I’ve thought for 5 minutes and can’t come up with a snappy title for this entry.

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I’ve just had a sudden thought that made me question everything I have been basing my life around for the past 5 or 6 months.  Up until now, I have been convinced the Google is going to rule the world in the near future.

The reason is that they do everything; or they have come up with programs that do everything.  I think I may have all of the information that has to do with my life logged somewhere in Google’s servers somewhere.  This doesn’t concern me very much.  I am not a very paranoid person.  But up until now I’ve always thought that eventually, Google would take the place of every company and just rule the world.

I read an article, however, that made me take pause. It discussed Google’s difficulties with it’s line of televisions software called Google TV.  Now, when it first came out, this software was supposed to be able to search your cable TV listings, DVR device, AND scour the internet for whatever you were in the mood for.  So, for instance, if I typed in “Kevin Bacon,” it would find Footloose playing on WGN at Saturday at 4pm, the “Inside the Actor’s Studio with Kevin Bacon” that I recorded a few days ago, and 500 “Kevin Bacon” impersonations on YouTube.  I could, then, choose which I wanted to watch.

It was ingenious.

The problem is, the network stations didn’t like that you would be able to access their webpages and view their streaming web TV shows from your television set.  I guess they still only want you to watch TV shows on the web from your computer.  They blocked their websites (along with HULU) from allowing Google TV to access them.  This made Google TV a glorified TV guide and YouTube search.

This wouldn’t be a big deal for the Google of the past; in the past, Google has released a product that didn’t necessarily work perfectly and slowly, over the course of a year or 2, improved it with the help of users and suggestions.  The problem is that Google couldn’t just put this product on the web and have people use it for free while they test it.  This was a device that had to be installed into televisions and sold to consumers who were expecting a finished product, not a test product.

This is where Google, if they are going to want to enter into people’s homes, is going to need to step up their game.  They’re not going to be able to release a product as soon as the idea is conceived and improve it over time.  They are going to have to create, flesh out and solidify their idea before going forth into the marketplace.  They are going to need to begin to rely on partnerships with other companies; they’re not going to be able to work within their own community, not talking to other manufacturers or developers. 

Technology is one arena where there seems to be more “flops” than “flys” in general, but if Google wants to have more “flys” in the consumer market, they’re going to have to start thinking of their customers as “consumers” and not “product testers.”

 

P.S.  This will be my last long-form post for the next week and a half.  I will be updating my technology twitter feed with short technology articles and links that I find interesting with my comments.  Follow me at @ianyoungopinion