Google has become extremely well known around the world. Although it began as just a search engine generating revenue from ads, it has been changing with the times to become a multi faceted tool along with an assortment of supporting gadgets. Google now has a browser, a phone, apps and it’s not stopping there. New research is constantly in the works, and Google is determined to remain relevant in the future. This is a look at Google’s evolution and where it is looking to go with its technology.
G Suite
Google already has G Suite, which is a collection of intelligent apps. Specifically, it consists of Gmail, Google Docs, Google Drive, and Calendar; an alternative to Microsoft Office. Although G Suite will probably never take over Office as the leader, it is currently ranked second, which is not bad. G Suite is a small part of Google’s plan to stay relevant. It “…is a cornerstone of Google’s efforts to diversify revenue, which overwhelmingly comes from online ad sales,” (Paresh) at the moment.
So, while Google is diversifying what it does to keep gaining income as technology changes, it is also becoming self reliant. G Suite means that Google no longer has to be loyal to Microsoft. Since the release of G Suite, there has been constant growth, which is a very good sign for Google. As G Suite continues to be perfected, more and more people & companies will use it and it will continue to bring revenue. However, this is not the only means Google has implemented in an attempt to stay relevant.
AMP Stories – Visual Storytelling
Most recently, Google came out with AMP Stories, which are essentially like Snapchat Stories with news stories. AMP Stories are loaded with graphics allowing for a visual storytelling experience and are available on mobile devices when using Google search. This is the latest addition to the Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) Project, and just another example of Google branching out and keeping up with the newest waves of technology. They are trying to keep their spot on top of the mobile content market by making their search extremely fast and mobile-friendly. This way, Google is staying relevant and continuing to gain revenue in the search engine domain it is so familiar with.
Smartphone by Google
At the end of 2016, Google debuted the Google Pixel, an Android smartphone. This alone suggests that Google is looking to compete with Apple, Samsung, and even Amazon to remain relevant. In fact, it may have no choice but to compete. “Voice interaction represents a potential paradigm shift that could someday become the primary method by which people use and navigate the internet,” (Nowak) which means Google as a search engine would lose relevance and money.
Google already has Google Assistant (which the Pixel was first to get) as a voice controlled artificial intelligence helper, but relying on that alone would be dangerous. Sales of the Pixel are nowhere close to Apple and Samsung, but they have been constantly growing over the past 2 years. This is a good sign, and shows that the Pixel could really compete in the future.
Google’s Solution to Voice Interaction
Google Assistant is an extremely powerful tool with the belief that voice interaction will take over internet navigation as well as other tasks in the near future. Although it has only been around for about two years, it has already been very successful. By the end of the year, it will be available in 30 more countries, which will make it available in a grand total of 52 countries. This is a huge step for Assistant, because it has been very limited geographically, and competing with Amazon’s Alexa for the top spot could come down to expanding language capabilities as Alexa is also very limited in that area.
Again, Google comes in at second, but is still a prominent competitor. Keeping that up will only aid Google in the future; with Google being near the top in many of its endeavors, it is hard to see a future without it. That is just what Google wants, and the reason why innovation is still happening in the office.
Artificial Intelligence Taking Precedence
Perhaps the most important research Google is currently working on is artificial intelligence (AI). This is the next step as it will aid in voice interaction immensely. Google is definitely taking AI seriously – the new spot in the office for AI researchers on the google Brain team is next to the top Google executives. And Google is not the only one; Samsung has launched Bixby voice control, which is strengthened by AI, and many others have also been researching and implementing that research in their technology.
For Google, Jeff Dean of the Google Brain team says that, “The promise of AI is that [it] can produce solutions to previously unsolved problems that will really help people”. Artificial Intelligence is the next step, and people are already hungry for more after experiencing the power of voice interaction tools, such as Google Assistant. If Google can keep improving Assistant and coming up with more innovations, its relevance won’t be a question in the near future.
