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Thursday, June 23, 2011

[COMPLETELY RIDICULOUS SPECULATION] What's next at Google?

So, we all learned lately that Google is redefining the social web, and to simply say that they are serious about going social would be an understatement.

Let's check out what happened lately:

  • I discovered Google Social, which is VERY actively developed [did you live under a rock?!]
  • They registered Photovine as a domain & trademark [here]
  • They acquired something called listen.in (more on that later) [here]
  • A new Google TV Firmware based on Honeycomb 3.1 is in development (later Ice Cream) [here]
  • They start Google - Games [here]
  • They integrated WebRTC in Chrome [FAQ]

As it seems, Google is currently building a new ecosystem, out of reach from competitors. Well, it isn't out of reach... But the approach is so ambitious, that others might have to shift gears to keep up.

Here's my shot in the dark:

Google will release the Webstore for Chrome for GoogleTV later/end of this year. Until then they will encourage developers to create (HTML5) games for Chrome that are designed for multiple players to aid the benefits of:
Chromebooks, GoogleTV, Chrome, ChromeBox'es and... maybe... Android, but I assume they will start extensive HTML5 support with Ice-Cream end of the year.

Second shot:

Google will create a developer platform that is totally dedicated to game development. Maybe they will even make a dedicated Gamestore... but that is unlikely. Google might offer libraries that make it easier to code multiplayer games (both native and HTML5) that plug into Google's social services.

Third shot:

Google will replace proprietary stuff in Google Talk with the open WebRTC standard to make it open for 3rd parties to push it's popularity and gain a large 2nd grade userbase to increase the attractiveness of it's Google Social platform.(and punch MS there where... it hurts) (plus: it will probably be used for realtime voice-video chat during multiplayer games on chrome and chromeOS...) Also neat: add Movement detection for some Kinect-esque (lacking depth-detection though) interaction via that protocol. But no, that is up to the coders, not to Google. They probably also want to get rid of Flash for reading data from the webcam (there is NO DAMN WAY yet to do that in HTML5.. and I tried.)

Fourth shot:

listen.in will bring kinda mashup between Google Listen and Google Music with a social flavor. Google Music still lacks the support for adding Podcasts from the web.. maybe it will offer a solution for that too. Maybe not. Maybe it is also a Google Music scrobbler that will add LastFM style social things, but I think too many stand-alone social services would not be that awesome.. I still think it will be merged into Google Music altogether.

Fifth shot:

Photovine... I still think it is a Picture-groupmessaging-instantmessaging-thingy that plugs into Picasa, Profiles, Places and Buzz (and Google social) with a heavy focus on location based services and smartphones.

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