Is Google taking over?

I was just going through Google’s site and I came across some interesting stuff. Most notably I think their 411 service is very impressive. All these years I kind of always wondered what the point was to have such a thorough index of companies in their Google Maps system. If you ever noticed in Google Maps, you can search for places such as Pizza places and it will find you the closest one.

I think Google does a very good job at using their existing technologies to implement new ones. While Google 411 (1-800-GOOG-411) still has some bugs to work out (No canadian service, business listings only) I think it is a really intriguing concept. For the first time, Google has developed a service that doesn’t compete with traditional online companies. If they can perfect this, it will pose a major threat to telephone company directory assistance because it is free and it’s more intelligent than the 411 that we have today. Google’s service lets you find companies by category as well. In the future they could also integrate this with the GPS that is in cell phones already to make the service even better, but I doubt this will happen since privacy is a major issue here.

I think Google has already conquered the online world, not many people can deny that. I think that since they have done mostly everything there is to do online, they will move to more “offline” products and services. They already have the brand recognition, resources to develop new products and services and not to mention a team of the worlds best engineers at their disposal. I believe they are moving now towards Mobile technologies. One example is their Mobile Product search, which allows you to search products for sale on your cell. They are also developing their own open source mobile OS called Android, which I have previously made a post about .