The Google Decade

A very thought-provoking look into Google’s technology and where it might take them. I’m a strong believer in the inevitable migration away from pure desktop applications to internet-enabled applications, and it seems like Google may be poised to be a dominant player in that space in the future.

Of course, people (Sun, Oracle, etc) have been saying this for years, and many attempts at pure thin-clients have failed. What they never understood is that the best internet applications (or services) work in conjunction with desktop apps. Examples:

• CD Player programs + CDDB
• iTunes + the online music store
• Email client + LDAP address book
• Windows + Software Updates service
• Quicken + banking services

The list goes on, and the line between local functionality and network services are getting blurred. And this isn’t just a cool technical idea, with no relation to customer demand. Every day I wish for a way to consolodate personal information (addresses, emails, credit cards, medical info) and have it be available in a secure fashion to the applications I’m using or the vendors (stores, doctors, etc) that I’m interacting with. And I know I’m not alone. The companies who can provide this service will be sitting on a gold mine.