So, we all learned lately that Google is redefining the social web, and to simply say that they are serious about going social would be an understatement.
Let's check out what happened lately:
I discovered Google Social, which is VERY actively developed [did you live under a rock?!]
They registered Photovine as a domain & trademark [here]
They acquired something called listen.in (more on that later) [here]
A new Google TV Firmware based on Honeycomb 3.1 is in development (later Ice Cream) [here]
As it seems, Google is currently building a new ecosystem, out of reach from competitors. Well, it isn't out of reach... But the approach is so ambitious, that others might have to shift gears to keep up.
Here's my shot in the dark:
Google will release the Webstore for Chrome for GoogleTV later/end of this year. Until then they will encourage developers to create (HTML5) games for Chrome that are designed for multiple players to aid the benefits of:
Chromebooks, GoogleTV, Chrome, ChromeBox'es and... maybe... Android, but I assume they will start extensive HTML5 support with Ice-Cream end of the year.
Second shot:
Google will create a developer platform that is totally dedicated to game development. Maybe they will even make a dedicated Gamestore... but that is unlikely. Google might offer libraries that make it easier to code multiplayer games (both native and HTML5) that plug into Google's social services.
Third shot:
Google will replace proprietary stuff in Google Talk with the open WebRTC standard to make it open for 3rd parties to push it's popularity and gain a large 2nd grade userbase to increase the attractiveness of it's Google Social platform.(and punch MS there where... it hurts) (plus: it will probably be used for realtime voice-video chat during multiplayer games on chrome and chromeOS...) Also neat: add Movement detection for some Kinect-esque (lacking depth-detection though) interaction via that protocol. But no, that is up to the coders, not to Google. They probably also want to get rid of Flash for reading data from the webcam (there is NO DAMN WAY yet to do that in HTML5.. and I tried.)
Fourth shot:
listen.in will bring kinda mashup between Google Listen and Google Music with a social flavor. Google Music still lacks the support for adding Podcasts from the web.. maybe it will offer a solution for that too. Maybe not. Maybe it is also a Google Music scrobbler that will add LastFM style social things, but I think too many stand-alone social services would not be that awesome.. I still think it will be merged into Google Music altogether.
Fifth shot:
Photovine... I still think it is a Picture-groupmessaging-instantmessaging-thingy that plugs into Picasa, Profiles, Places and Buzz (and Google social) with a heavy focus on location based services and smartphones.
So, we all learned lately that Google is redefining the social web, and to simply say that they are serious about going social would be an understatement.
Let's check out what happened lately:
I discovered Google Social, which is VERY actively developed [did you live under a rock?!]
They registered Photovine as a domain & trademark [here]
They acquired something called listen.in (more on that later) [here]
A new Google TV Firmware based on Honeycomb 3.1 is in development (later Ice Cream) [here]
As it seems, Google is currently building a new ecosystem, out of reach from competitors. Well, it isn't out of reach... But the approach is so ambitious, that others might have to shift gears to keep up.
Here's my shot in the dark:
Google will release the Webstore for Chrome for GoogleTV later/end of this year. Until then they will encourage developers to create (HTML5) games for Chrome that are designed for multiple players to aid the benefits of:
Chromebooks, GoogleTV, Chrome, ChromeBox'es and... maybe... Android, but I assume they will start extensive HTML5 support with Ice-Cream end of the year.
Second shot:
Google will create a developer platform that is totally dedicated to game development. Maybe they will even make a dedicated Gamestore... but that is unlikely. Google might offer libraries that make it easier to code multiplayer games (both native and HTML5) that plug into Google's social services.
Third shot:
Google will replace proprietary stuff in Google Talk with the open WebRTC standard to make it open for 3rd parties to push it's popularity and gain a large 2nd grade userbase to increase the attractiveness of it's Google Social platform.(and punch MS there where... it hurts) (plus: it will probably be used for realtime voice-video chat during multiplayer games on chrome and chromeOS...) Also neat: add Movement detection for some Kinect-esque (lacking depth-detection though) interaction via that protocol. But no, that is up to the coders, not to Google. They probably also want to get rid of Flash for reading data from the webcam (there is NO DAMN WAY yet to do that in HTML5.. and I tried.)
Fourth shot:
listen.in will bring kinda mashup between Google Listen and Google Music with a social flavor. Google Music still lacks the support for adding Podcasts from the web.. maybe it will offer a solution for that too. Maybe not. Maybe it is also a Google Music scrobbler that will add LastFM style social things, but I think too many stand-alone social services would not be that awesome.. I still think it will be merged into Google Music altogether.
