I spend a lot of time with Google. Way more than the average person. Sometimes that’s good. Sometimes it’s not. Mostly I spend my time working with Google’s web search. I am a Google AdWords Certified Individual and that means I’ve taken (and passed) tests that deal with the ins-and-outs of Google AdWords. When it comes to pay-per-click advertising, nobody beats Google. Most web searching (around 60% of it) is still done with Google and the entire AdWords system is an environment that makes the experience a win-win for both users and marketers.
But the folks in Mountain View, California, are not satisfied to rule the world of web search. Google has never hidden its ambitions to rule the entire internet, and now they’ve expanded their target to just about everything else. Did you realize that the fastest growing smart phone operating system is called Android? That’s a Google product. Fastest growing web browser? That’s Chrome, also a Google product. There’s even an operating system called Chrome OS that is on its way. Many of the competitors to Apple’s iPad will run this OS out of the box. More and more people are even using Google Docs for things like word processing!
Now comes word that Google is aggressively getting into the TV business… wait the TV BUSINESS? Sort of. Chances are that if you buy an “internet ready” TV in the next few years (and there’s a good chance that you will), it will come with Google products on board. You’ll probably even be able to run video ads on them via AdWords. As television and the internet get closer and closer to converging, Google has positioned itself as one of the pillars of the new paradigm.
That puts Google right up there with Microsoft and Apple in the world of global communications and technology. Not a lot of companies are so well known that they become a verb. But Google has most definitely embraced that status. They are all about action, and it bears watching what will come next, and how it can benefit us all.
