Google Voice

If you haven’t signed up yet, you are really missing out. Imagine having a phone number that wasn’t tied to any contract or device, but could be dynamically applied to multiple phones or devices, or you can simply use it as an answering service and it will transcribe your messages and send  you emails or text messages to notify you. You can finally feel comfortable enough to ditch your contract and start using pay as you go phones, knowing that if you ever loose service, you won’t miss calls. I see them adding a premium version in the future. There is a lot of potential in a service like this. It wouldn’t be difficult to have it receive faxes and save them as jpeg files.

Android

I get the feeling Google just enjoys taking over new industries and upsetting the power balance. Android is an operating system for mobile phones. Much like the iphone, but build with a more open environment and not tied to a single provider. Although right now, T-mobile seems to have the most connections with Google, there is no reason other phone providers can’t start producing phones with android on them. This has also led to Google creating their own phone that will also change the market. Google is trying to make mobile communications more standard, and one method for doing that is to produce the operating system and phone. As users interface with the web through their mobile devices, Google can create more integration knowing that they have set the standard for mobile browsing and made it available to everyone. Vice versa, if you want to keep up with the latest Google web applications have to offer, you will want or need a Google phone or a phone running Android. It all works out good for Google and for the users.

Google Chrome

If you are not using Chrome as your browser to surf the web, then I highly recommend you do so. It’s a great browser, and very secure, and SUPER FAST. Now if your a complete nerd, you may want to still use Firefox because of it’s development platform. But for the typical internet user, Chrome is the ideal browser. Also with it’s ability to turn a web based app like facebook into an application that I can launch like a normal application makes life just that much easier and less confusing for the Luddites who are just now trying to get caught up with the web.

Searching Status Updates

We have barely scratched the surface of possibilities of crowd sourcing and social media. You hear a loud noise outside late at night, like fireworks going off. What do you do? You Google it, only to be reminded that the news media wont’ cover it unless it’s a plane crash, and even that will take several hours to discover. But if you could scream out your window “Did you hear that?” and hear the neighbor say “It was a car backfire”, how nice would that be. By searching status updates you can find out what is going on RIGHT NOW. As more user get on to social media, this ability will become more and more useful during natural disasters and when you want to know the latest buzz.