? If you've never used gmail, then you're missing out. The more complex life has become for me, the more I've come to admire innovations that are so clear and simple you almost don't recognize them as genuine. Sometimes they're so intuitive you think that you could have suggested them (or maybe you did) and may not give them full credit. Firefox's tabbed browsing is one of them. Gmail is chock full of simple innovations (like conversational threading).

Then there's Google Desktop and Picasa, which re-think the way you organize (or need to organize) files on your computer. And Google Earth and Google Maps, which have effectively helped put Microsoft in a re-thinking frenzy. [This blog, by the way, is brought to you by google.]

But Google's real aim is elsewhere: Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. That's a seemingly small statement with a wide range of possibilities. If you look at the even more on Google's home page, you'll see that Google Documents are available to "create and share your projects online and access them from anywhere". That's code for dumping the desk from desktop--a thing that Microsoft should (and is, I think) afraid of.

Not that Microsoft didn't have any idea. They had this idea first: Remember Bill Gates saying, 10 years ago, that traditional software was dead and that all software would eventually be delivered over the Internet? Well, I think Google was listening.

Google was listening. Not only are google documents avaialable from the home page, gmail can download your files as google documents. And now Google has become host to Disney's and Pixar's work environment, beginning with the email and calendar products vital to any large business. But Google won't stop there. Certainly Microsoft won't let them run away either; not at least without a fight. But will that be enough?

One of Microsoft's strengths has been their incompatibility with other programs. You've got to buy microsoft because that's what everyone else uses. [That, by the way, is not true but the perception holds.] If Google is successful, which I think they will be, you'll be able to do your work anywhere on any computer, no matter what brand or operating system. Even if Microsoft is able to keep up with Google, will that be enough if we no longer believe the lie that Microsoft holds the keys to using a personal computer? I don't know, but it will be interesting to watch.