Shad

I’ve been putting a lot of thought and research into Google over the last few months. While I have no inside information, it seems to me that the logical conclusion of many of the facts and rumors lead to the following scenario. Google is creating the ultimate killer app. They’re enabling communication, connection & commerce in extremely ingenious ways.

Google-shift:

• Control consumer search. *
• Create targeted advertising engine. *
• Create way for people to publish online… potentially hosting advertisements. *
• Create killer email system. *
• Have presence on the desktop (Google Desktop, Google Talk). *
• Create an alternate internet infrastructure by purchasing telecom infrastructure at pennies on the dollar.*
• Set up free wireless access points on this new network (removing the expense of the “last mile”).
• Use access point location information to better target ads to a specific access point.
• Create a micropayments systsem akin to PayPal.
• Create a Craigslist-like marketplace with integrated micropayments.
• Release a new “web 2.0″ application platform based on Mozilla Firefox. Like Google Desktop, it should have an imbedded web server which will blur the distinction between “local” and “remote” data (Note: Google hired the primary developers of FireFox earlier this year)
• Build a new killer app on top of this platform that brings all the peices together… Publishing, Advertising, Email, Search, Marketplace, web browsing, etc. Call it Google Office.

* – Complete or significant progress

All the while, focus on:

• Opening information.
• Building trust.
• Using open standards.
• Better targeting advertising.
• Removing or circumventing all middlemen (except for Google).
• Hiring the smartest and most innovative people and entrusting them with the future of the company.

Most importantly, they’re showing us what the future of commerce will look like. Pay attention, because this is going to be really interesting. They’re as close as anyone has ever been to enabling a true free-market democracy. That includes the democratization of media, advertising & marketplace. The really great thing is that this is all possible. They have all of the technological pieces in place to make this happen. They also have the people and (most importantly) the vision.

Some further reading:
Google: the Ultimate Deflator
Web OS
Google’s Identity Strategy
Telecom Infrastructure
Google Philosophy
Google on Wikipedia

Discussion:
So, if the OS of the web is Google, what will apps have to do to exist in this new environment? If Google takes care of the infrastructure, then what sorts of apps will be possible? What will be enabled?