Fifth shot:
Photovine... I still think it is a Picture-groupmessaging-instantmessaging-thingy that plugs into Picasa, Profiles, Places and Buzz (and Google social) with a heavy focus on location based services and smartphones.
You all know the drill... I have no special insider information about what's happening at Google, I just try to put all puzzle-pieces together and that's why my assumptions can be right or... complete bullpoo.
My predictions for the Google IO were quite... satisfying. There are still some open points that were not covered at the IO but are highly likely to happen.
First of all.. Chrome Store for GoogleTV
Hey, this beast is running chrome? What would you expect? I bet my ass they will introduce the web-store as soon as they update Google TV to Honeycomb in Summer 2011. Sadly, I'm almost sure, that they will just announce the Store instead of launching it. They need more Web-App devs who have their Web-Apps ready/optimized for the TV-Screen. The Web-Apps and extensions have to deal with a few things that you won't encounter in regular Chrome... For example the "overscan" etc... The other thing is, that they might want to ensure, that developers can test their Webapps/extensions right on the hardware, that's the reason why they wait for the update to Honeycomb in summer.
Chrome Store will get a separate Market or Category for GoogleTV Webapps
That's a no-brainer... otherwise people will just complain about the fact that the Apps are unusable (too small font-sizes, layout problems, navigation issues) or broken if they are not marked as "GoogleTV compatible"
Andrew Rabon also pointed out that there was a screenshot out in the wild, showing a new icon, presumably the web-store, on GoogleTV, so I'd say that it is fact that this will happen...
Blogger will get it's redesign
Yeah we all noticed the outage of the Blogger service lately... I guess that was the first attempt to roll out the new design, but who knows.. I guess they postponed the release until the next scheduled update... Might take days or weeks... Who knows. It will happen soon :)
+1 button and Chrome-extension rollout
As mentioned during the Google I/O it will happen soon. I guess it will be End of this month or mid-june.
Google Docs, GMail, Google Calendar offline versions
Will happen in the next few weeks, not much information about that yet...
Google Music invites
Will probably start to roll out end of this month.
You all know the drill... I have no special insider information about what's happening at Google, I just try to put all puzzle-pieces together and that's why my assumptions can be right or... complete bullpoo.
My predictions for the Google IO were quite... satisfying. There are still some open points that were not covered at the IO but are highly likely to happen.
First of all.. Chrome Store for GoogleTV
Hey, this beast is running chrome? What would you expect? I bet my ass they will introduce the web-store as soon as they update Google TV to Honeycomb in Summer 2011. Sadly, I'm almost sure, that they will just announce the Store instead of launching it. They need more Web-App devs who have their Web-Apps ready/optimized for the TV-Screen. The Web-Apps and extensions have to deal with a few things that you won't encounter in regular Chrome... For example the "overscan" etc... The other thing is, that they might want to ensure, that developers can test their Webapps/extensions right on the hardware, that's the reason why they wait for the update to Honeycomb in summer.
Chrome Store will get a separate Market or Category for GoogleTV Webapps
That's a no-brainer... otherwise people will just complain about the fact that the Apps are unusable (too small font-sizes, layout problems, navigation issues) or broken if they are not marked as "GoogleTV compatible"
Andrew Rabon also pointed out that there was a screenshot out in the wild, showing a new icon, presumably the web-store, on GoogleTV, so I'd say that it is fact that this will happen...
Blogger will get it's redesign
Yeah we all noticed the outage of the Blogger service lately... I guess that was the first attempt to roll out the new design, but who knows.. I guess they postponed the release until the next scheduled update... Might take days or weeks... Who knows. It will happen soon :)
+1 button and Chrome-extension rollout
As mentioned during the Google I/O it will happen soon. I guess it will be End of this month or mid-june.
Google Docs, GMail, Google Calendar offline versions
Will happen in the next few weeks, not much information about that yet...
Google Music invites
Will probably start to roll out end of this month.
[PREDICTIONS] What will come up next in the Google System? Part 1
I checked out the Google TV kernel a while ago on Google Code. Nothing spectacular... but today, suspecting that there will be some kind of thingy going on at the Google IO 2011, I tried to find the project again and stumbled over this: http://code.google.com/p/google-tv/
It is in fact not your average 404 and I got redirected to this site from http://code.google.com/p/googletv/.
So there IS in fact something going to happen... I hope they'll open source the whole googleTV platform. At least they'll provide examples and sdk's for the Google TV here...
I checked out the Google TV kernel a while ago on Google Code. Nothing spectacular... but today, suspecting that there will be some kind of thingy going on at the Google IO 2011, I tried to find the project again and stumbled over this: http://code.google.com/p/google-tv/
It is in fact not your average 404 and I got redirected to this site from http://code.google.com/p/googletv/.
