The industry reflects, looks ahead

By Staff, ZDNet Asia
Friday, March 14, 2008 06:39 PM

Lori Sobel, head of Google Singapore

Lori Sobel,
Google
There are many closed systems and restricted services in the mobile industry today. We need an open mobile platform to increase innovation, reduce costs and respond better to changing user needs.

Q. Name three hot technologies to watch in 2008.
Sobel: Web 2.0 and its associated tools and applications will continue to be hot a trend as user-generated content and social networking sites transform consumer and business behavior. Consumers are always logged on, blogs and videos are getting hotter, and personal connections are growing across the Web. At the same time, businesses are finding ways to leverage Web 2.0 tools to improve their productivity and reach their customers online.

We see a demand for more open platforms to fuel Web 2.0 innovation and to make it easier for consumers and businesses to connect all over the Internet, not just on a specific site.

Mobility is another key trend as more and more computing functionality will migrate to the mobile phone such as online search, email, videos and maps. In less developed countries, the mobile phone will be the first or only way for the majority of citizens to connect to each other, get information and use these services. Yet, there are many closed systems and restricted services in the mobile industry today. We need an open mobile platform to increase innovation, reduce costs and respond better to changing user needs.

We think personalizing the user's experience on the Web is another area to watch for 2008. This means not simply to give people what they ask for, but to give users the exact information they want, right when they want it.

In Google's context, we're constantly trying to improve the quality of search results through personalized search which allows more tailored and relevant search results and this customized way of searching, unique to each user, improves the overall user experience.

In addition, our personalized homepages allow users to create a homepage with custom gadgets that align with their specific interests and needs and feature information that they search for on a daily basis. Having this information right at their fingertips each time they search saves them time and effort.

Name one prediction that the analysts got wrong or right.
Google announced something more ambitious than any single "Google Phone" that analysts had been speculating about for months. Instead we envisioned a fresh approach to fostering innovation in the mobile industry that would help shape a new computing environment, thereby changing the way people access and share information in the future. And that came in the form of Android, an open platform for mobile devices that is aimed at increasing collaboration between developers, wireless operators and handset manufacturers.

Android will help foster innovation on mobile devices to bring new products to market faster and at a much lower cost, while accelerating the pace at which new and compelling mobile services are made available to consumers. Thirty-four companies have formed the Open Handset Alliance to collaborate and develop the Android platform and consumers can expect the first phones based on Android to be available in the second half of 2008.

Social networking sites...
... Will continue to take centerstage in 2008. Taking a lead in developing this space, Google launched OpenSocial, an open platform for developers to build social networking applications and for Web sites to add social network features. This will enable developers to create applications that users can enjoy regardless of the Web sites, applications or social networks that they use.

By providing these simple, standards-based technologies, OpenSocial will speed innovation by developers who now only need to develop one application, instead of multiple versions, for different websites. Users win, too, as they get more interesting, engaging and useful social networking features faster than before.

The biggest challenge facing IT departments is...
... From Google's perspective, the biggest challenge is how IT departments are facing huge costs and effort to buy, install and maintain their own IT hardware and software plus also the difficulties in finding enough staff to manage their IT infrastructure. That's where we feel the concept of "Cloud Computing" is a viable solution.

Cloud Computing is the concept where computing is moving away from the desktop and instead users can access applications hosted on a "cloud" of computers via the Internet. These Web-hosted applications include communication, collaboration and productivity tools such as e-mail, calendar and documents which can be accessed via an Internet browser.

Besides saving money and reducing set-up and maintenance costs, IT departments can avoid the distraction of common tech problems like server maintenance, spam filter patches and backups related to these kinds of applications and leave it all to the hosting company. Upgrades and improvements are available automatically, while cloud computing can scale easily to accommodate growing user bases and storage needs.


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