Google's 20 Hottest Tools

By Douglas MacMillan

Source: http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/10/1001_google_apps/index.htm

What Will Google Devise Next

Google made its name in Web search, but successes in e-mail, maps, news aggregation, and online video show that the company is no one-trick pony. Where will the search giant go next?

"One of the ways for us to accelerate the potential for one of these products to go from an idea internally to externally launched is to get it in the hands of the user to try," says R.J. Pittman, director of product management at Google

In this BusinessWeek slide show, we look at 20 promising experiments, most of which originated at Google Labs. Some face a clear path to profitability; others are aimed merely at getting consumers to devote more time and attention to the Web—and ads placed by Google. Whatever the case, they're likely to change the way you get around the Web.

Use the reader comment section to tell us about the Google products you find most notable, whether or not they made this list.

Sidewiki : http://www.google.com/sidewiki

One of the most recent Google experiments, Sidewiki aims to provide a forum for discussion about virtually every page on the Web. In the margin of any news article or site, Google Toolbar users can leave comments, links, or videos that other Toolbar users in turn can vote up or down. When it was announced, some bloggers welcomed the prospect of a universal commenting system while others pointed out that Sidewiki competes with publishers for reader comments and has great potential for spam. The project has no ads, but indirectly generates revenue by encouraging searches to be launched via the Google Toolbar.

Fast Flip : http://fastflip.googlelabs.com/

The search company collects current news stories and sorts them by topic for Google News, which was launched in 2002. Fast Flip, introduced in September, lets readers quickly page through these articles as if they were reading a magazine. Google displays banner ads alongside each story, generating revenue that it shares with partner publishers, including The New York Times, Salon, and BusinessWeek.

Google Listen : http://listen.googlelabs.com/

The search giant took a leap into mobile software when it helped develop the Android operating system, first made available on T-Mobile's G1 phone in 2008. Now Google is busy developing Android-friendly mobile apps, such as the podcast manager Google Listen. The app is free to download and lets users search and subscribe to podcasts and other sources of audio from around the Web. Google Listen doesn't generate revenue directly, but encourages the use of smartphones, which can result in more people seeing Google ads via handheld devices.

Chrome OS : http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html

Google already competes with Microsoft in search, productivity software, and with its Chrome browser, launched in 2008. But in July the company announced a direct assault on Redmond's core product, the Windows operating system. In the second half of 2010, Google intends to release the Chrome OS, which it describes as a lighter, speedier operating system tailored to running Web-based applications. The software will be free to download, but the company may charge PC makers a fee to bundle it with new products.

Google Wave : http://wave.google.com/

One of Google's more ambitious projects, Wave combines e-mail, social networking, instant messaging, video, and collaborative document editing. It lets users create a "wave" around a topic or group of friends, and then invite others to contribute messages, multimedia, and content from around the Web in real time. The application, which is open only for limited testing and has no official release date, could help win Google traffic from popular online social hubs such as Facebook and Twitter.

Google News Timeline : http://newstimeline.googlelabs.com/

Tinkering with the appearance of its Google News search results, the company in April launched a timeline feature that lets users track the twists and turns of a public figure or other subject over a period of weeks, months, or years. Timeline may eventually place ads next to search results, as it does with most Google News searches.

Similar Images : http://similar-images.googlelabs.com/

Since introducing Image Search in 2001, Google has indexed hundreds of millions of photos and illustrations on the Web. But it searches for images based on the text around them, often yielding faulty results. So Google is developing a visual search engine that relies on "computer vision" to find shapes and colors similar to each other. The service could someday be incorporated into the general image search, which delivers ads alongside results.

Wonder Wheel : http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2009-03-24-n84.html

Web sites like Wolfram Alpha, Aardvark, and Twitter are coming up with new ways of searching the Web, forcing Google to think about different ways it could appeal to searchers. One experiment this year is Wonder Wheel, which presents search results in a spiderweb format, with each search revealing several related terms to help users refine their search. For now, Wonder wheel is available as a free feature under the "Search options" menu on any Google search. It yields no associated ad revenue.

