Its lips are sealed, but its moves rattle everyone from Microsoft to eBay!!!
In years past, Microsoft Corp. could freeze competitors and send investors scurrying just by uttering the name of a market it fancied. Today, Google Inc. is the 800-pound octopus that is filling potential rivals with dread and envy.
In typical Google fashion, the company chose an unusual moment — the sleepy doldrums of mid-August — to shake up the tech world with a flurry of announcements. First, Google confirmed that it had quietly acquired mobile-phone software startup Android Inc. Followed by the surprising news that it would add $4 billion to its cash war chest with a secondary stock offering. And then on Aug. 24, the search giant announced it was getting into the instant messaging and Internet telephony businesses. No wonder tech watchers from Silicon Valley to Bangalore are all wondering the same thing: What the heck is Google up to?
If the search behemoth goes ahead with its myriad initiatives, it will be Google vs. Everyone. Here’s a glimpse of where Google may be headed:
GOOGLE VS. VERIZON Playing a role in how consumers connect to the Net is an important step for online giants. It helps deepen the link between Web surfers and Internet companies while providing a window for these outfits to showcase products and services. Google clearly covets such a role, but it has shown no interest in mimicking the access businesses of other tech titans — piling up millions of subscribers like America Online (TWX ) or following Yahoo’s lead of partnering with telecom giants.
GOOGLE VS. MOTOROLA Former insiders say Larry Page — who, with Sergey Brin, founded the company — has ruminated in years past about offering a Google mobile phone, allowing users to search the Net easily and get data from the device. Although a fiercely competitive space crowded with companies like Motorola and Nokia, the barriers to entry are getting lower all the time, thanks to a passel of contract manufacturers from Taiwan and elsewhere eager to make phones cheaply for anyone interested in breaking into the market.
GOOGLE VS. MICROSOFT Google has been poaching talented engineers with a wealth of expertise in two Microsoft strongholds: browsers and operating systems. One source familiar with the company says some of these hires are working on an Internet operating system that might run on top of Linux and could compete with Microsoft’s Windows franchise. Although any such offering may be years out, it seems plausible based on the talent Google has lured. In recent years, it has hired several architects of Microsoft’s .Net strategy — an attempt to expand its operating system dominance to the Internet. If Google is indeed contemplating an OS, it would amount to an attack on the very foundation of Microsoft.
GOOGLE VS. eBAY Google has not wowed anybody in online commerce so far. Its shopping search site Froogle has not distinguished itself from the pack, and it garners only a fraction of the visitors that go to competing services, such as Yahoo! Shopping. But Google concedes that it is working on an online payment platform — which could put it in direct competition with eBay’s PayPal service. Another possibility: Google could eventually allow individuals to post items for sale on Froogle. Google’s recent hiring of Louis Monier, former director of eBay’s advanced technology research, has only added to such speculation.
It is a good bet Google is pondering all of these possibilities and more. The real question is what projects will get the resources inside Google and see the light of day. With uncertainty like that, Google will have the rest of the tech world on edge for some time to come.