Since
Steve Jobs became seriously ill the tech community has been looking for
a replacement for his mercurial presentation style. In Larry Page they
have probably found him. Page is by no means a new kid on the block, but
his key note at Google I/O last week prompted the same sort of fanboy enthusiasm that Jobs inspired at Apple.
That fanboy enthusiasm however, has to be based on some serious innovation and that is what Page was able to cover in his keynote last week. There were numerous announcements, but the standouts from a marketing perspective were the newly enriched Google Maps and Google Play music service that will have Spotify seriously worried and the newly updated and enriched Google+.
What came through, time after time, was that here was a company that don't just talk about big data but use it in a way no other company on earth is. That's why Larry Page's pronouncement that “we should be building great things that don’t exist" rang so true.
There is great cause to be nervous about the level of data that Google holds (especially personal), but there is no doubt that they are using that data in amazing ways. None more so than Google Maps, which has become richer and richer almost every quarter since its launch. The product is now marrying the mapping data, 3d capabilities of Google Earth and the smart functionality of its reviews and location services to provide an almost game-like real-world view of an enormous cross section of the world.
Whatever the concerns continue to be about the way Google operate, there is no doubt that they are creating and will continue to create great innovative product.
That fanboy enthusiasm however, has to be based on some serious innovation and that is what Page was able to cover in his keynote last week. There were numerous announcements, but the standouts from a marketing perspective were the newly enriched Google Maps and Google Play music service that will have Spotify seriously worried and the newly updated and enriched Google+.
What came through, time after time, was that here was a company that don't just talk about big data but use it in a way no other company on earth is. That's why Larry Page's pronouncement that “we should be building great things that don’t exist" rang so true.
There is great cause to be nervous about the level of data that Google holds (especially personal), but there is no doubt that they are using that data in amazing ways. None more so than Google Maps, which has become richer and richer almost every quarter since its launch. The product is now marrying the mapping data, 3d capabilities of Google Earth and the smart functionality of its reviews and location services to provide an almost game-like real-world view of an enormous cross section of the world.
Whatever the concerns continue to be about the way Google operate, there is no doubt that they are creating and will continue to create great innovative product.
YouTube
is an odd beast, just eight years old, Google owned and so much a part
of the fabric of the web that sometimes it gets overlooked as a social
network. Yet the site continues to be a phenomenon, hitting almost no
speed bumps on its inexorable journey to the top. It is completely
peerless and somehow seems to dodge the ire that is directed squarely at
its parent company.