Google Voice : http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html

Using technology acquired in the company's 2007 purchase of GrandCentral, Google Voice lets users receive calls on home, work, and mobile phones from a single number and transcribes voicemail messages into text on the Web, among other nifty features. Apple's reluctance to approve a version of Google Voice for iPhones has raised the hackles of regulators concerned about anticompetitive behavior. The service remains free, but is available only in the U.S. and only to a limited number of invitees.

Flu Trends : http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/tracking-flu-trends.html

November 2008
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) can take up to two weeks to collect and release survey data about where and when the flu is spreading around the country but Google's Flu Trends harnesses real-time data. The service identifies regions around the world experiencing a high number of flu-related Web searches and it produces results shown later to correlate closely with CDC data. The project is part of the nonprofit Google.org, funded with 1% of Google's annual profits.

Google Moderator : http://moderator.appspot.com/

Last year, Google engineer Taliver Heath used his "20% time" to create a tool that lets event organizers solicit questions and debate topics from the public. In December, Google Moderator went prime time as then-U.S. President-elect Barack Obama used the site to hold a public forum called "Open for Questions." Google doesn't charge for or run ads on Moderator, but does use the service to get feedback from users in topics such as "Ask a Google engineer" and "Suggest an Android application."

Google Audio Indexing : http://labs.google.com/gaudi

To help the public stay up-to-date with last November's U.S. Presidential election, Google used speech-recognition software to create a searchable record of all the words spoken in political videos appearing on YouTube. The company described this as a "showcase for speech technology," suggesting that it may open audio indexing for broader use some time in the future.

Knol : http://knol.google.com/k

Seeing that Wikipedia entries for all kinds of people, places, and things were taking the top spots in many of its own search results, Google decided to build its own online encyclopedia. Launched in 2007, Knol is a collection of user-written articles on everything from rheumatoid arthritis to 3D graphics. Unlike Wikipedia, the site displays ads—and once an article goes up, it cannot be edited by the general public.

Google Health : https://www.google.com/health

Anticipating the need for a common online database of health records, Google last year launched Google Health, a site where patients can store personal health records and share them easily and securely with physicians. Eventually, Google might collect revenue from partnering with health-care providers. Challenges abound. Critics raise concerns about allowing a large company to control access to such sensitive data. And rivals such as Microsoft and WebMD have released comparable services.

GOOG-411 : http://www.google.com/goog411/

The ubiquity of Web-equipped smartphones has lessened the need for 411 information services. But for those needing to find business phone numbers without the aid of the Internet, Google provides a free, automated service at the number 1-800-GOOG-411. Google harnessed the service to refine the speech recognition technology used in other tools, including Google Audio Indexing.

SketchUp : http://sketchup.google.com/

Startup @Last Software grabbed Google's attention with software that lets people build virtual objects and have them interact with environments in Google Earth. The search giant bought @Last Software and has since released SketchUp—its powerful 3D-creation software—for free. It's since been used by architects, video game developers, do-it-yourselfers, and to improve the 3D maps in Google Earth.

Patent Search : http://www.google.com/patents

The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office lets anyone search through its archives to dig up original patent filings for all manner of inventions. But Google's own Patent Search, launched in 2006, uses the full-text search capabilities it developed for Google Book Search to deliver more relevant results.

Google Code Search : http://www.google.com/codesearch

Google has numerous offerings that cater to Web developers, from nuts-and-bolts tools on Google App Engine to the numerous APIs, or open platforms, it makes available for mixing and mashing. So what could be more fitting than giving them a search engine devoted to finding bits of code hidden all over the Web? The service was created in 2006 and has grown to include domains from Poland, Brazil, China, France, Germany, and elsewhere.

Google Trends : http://www.google.com/trends

Google Trends compares the popularity of search terms over a period of time and lists what's most popular every day and each year. Last year, Google built Google Insights for Search, a beefier version aimed at helping advertisers use search advertising more effectively. Microblogging site Twitter followed up this year with its own application that reports the hottest topics being discussed by its users at any given moment.

Google Mars : http://www.google.com/mars/

Not content merely to map Earth, Google is surveying the heavens. Google Mars offers glimpses into the infrared and relief images collected by two NASA Mars missions, the Mars Global Surveyor and the 2001 Mars Odyssey. In 2008 the company also released Google Sky, which acts as a virtual telescope into the cosmos.