among all the big companies i always stood by google. it was, is, and always will be the best search engine available. by the turn of the decade, though, google will be much more than that, for the common citizen. (already is, for techies).
all the way from the beginning i was amazed about their policies regarding benefits for employers and their concern for the environment and society in general. despite some quirks i think google occupies well its place among responsible enterprise, especially given their respect for competition.
i have been using its services for a long time now, including the chrome browser now, and i have been given the privilege of trying some of their upcoming ones, like google wave. to tell the truth, after all the excitement from the first previews, trying it didn’t feel that good, and it really felt impossible, at least for the portuguese community, to replace e-mail and msn messenger. that’s something a few people agreed with me already, but with the concept of chrome os it really makes sense now. suddenly wave jumps from “no way, e-mail and msn will never die” to “well, if chrome os succeeds, wave will be the best communication tool”. the concept of the os isn’t new, and it makes sense for an awful lot of people, including me. the only problems i find in it could be privacy issues and reliable network connections for its usage, but that doesn’t depend on google and i think if anyone can make it work, it is google.
on top of things i believe only google could design, implement and deploy with success comes innovative technology. google chrome is faster to me than any other browser, despite seeming to be a bit of a memory hog, which shouldn’t be a problem with 2gb of ram almost without use during the last 3 years. and the only extension yet to come is something like flashgot, which i can live without anyway. but besides google chrome they even implement stuff that everyone needs. for example, something i hoped i could develop after college, which is search for something on the web without having to name or describe it, like symbols. they had the idea, took it a step further, and already have it working, on mobile phones, google goggles.
of course google won’t dominate the world, there is much more to this life than networks and computers, but it will certainly play an important role in everyone’s lives starting the next decade.