So there IS in fact something going to happen... I hope they'll open source the whole googleTV platform. At least they'll provide examples and sdk's for the Google TV here...
New news or no news? Google-TV Project on Google Code.
This won't be a very exciting post.. I'll just point out what might happen on the 10th/11th of May 2011 based on rumors, sorcery, voodoo, chicken bones and the official available information.
It might be vague but it is for sure better than Siegler's techcrunch troll-diarrhea.
Android:
Yeah there will happen a ton of stuff on the IO. First of all, they will push the Honeycomb source into AOSP. It will happen, because it is simply overdue! They already pushed quite a bit of the GPL parts to the source-tree, but vital things are still missing... Like the launcher, the browser etc.
Probably they will also announce/preview Honeycomb 3.1, which contains tons of bugfixes and a few new features, but it is also possible, that they'll drop the 3.1 Source directly on github, because they want to comfort the raging open source community (including me).
The Google TV code might or might not be released. At least they will introduce the SDK for Google TV. That will happen for sure. Why? because in Room 11, there will be a Session called "Building Android Apps for Google TV" at the IO. This also means, that all Google TV devices will gain Market access pretty soon (I guess they will start a rollout for updates at the IO).
Maybe they give also an early taste of the next Android generation "I", maybe Ice-Cream Sandwich. If I'd speculate very wildly, Google could already release a limited preview SDK of the new Android OS, but probably they'll just pre-announce it. The "I" generation will merge GoogleTV, Honeycomb and Gingerbread into one version, probably because they fear source fragmentation and the three repositories have always to be synced so the versions drift not too far apart. So that's why it's simply more economic to merge all three Source-Trees.
Furthermore, Google will force the device manufacturers to provide open interfaces to their custom UIs they built on top of Android. (Session: Designing and Implementing Android UIs for Phones and Tablets) But this is wild speculation. [WARNING: this is unlikely to happen and just wishful thinking :) THX @Sam for reminding me that this needs a clarification]
GoogleTV and Honeycomb (and other Android versions?):
They will get a webapp-store for mobile/tablet/GoogleTV apps integrated in the system-browser or as a frontpage-link on Google mobile-search (see session "Building WebApps for Google TV") (wild speculation)
Blogger:
They will start the rollout for the new Blogger views (you know them already, don't you?), which will be partially optimized to be somewhat like a pendant to Facebook Pages for companies (see session "Building a Business Web Presence using Blogger API's"). This could also hint to an integration of Blogger into Google's mysterious social network.. They will also present a "+1" plugin for blogger the same time... clever huh? :)
BTW: Have you ever noticed the similarities of the new Blogger-Views design and the new Google profiles design? Coincidence? I don't think so. It might be the start to integrate all those social services (including picasa & Places/ex-Hotpot) into one social net, which parts are all opt-in. (way better solution than facebook's "we shove it into your face and if you are lucky enough to find the correct button, you can opt-out" mentality)
+1:
+1 will be officially introduced, what means that the +1 button for content-sites will also be introduced. (yay!) See session "An introduction to the +1 button" (for sure)
The Chrome-Extension (or even browser-built-in functionality?) for +1 will be presented. (for sure)
+1 Extension CONFIRMED: Watch the video (Dear Sophie) closely:
Will be integrated with Google's other social Services like +1. I already confirmed that because I discovered the following fact:
If you rate a place "best time ever" and save the place for later/star it, it gets automatically +1'd in the places search on Google.
I also think that places will get a tab in Google Profiles or at least gets somehow integrated into the +1's.
Places will also possibly get somehow linked to Public Profiles or Blogger accounts of companies (wild speculation).
Overall Google starts an attack on Facebook, providing functionality for advertising, offers etc, that will be integrated in the Google search as a part of social search.
Google Social Search:
Will be extended... Nothing more on that.
Google Circles:
Will be announced, but maybe not directly on the IO but soon. It isn't a real social network... it will just incorporate existing social functionality on Google and make it possible to share information actively and passively with contacts and the world wide web. (The contacts will influence prioritization or highlighting of search results etc, maybe there will be also a commenting/sharing function, who knows)
Google Maps:
will get more social.
It will be tighter integrated with hotpot/places (maybe latitude too).
Google Shopping:
Will be integrated in the social experience. (probably) At least they will lay the foundation for integrating it into social search.
Games:
A shitload of stuff about games using GWT, HTML5 and Android.
Maybe they introduce a new Platform for game-devs.
Geolocation:
Shitloads about geolocation, maybe unification of API's. They push geolocation use for making the social search and personalized search more effective.
