CES Google News

by Admin


18 Jan
 None    Search Engines


by Rob Sullivan


by Rob Sullivan
http://www.enquiro.com

As you are probably already aware, the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) was another smash this year. The buzz word at the show was 'convergence'.

While I'm not terribly impressed with Google's offerings - PPV video downloads and the 'Google Pack' I am more interested in what keynote speaker Larry Page had to say.

You see, up until recently you couldn't see the whole speech. For some reason only bits and pieces were showing up on the web at various locations. So last Saturday I was able to se the announcements section of the speech, but that was all until yesterday.
Yesterday I found that on the Google Investor Relations site they had released the entire video (minus what some would call the best part - that is the Robin Williams improve) that was full of much more interesting news than Google Pack or PPV video.

It was interesting because it was Mr. Page pleading with consumer electronics manufacturers to make their products more interoperable.

He made lots of great points such as: Why, when you buy a new cell phone do you almost always have to get a new charger? Why can't you use the same charger between your phone, pda and digital camera?

You see, his theme was convergence of a different sort - he'd like to see the manufacturers get together and standardize various components such as the power cords and chargers needed for our wireless devices.

He had a slide which he presented which showed a dozen or more different wireless devices found around the typical office. Then he showed the myriad cables, power converters and plug-ins required to keep those various devices powered up and operating.

It really opened my eyes to the fact that these manufacturers could probably make more money working together to standardize these features as Mr. Page suggested. He then went on to say that they should leave it up to the software makers (such as Google) to allow these devices to work together more seamlessly.

For example, how many of us can transfer a digital image from our wireless phone to our digital camera? Ok maybe a few can. Now how many can do this without a computer? In other words, how many can perform such a transfer directly between the devices?

His point was that the manufacturers should worry about the hardware - make them more compatible using similar hardware and let the software companies make them work together. In the end everyone would win. Because, he continued, devices would be allowed to advance at an even quicker rate than now.

One example he gave, which I really liked, was having a screen know what it's supposed to do. In one instance it's a computer monitor. However, if you remove it from your desk and carry it with you to your bedroom (it is wireless) and place it on your nightstand, it knows to become a clock. It will also be smart enough to know when to wake you, and if you like to be woken by music.

My feeling is that he sees that hardware and software manufacturers need to form better partnerships with each other.

Hardware should be just that - the shell in which you put whatever software you want. If you don't want a PC with Windows on it, you should be allowed to purchase it with an alternative OS. Similarly, if you buy a PDA you should be able to load it with whatever software you want.

He makes a very good point - the more we become tied to our portable devices, the more we are going to want to customize them to suit our needs. Right now we customize our workstation desktop settings (screensavers, wallpapers, preferences etc.) and he'd like us to have that ability no matter what device we use, regardless of manufacturer or hardware type.

Of course there's a real opportunity here for Google - if Google can become one of the de facto software providers (much like Microsoft is) then they can take even more market share away from the once dominant players.

While I like Mr. Page's vision of the future, I don't really see it happening. While I'd prefer to only have 1 charger for all my portable devices I doubt that will happen. The closest we may get to this is a universal adaptor produced by some third party.

Then again who knows, Google is well known for getting things done - maybe this speech will encourage the type of cooperation needed to see this type of change happen?


Rob Sullivan
Head Organic Search Strategist
Enquiro Full Service Search Engine Marketing

Copyright 2003 - 2005 - Searchengineposition Inc.


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