The great vision of the future by Google Summit

Google, as always, keeps changing year after year. If there is a company that has seen the loss of stagnation closely, it is them. They were the cause of death (almost) of companies like Yahoo and have taken the lesson seriously.

Yesterday afternoon VI (streaming this time, maybe someday I can repeat in person) The main presentation of the Google Summit Performance, the event in which Google announces the big news every year.

If you are interested in the revelations about AdWords will soon publish an article about it. For now we will review the vision that Google has of the future of the Internet, society in general and its position in it.

The strategic fit and vision of Google’s future

Surprise! The future is ‘ mobile ‘ (MOBILE). And it’s not just mobile, it’s mobile first. Corporate Drills Apart (this has already been said 2 years), the big news is how they have posed the motive as a bridge between the world off-line and on-line, and how Google is the company in a better position to build those bridges.

The differential point of this year’s presentations is that Google, almost for the first time, has decided to focus on the importance of the offline world, that is, the physical world, the real truth. They usually ignore it as collateral and always sweep into the digital territory But this time they have given importance to presenting the mobile device (and its services and digital platforms) as the point of interaction between both worlds.

It has been very refreshing to hear them saying things like:

• The key to success in the coming years will be to build the best bridges that connect people and information in the digital field with the activities and objects of the physical world.
• The presence of the Internet in the life of the human being already begins to mature making it become a tool to facilitate his life, not like a means with escapist end or a parallel world ‘ better ‘. (Do not worry, websites and online games will continue to exist).
• We started to be able to measure How decision making in the offline world feeds on digital information more often than vice versa.

As I understand it, the narrative of the Google Summit was: more and more we use the Internet to know and decide what to do, but we want to do it in person, with people, to have a live and reliable experience. Thus, the best advertisers will learn to use the digital bridge to connect with their audiences both offline and online, looking for relevant connections, where they are needed to contribute value. Google is the company that can do it.

Obviously, during the Google Summit want to sell the dream that they are destined to be the main platform for interaction between users and brands (based on the importance of being relevant and timely as advertiser) is not surprising. But they are willing to recover the ‘proto-idea’ that mobile and online platforms are channelers of offline life (and not the culmination of human experience in themselves) and present a vision of how they will contribute to technological changes in the future, yes it is worthy analysis. 

Personally, it seems to me a hopeful and spooky vision at the same time. Then I analyze it through Google’s digital assets.

The Pillars of the Google Empire in the new paradigm of ‘mobile first’

As we discussed before, the leadership of Google in the field of mobile device has been called into question and has cost many attacks that up They doubt their supremacy as a company. Let’s see what visions they present of the future.

• Google Search:

Do you have a question? Do you know a historical reference? You want to buy something? Interested in an artist? Need inspiration for a recipe? Google has the answer for you. Google’s Alpha is the online search service. It’s the industry they created out of nowhere and put them on the map, and what has fueled the company with advertising revenue.

Thanks to ‘ search ‘ Google has been able to do everything else, it is also the original reason that makes Google an essential service. We are few who can remember our day to day without this service at hand, and therefore we invented the verb “googlear.”

While no one is ahead with a better solution to finding digital content, Google will be a digital giant with detailed information on the concerns, needs and aspirations of a large number of people.

• Google Now:

The Google service equivalent to Apple’s Siri or Microsoft’s Cortana, can be considered as a virtual assistant. It serves, above all, to ask for things (search), introduce events or reminders, request information or data.

In the not too distant future, Google wants to integrate this tool into the interface of all its applications. And I’m not just talking about searching on YouTube or asking for transit information on Maps, but also for highlighting natural language data on platforms like analytics or AdWords. They want us to do everything without typing… awesome!

• Google Maps:

The perfect tool to know where you are and navigate around you. It may not be as practical when it comes to finding a barber or the cheapest bar in the neighborhood, but it has a free navigation system that works all over the world and is fully integrated into Calendar and other applications.

Before Google the concept of a free, interactive, global, detailed and dynamic map (even indicating in which direction you look) was a futuristic fantasy. Now, being aware of how quickly it has become reality, we can’t even imagine what it will be like when you integrate it dynamically with all your applications, content and ads. It’ll be another leap into the future.