Google Analytics:
Gets in-Android-App-Performance and usage logging thanks to the new GA API for Android.
Google Docs:
Might get an addon.
Google Voice:
Might gain VOIP support.
This won't be a very exciting post.. I'll just point out what might happen on the 10th/11th of May 2011 based on rumors, sorcery, voodoo, chicken bones and the official available information.
It might be vague but it is for sure better than Siegler's techcrunch troll-diarrhea.
Android:
Yeah there will happen a ton of stuff on the IO. First of all, they will push the Honeycomb source into AOSP. It will happen, because it is simply overdue! They already pushed quite a bit of the GPL parts to the source-tree, but vital things are still missing... Like the launcher, the browser etc.
Probably they will also announce/preview Honeycomb 3.1, which contains tons of bugfixes and a few new features, but it is also possible, that they'll drop the 3.1 Source directly on github, because they want to comfort the raging open source community (including me).
The Google TV code might or might not be released. At least they will introduce the SDK for Google TV. That will happen for sure. Why? because in Room 11, there will be a Session called "Building Android Apps for Google TV" at the IO. This also means, that all Google TV devices will gain Market access pretty soon (I guess they will start a rollout for updates at the IO).
Maybe they give also an early taste of the next Android generation "I", maybe Ice-Cream Sandwich. If I'd speculate very wildly, Google could already release a limited preview SDK of the new Android OS, but probably they'll just pre-announce it. The "I" generation will merge GoogleTV, Honeycomb and Gingerbread into one version, probably because they fear source fragmentation and the three repositories have always to be synced so the versions drift not too far apart. So that's why it's simply more economic to merge all three Source-Trees.
Furthermore, Google will force the device manufacturers to provide open interfaces to their custom UIs they built on top of Android. (Session: Designing and Implementing Android UIs for Phones and Tablets) But this is wild speculation. [WARNING: this is unlikely to happen and just wishful thinking :) THX @Sam for reminding me that this needs a clarification]
GoogleTV and Honeycomb (and other Android versions?):
They will get a webapp-store for mobile/tablet/GoogleTV apps integrated in the system-browser or as a frontpage-link on Google mobile-search (see session "Building WebApps for Google TV") (wild speculation)
Blogger:
They will start the rollout for the new Blogger views (you know them already, don't you?), which will be partially optimized to be somewhat like a pendant to Facebook Pages for companies (see session "Building a Business Web Presence using Blogger API's"). This could also hint to an integration of Blogger into Google's mysterious social network.. They will also present a "+1" plugin for blogger the same time... clever huh? :)
BTW: Have you ever noticed the similarities of the new Blogger-Views design and the new Google profiles design? Coincidence? I don't think so. It might be the start to integrate all those social services (including picasa & Places/ex-Hotpot) into one social net, which parts are all opt-in. (way better solution than facebook's "we shove it into your face and if you are lucky enough to find the correct button, you can opt-out" mentality)
+1:
+1 will be officially introduced, what means that the +1 button for content-sites will also be introduced. (yay!) See session "An introduction to the +1 button" (for sure)
The Chrome-Extension (or even browser-built-in functionality?) for +1 will be presented. (for sure)
+1 Extension CONFIRMED: Watch the video (Dear Sophie) closely:
Will be integrated with Google's other social Services like +1. I already confirmed that because I discovered the following fact:
If you rate a place "best time ever" and save the place for later/star it, it gets automatically +1'd in the places search on Google.
I also think that places will get a tab in Google Profiles or at least gets somehow integrated into the +1's.
Places will also possibly get somehow linked to Public Profiles or Blogger accounts of companies (wild speculation).
Overall Google starts an attack on Facebook, providing functionality for advertising, offers etc, that will be integrated in the Google search as a part of social search.
Google Social Search:
Will be extended... Nothing more on that.
Google Circles:
Will be announced, but maybe not directly on the IO but soon. It isn't a real social network... it will just incorporate existing social functionality on Google and make it possible to share information actively and passively with contacts and the world wide web. (The contacts will influence prioritization or highlighting of search results etc, maybe there will be also a commenting/sharing function, who knows)
Google Maps:
will get more social.
It will be tighter integrated with hotpot/places (maybe latitude too).
Google Shopping:
Will be integrated in the social experience. (probably) At least they will lay the foundation for integrating it into social search.
Games:
A shitload of stuff about games using GWT, HTML5 and Android.
Maybe they introduce a new Platform for game-devs.
Geolocation:
Shitloads about geolocation, maybe unification of API's. They push geolocation use for making the social search and personalized search more effective.
Google Analytics:
Gets in-Android-App-Performance and usage logging thanks to the new GA API for Android.