• Gmail:

In Interhuman communication, Google has the powerful leverage of Gmail. With a 15% market Share (which is not bad for a very fragmented market), Google offers a good tool to communicate in a digital way. It is integrated into other applications such as Calendar (although it is not the only provider that does) and is now being renewed with dynamic inboxs that automatically filter emails.

Perhaps in the future it will become an interface for notifications of all services, apart from personal communications.

• Youtube:

The 2nd largest Internet search engine, YouTube is the most used platform to view, share and upload videos. After almost ten years as a space where only funny and ‘ amateur ‘ videos of pets and babies were seen, it is becoming a communications ecosystem of its own.

With the arrival of YouTubers, it is only a matter of time that online video platforms (with YouTube as flagship) are enshrined as a means comparable to television, print or radio. That day is falling, and Google will take an important piece of the cake.

• Google Shopping:

The Digital product showcase created and powered by Google may seem a little out of place, but it represents your bet to counteract Amazon’s strong breakthrough in the ‘ Product search ‘ niche,

Google is not the leader of this important niche, but thanks to Shopping it has the capacity to present images of products, with prices and availability, in all its other digital assets.

You imagine seeing the product you need on a map with prices around your location, including coupons and discounts? Or a banner that teaches products based on what you see you need in your mail? Scary, but this is the future.

• Calendar

Google’s application oriented to help you manage your time. It is not an exceptional tool because there are many on the Internet, but its transversal integration with all the other tools of Google (create events from the email, add people from your contacts, put a location) makes it very powerful.

Now, imagine that we can talk to you to help us schedule the visits to your clients in the best order according to the location of the offices, or to put automatic reminders according to our communications in chat and email, or to remind us of visits to the doctor or the Renewal of the DNI. We prefer an easier life with a digital secretary or protect the peculiarities of our day to day? The future will tell us.

• Hangouts:

Combination of chat and videoconferencing software, it may not be used as much compared to other tools but being integrated into all Google applications (from Gmail to Calendar to working in Docs collaboration) gives you a dimension Additional practice.

Soon, we will be able to talk to the search engine or calendar events with Google Now from the chat at the moment that the need arises.

• Android:

Present in almost 62% of all mobile devices, if we go back to the times when Nokia still believed that would make the jump to the smartphone, we see that Google has become the winning horse unexpected. The potential of this “free” service (income through apps, data on mobile device usage, mobile user identification, etc) is too great to explore here, but undoubtedly turns Google into one of the most powerful forces in the Development of the mobile future.

If we add all the integration of applications that we have been viewing in this article, it is difficult to anticipate how far they will be able to take us.

• Chrome:

It broke into the market unexpectedly and in a few years became the browser by Excelenciin most countries. It seems that does not have much importance in the set of Google applications, but thanks to the advantages of creating a user to share passwords and bookmarks through devices, is one of the bridges with which Google is able to identify you in multiple Devices.

In short, one more tool at your disposal to shape the future.

• Drive:

Google’s digital archive or storage (according to your inclination) offers you the possibility to store multiple gigs of documents, photos, videos and more. Integrated in an increasingly dynamic way with the other tools, is becoming important. For example, if you want to send a file of + 25 MB in Gmail no longer need to send a link WeTransfer or use Dropbox, Google automatically saves you in Drive and generates a link to put it in the email.

How will it evolve when more dimensions of our lives, online and offline, are stored in the cloud? Will it become our DNI of the future, in our portfolio, in our backpack? Who knows.

• Google Apps Office Suite:

A simplified but powerful Microsoft Office version includes tools for editing text, spreadsheets, presentations, and forms — all in the cloud and collaboratively.

It does not mean a great advance in terms of Sofiticación and improvement of the tools but it does symbolize a big change: since its creation (without forgetting the open source project of LibreOffice and the like) Anyone with a computer has the capacity to work Legally and at a professional level enough without paying a single penny.

And with an important differentiator: collaborative work. In Google Apps can write several people in the same file, and soon this capacity will pass to other applications and we can write emails simultaneously, generate reports ‘ four hands ‘ and edit videos on YouTube at the same time. Impressive potential.

Google, the best positioned to ‘eat’ the future

Honestly, reading this long list of digital assets, its distribution through the different needs, offline and online behaviors of the common user, and its possibilities of evolution, I have little doubt that Google is Fantastically positioned to be a key piece in the creation of the future of humanity. I hope I have helped make that vision closer, if not palpable.

Now that we are in good hands or know where we are going, that is another matter.